How many times today have you read the same sentence twice, or arrived somewhere without remembering the drive? Most of us call that zoning out. I see it as a Spiritual Body experience, and we have them all day long.
What I mean by the Spiritual Body
When I talk about the Spiritual Body, I mean your awareness, the part of you that can step out of the Present Moment. Daydreaming, zoning out, checking out, imagining something that isn’t happening here and now: anything you experience that isn’t in the Present Moment is a Spiritual Body experience.
When I say Spiritual Body or spiritual experience, I’m not speaking from a religious perspective. I mean a felt-sense experience we all have. I’m describing it mechanically: if you’re not here, you’re somewhere else.
We have plenty of everyday words for these moments: zoning out, spacing out, nodding off, taking a nap, falling asleep. Those words make it easy to miss what’s really happening. Each one describes a Spiritual Body experience.
When you leave without meaning to
Picture yourself driving home after a long day. You want to be fully present so you stay safe. But you’re tired, you’re carrying a lot of stimuli from your day, and the route is so familiar you don’t need to think about it. Your attention drifts back to other parts of your day, and you’re no longer really in the car. Some people would say they nodded off. You wanted to be present, but the stimuli pulled you out, and you left.
Now picture the same drive, but a friend calls. They aren’t in the car; they’re somewhere else. The more you engage in the conversation, the more your attention goes to where they are, and the less you’re present with the driving.
Two different stimuli, the same result: you left your Body. Both are Spiritual Body experiences.
When your awareness steps out, your Physical Body stays behind. It keeps counterbalancing, and it can carry the strain in your fascia and tissue.
Sleep is a Spiritual Body experience, too
Falling asleep is also a Spiritual Body experience: your awareness leaves the Present Moment. Most people just don’t think of it that way.
At bedtime, leaving is deliberate. You want to leave your Physical Body and rest. Most people aren’t looking for lucid dreams; they want pleasant dreams or a deep, unconscious sleep. When you have the space to leave, you fall asleep easily.
Someone else does everything the same way and lies there wide awake. Stimuli is keeping them in their Physical Body, so their Spiritual Body can’t leave.
So stimuli can work both ways. It can pull you out when you want to stay, or hold you in when you want to leave.
This is different from what I wrote about in Falling Asleep During CranioSacral Therapy? There, the Physical Body rests so deeply it looks like sleep, but awareness stays present.
The mismatch
When people have trouble staying present, they often reach for something physical. Many people eat or drink at work because they’re overstimulated and don’t want to fall asleep on the job. Others snack mindlessly in front of the TV so they can watch the show without drifting off. The food or drink becomes the stimulant that keeps them in their Body. And when they can’t fall asleep at night, some take something they hope will put them to sleep.
In both cases, they’re trying to solve a Spiritual Body problem with a Physical Body solution. I see that as a mismatch. The real issue is energy: the stimuli causing an experience they don’t want. I’m not suggesting anyone stop something their doctor recommended. I’m inviting you to also look at the energy underneath.
Stimuli can pull you out when you want to stay, or hold you in when you want to leave.
Releasing the stimuli
When you release the stimuli, your other Bodies can come back into balance and respond to what you want with more ease: staying present when you need to be, and letting go when it’s time to rest.
The next time you realize you’ve drifted off, or you’re lying awake at night, Notice What You Notice. You may be having a Spiritual Body experience. Noticing shows you what’s happening, but it won’t quiet what stirred you up. For that, it helps to have a simple practice you can return to, like a short guided audio you listen to at home.
Between sessions
If you’d like to practice working with your 4 Bodies on your own, I created 4Q Boundaries. The first tool, the Grounding Cord, is free.
