Interview with Erika Berland - Meditation Meets Somatic (body awareness) Education

Unconditional Healing with Jeff Rubin

Erika Berland is a senior teacher and meditation instructor in the Shambhala Buddhist lineage and is an expert in applying somatic education and practices to the art of meditation. Somatics, in case you’re not familiar with that term, is the field of study which explores our internal perception and experience of the body rather than the external objective sense of it, that say, a doctor might assume.

Erika’s new book “Sitting, the Physical Art of Meditation” explores this topic in great depth with chapters devoted to different parts of the body. Our wide-ranging conversation includes guidelines for both old and new practitioners including:

• The four postures of meditation
• How to use the natural forces of gravity and anti-gravity in the body to create ease and restore vitality
• How to use visualization and imagery to support one’s practice
• Adopting a mindset of curiosity and discovery versus one of judgment and analysis
• Identifying those areas of the body where we tend to hold and store tension
• The practice of aimless wandering through the body, letting sensation and “feeling what we feel” guide us

Please join us as we explore the subtleties and intricacies of the body as a support for the ancient practice of meditation.