We are usually in our thinking mind and this question pertains to the emotional mind and the limbic mind / physical body. The true answer to this question needs to be a list of emotions and a list of body sensations that we would be feeling in the moment. Staying in the thinking mind and answering would look like this – I am feeling fine, I’m ok, I’m good, not bad, I’m not feeling well, I’m better now, the same as usual, etc. What we are automatically doing here is that we observe, analyse, conclude and then come to think that the conclusion is actually our observation. We can continue to do so in our interactions with the outside world. However when we begin to do the same within ourselves, we completely loose touch with the emotional and physical aspects of ourselves and the inner imbalance starts to happen.
Let us actually find out the answer – How are you feeling? First we shall ask our body, step into your inner body awareness to do a body scan from head to toe to find out what sensations are happening in each location. Here is the list of body sensations you need to look for as you make this trip from within, from your head to your toes.
List of body sensations:
Pulsing, Throbbing
Vibrations,Tingling
Paining, Poking
Burning, Itching
Hot, Cold, Sweating,Trembling
Heavy, Light
Energetic, Active
Exhausted, Sleepy, Yawning
Gassy, nausea, constipated
Runny nose, blocked nose
Cough, sneeze, Soreness
Tightness, Cramping, Contraction
Expansive
First do the scan and find what sensation is happening in which part of the body. The most important thing to remember while doing this is to switch off the analytical part of your mind which always wants to find out reasons or assign causes such as my legs are paining due to the long walk I did in the morning! Right now is the time only for pure observation. Just scan, notice, note down, (in memory not on paper!) proceed. Once you have finished the complete scan, zoom out with your awareness and in a single glance notice all the sensations happening all over the body simultaneously. Please do not just read this, do it. Something seemingly miraculous happens when you actually do this.
We then go to the Emotional mind and repeat the question. Here we need to look at the following comprehensive list of emotional feelings and see which of these resonate with us in the moment of observation. Here again do not assign causes – for example – I’m feeling tensed because of such and such situation. This is the time for pure observation and noting down.
List of emotional feelings:
Nothing needs to be done at all other than just observing and being aware of all the body sensations and emotional feelings. Within yourself you now are comprehensively aware of the answer to the question – How are you feeling. Both your body and your emotional mind get a settled sense of being noticed and validated.
Just cultivating this as a daily habit – to actually find out the answer to “How are you feeling” within ourselves in the first instance upon waking up would allow our experience of the entire day to be in a state of flow and synchronicity.