The meaning of the experience of corporeality (EN)

Introduction

The experience of corporeality refers to the felt sense of being present in your own body. In haptotherapy, presence is a central concept. Presence is something you can feel and perceive—both directly through touch and spatially—when someone is openly and personally available so that their unique self becomes tangible.

Presence requires bodily awareness in every layer of being a person: physically, intellectually, and emotionally at the level of mood and feeling. Becoming familiar with the experience of corporeality is not easy for many people, because we grow up in a society that strongly emphasizes thinking and performing. As a result, many people end up living mostly “in their head.”

Below is an experiential exercise designed to help you access the experience of corporeality.

Experiential Exercise

When life brings excessive stress or when anxiety dominates, you may feel trapped—locked inside your head. You enter a state where alertness takes over, as if you must constantly be prepared for danger. You may long for relaxation and rest but feel unable to reach them.

Fortunately, humans also have the ability to explore whether making contact—through touch or perception—feels good and supportive. When you make contact with what you touch and with what surrounds you, your nervous system shifts toward a different mode of tension regulation.

You can practice this as follows:

1. Lie on your back on a comfortable bed.
2. Focus on what you perceive through touch. Your legs, back, arms, and head all rest on a mattress or pillow, and you can feel that.
3. You may also notice impressions such as the weight of your legs or their length. The same applies to your arms, torso, and head.
4. You can feel not only your backside but also your front and your inner bodily space.
5. Then explore whether you can actively make contact by allowing yourself to be carried by the mattress and pillows. You shift your attention outward, toward what supports you.
6. Next, sense the height above the floor where the mattress is positioned, and the space around you—where the walls are, where the ceiling is.
7. Once you have become aware of all these sensory impressions, you can simultaneously experience that you are lying there, present as the person you are.

Thoughts may involve illusions, fears, or distortions, but experiencing yourself through the facets described above is concrete, perceptible, and repeatable. Practicing this can help you become familiar with letting go of control and experiencing the reality of life.

In a state of vigilance, tension is high and difficult to bear. In a state of presence, basic tension becomes more elastic and flexible, and your capacity to cope increases significantly. Because this mode of contact may not yet be familiar as an automatic pattern, it is advisable to repeat this exercise regularly—preferably several times a day—so your nervous system can develop a new automatic response.

All of this can be summarized with the concept of the experience of physicality. You begin to sense that you do not merely have a body that can trouble you; instead, you develop a feeling for your bodily existence—a place where you can feel at home and from which you can express who you are, allowing you to participate richly in life.

Reference

Hagg, J.W. (2025). Thymotactile contact of primary importance in haptotherapy. https://doi.org/10.61370/yrri94