For a couple of good reasons, I think that body surface sensations, among all the sensations, “rule.” 

First, they are “cool,” cool in the sense that they can prove to be the very sensations that make life worth living. We find something beautiful that we see or hear by the sensations that play out on our bodies as a result. They are also cool in another sense; though we have continuous body sensations, we frequently do not notice them or perhaps even actively try to ignore them. Gentle breezes or comfortable clothes (things going right, for instance) we may easily ignore. Pains and irritations we may easily seek to ignore as well (sometimes for good reason). In frequent cases there are “more important” things to be focused on.  

They make up much of how we experience ourselves, our lives, our days… without knowing it. Other senses are, of course, important. Eyesight is of major importance because of all the continuous environmental information it provides. And hearing is major because it provides, even when we are not focused on any sound in particular, a sense that we are in a filled space. The world is there. Even though we cannot see behind ourselves, for instance, we still have the sense of a world present there. Little, unnamed sounds provide that (usually comforting) sense.  But, I would argue, it is the tactile-kinesthetic sensations on our body surface that are the most special. They let us know that we are present… and that we fill space.  In other words, they inform us that we are. And secretly, they provide us the most personally believed version of who we are.

Not only do we sense the outside world everywhere we touch it (like our bottom on a chair, for instance) but we “touch” and sense proximal parts of ourselves. Adjacent cells and tissues do “touch” each other and provide continuous little noticed, low grade, information of that touching. It is by this means that we sense, as examples, expansion or contraction, energy and collapse, or alert “openness” and shutdown fatigue within us. 

It is these sorts of body sensations that “rule.” These are the sensations that relate not to the outside so much (such as hot vs. cold, humid vs. dry, windy vs. calm, and so forth) but to the “inside,” or to our own sense of self, self-image, and our current state of being. They are less named and generally harder for people to describe, though they are occasionally beautifully described in literature, in poetry. 

But there is a problem with our interpretation of these sensations… our misinterpretation of the sensations. With eyesight we assume, generally accurately, that what we see is accurate. The same, in general, is true of our hearing. But what we sense tactile-kinesthetically is, in large measure, ourselves. And it is not easy and hardly possible to “see” or sense ourselves objectively. 

They may include the sensation of hot or cold, humid or dry, windy or calm, and so forth, but the body surface can also be sensed as expanding or contracting, permeable or impermeable, fluffy or sleak, hard or soft, white or black (!), rounded or pointed, bumpy or smooth. It is these sorts of “sensations,” which we can posit on our body surface if they are not already there, that can utterly change our next minute, hour, day, and lifetime.

So if you are one of the vast majority who take your body surface sensations for granted or as fixed in stone, unchangeable, I recommend that you poke around and learn more of Posture Release Imagery’s specific tools you can use at any time to break your mindset and bring your mind-body to greater maturity.