Body Awareness: a phenomenological inquiry into the common ground of mind-body therapies
Philosophy Ethics and Humanities in Medicine January 1, 2011 Wolf E Mehling, Judith Wrubel, Jennifer J Daubenmier et al. 465 citations
Body awareness is a key element in mind-body therapies such as yoga, Tai Chi, and mindfulness meditation, yet its meaning across these approaches is not always clear. Through focus groups with leading practitioners and their patients, the study finds that body awareness is understood as an inseparable part of embodied self-awareness, realized through action and interaction with the environment. It is seen as an innate tendency of the organism toward self-organization and wholeness. Patients experience a progression toward greater unity between body and self, mirroring a philosophical concept of embodiment as a dialectic experienced at distinct developmental levels.