Body Dialogue & Inquiry + Parts Works for Trust, Intuition, and Suspicion
Trust is a belief in the reliability, truth, or ability of someone or something. It often involves a conscious decision based on evidence, experience, or reputation. Trust can be built over time through consistent behavior, transparency, and integrity.
Intuition, on the other hand, is a gut feeling or instinctive understanding that operates on a subconscious level. It's a form of knowledge or insight that arises without conscious reasoning or analysis.
Use these practices to xplore the relationship between trust and suspicion in your body.
Body Dialogue & Inquiry
Body dialogue and inquiry is a somatic practice designed to explore the relationship between two different aspects of feeling and believing.
By focusing on sensation in your body and opening up a line of dialogue for your body to lead, you can facilitate communication with different parts of your body, potentially bringing to light new connections and understandings.
Start by recalling a situation where you felt deeply trusted and supported, and notice how your body responds to that memory.
When you feel that memory in your body, facilitate communication by first recognizing and acknowledging where that sensation is housed in your body. You might place a hand over the area of your body that feels activated with sensation.
Start a dialogue with that part of you, asking open ended questions and listening in for responses (you can record the responses in your journal when you feel prompted to write them down).
Questions like...
"What do you need in order to feel safe and secure in relationships?"
"What fears or concerns are you holding onto?"
"How does my body communicate its needs and boundaries in relationships, and how can I honor and respect those signals?"
You can pepper in some requests for guidance, such as:
"Show me how I can cultivate a deeper sense of trust and intuition in my everyday interactions."
As you engage in this dialogue, practice listening with compassion and curiosity. Be open to receiving whatever insights or revelations arise from your body without judgement.
Repeat this process for the theme of "suspicion" asking similar questions or letting your body guide the flow of conversation.
Parts Work
Next, and you can do this as a separate practice on a different day, bring those two parts you explored within yourself into conversation.
This is a practice derived from parts work in Internal Family Systems therapy.
Find a comfortable and quiet space where you won't be disturbed for a few minutes.
Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths to connect and drop into your body.
Then, invite the two parts you've explored into conversation, visualizing two chairs in a room, one which you will invite trust to sit at and the other where you'll invite suspicion to sit at.
Begin a dialogue between the two chairs, starting with trust. Ask the chair representing trust what it wants you to know about its presence in your life. Listen for any insights or messages that arise.
Then, turn your attention to the chair representing suspicion. Ask it what fears or concerns it holds and how it's trying to protect you. Allow space for any responses to emerge without judgment.
As you continue the dialogue, you can invite the two to speak with each other, and explore opportunities for reconciliation and integration between trust and suspicion.
You may acknowledge the validity of both trust and suspicion within yourself, recognizing that each serves a purpose and has its own insights to offer.
You may ask questions that bring the parts into conversation with each other, noting any responses that arise from one part to the other, such as:
"How can we work together to navigate uncertainty and vulnerability?"
"How can we support each other in making informed decisions while remaining open to new experiences?"
"What boundaries can we establish to honor both trust and suspicion?"
When you feel like you've reached a natural end in the conversation, thank both parts for their wisdom and insights. Take a moment to express gratitude for the opportunity to explore these aspects of yourself.
