Can qi be felt by anyone?

[cheya]

Always breathing! 

And you try to get your elbows up next to your EARS!

That's taking awhile...   

Getting your butt as far away from your head as possible while keeping your weight on your heels seems to be the key. It gets easier pretty fast….

I'm actually doing it 3 or 4 times a day… total maybe 6 minutes...

 

And now, maybe back to feeling qi! (sorry if we stray off topic LDMB)

 

This old TDB thread has some suggestions for developing the energy body, feeling chi, with various methods discussed, starting with Robert Bruce, Scott Meredith, and Damo Mitchell, and continuing with some other teachers...

 

http://www.thedaobums.com/topic/28303-training-the-energy-body-books/?hl=%2Brobert+%2Bbruce+%2Bcheya#entry431160

 

 

[PLB]

What does it mean to feel? The answer is obvious in terms that we all feel things. The separation of sensations is something that is often considered a given. The separation of the senses as their own thing is a pretty good given. But their separation is not given to us. We have to do something to pay attention to the difference.

The question being asked about feeling qi is wrapped around by other questions. We don't own our sensations.

[CelibacySeeker]

Also focus on the spaces between inhalation and exhalation you will instantly feel Qi too. 

 

4 damn years to feel qi? in 4 damn years you should have already sarira. 

[doc benway]

Boring, rambling post

 

Society for the Chee Numb.

 

I first studied the internal arts just over a quarter century ago. After a few years I gave up because since I was a kid I had had messed up posture, and that just wasn't compatible with this stuff. Not a lazy slouch cured by someone saying "Sit up straight!" Rather, thoracic kyphosis. I had a visible hunch in my teens and twenties; not like Quasimodo, but it was a chunk of muscle. It has improved over the years due to certain things I have done, but it is still pretty stiff and I can not sit or stand truly straight. I can not sit cross-legged due to tight hips, which I and others theorize either as the cause or the result of the kyphosis. This is a soft tissue issue, not a bone issue.

 

I can't feel chee. Never could. I think this may be because of my kyphosis (I know how important the back is in terms of chee), but that is just speculation. Some of my classmates could feel chee in a serious way. My teacher was very welcoming of my skepticism, though I think he considered me to be a little slow in the chee-head

 

If I do standing stake (站樁), the musculature around my thoracic area seizes up within minutes, and can even be numb right along the spine by ten minutes or less. Decades of poor neuron firing habits.

 

I was listening to an interview recently with John Upledger, son of the osteopath of the same name who brought craniosacral therapy to the masses. It came up in the interview that some people just can't seem to feel the craniosacral rhythm -- their own or another person's.

 

Maybe some people just can't feel chee, in spite of considerable practice? I had a super teacher, and some of my classmates made good progress. I know that some people take to it quickly, while others take more time. There is a tai chi teacher in Canada on Youtube who's been doing tai chi for I think 30+ years and says chee, in the sense of meridians and such, is not something he has felt or thinks is real.

 

I would feel a few wriggles here or there, but if I wasn't expecting anything, I would have thought of them as random nerve firings. My teacher was big on the idea of not telling students what to expect, and telling them not to expect chee to manifest in a certain way. That's all very nice, but if you went to a gym or went jogging, and months or years later had no sense of improvement, how long do you think you would stick with it? The enjoyment of the process comes out of the improvement. If you learned drawing or piano and never improved, you would not enjoy it. The process is enjoyable because we learn.

 

If there are meridians and whatnot, if I could heal people with chee, well then I would like to be able to feel chee. I have known a few sane and sober persons who assure me they feel chee in a concrete way and can work with it and such -- and known many others who just bs-ed their chee ability, IMHO. Lots of other people take the Reiki approach of just imagine you can feel chee, even if you can't, but that's not my style. I did the first two levels of Reiki, and while my class partner for each level (two different people) reported feeling things when I worked on them that made me think they had dropped acid, I felt it was all a ridiculous scam (maybe scam is a bit harsh, as that implies intention to cheat; the teacher seemed to believe what he was doing was useful).

 

I started doing cheegong on my own a few weeks ago (no money for class right now), and am feeling some more wriggles here and there than in the past, and now an electromagnetic feeling in one posture, but I am wondering what I can do to really figure this out. Maybe it is just about getting the back beaten into shape, or maybe it is something else. I know the idea is that everyone has chee and your chee is flowing if you are still alive, but are you convinced that everyone can get to the point where they can feel _and_ manipulate chee? If not, I would just do tai chi. Tai chi is fun for me, healthy, and my back is good enough now that I can do it with some improvement and not a lot of tension.

 

I welcome thoughts from knowledgeable persons.

 

PS Please don't tell me to talk to my body, listen to my body, feel my body, dissolve the tension, ask my body what is wrong or why it is angry, et cetera. I can't  .  I've been that route before, with counseling and hypnosis (having read books that suggested that my back could be caused by something in my head) and nothing came of it. My body had nothing to say, except "%^&!, you want me to write another check?" I can tell any other part of my body to relax, and it will to some extent, but that area won't. The only time I am mostly unaware of my thoracic tension is when I am lying on my back.

 

In a word, yes - I believe that everyone has the potential to feel Qi.

What is needed is simply a conducive perspective. 

 

The biggest obstacle to feeling Qi is our conceptualization of it.

We are too hung up on what other people say about it - how it feels, what they can do with it, how one needs more or less, where it can and can't travel, how to control it, and so forth. 

 

My advice is to forget about everything you've read and thought about it. Clearly your path and conceptualization to date have not worked. You need a clean slate. In fact, focusing too much on Qi related paradigms like Qigong and Taijiquan could be part of the problem if they are reinforcing ineffective expectations. And it has nothing to do with your kyphosis or any physical restrictions. 

 

Sorry to be a tease - I've got to run and don't have time to post more just now but will do so later today.

[Ya Mu]

I would think that with the type of spine you are describing that you may want to continue with bodywork of some type. Look into the Chinese methods.

 

If you are not willing to practice how are you going to ever feel energetics?

 

The sensory aspect is all over the place with people. Some I can project qi to and sling them several feet, others may bat an eyelash. First rule: THERE IS NO SUPPOSED TO!

 

There is only one way out of your "predicament". It is called PRACTICE.

 

But here is one thing; your own sensory aspect can be clouded by the mental until you practice enough to burn through your filters of perception.

[Spotless]

In so far as feeling Qi per se - you are feeling it all the time.

 

When you feel your most robust - you are feeling Qi more than at a time in which you are feeling less energized.

[doc benway]

So to feel Qi...    Just my own recommendation through training in some different things. 

Mainly in traditional Daoist and Bönpo practices, both of which are rooted in shamanism, and my imperfect interpretation of how they converge.

 

The real issue is how to NOT feel Qi - you just can't do that.

It is always felt. 

It is as much related to the one who is aware as to any-thing that might be felt.

The feeler and what is being felt are not 2 different things.

 

It is simply to realize that everything you feel is an expression or a manifestation of Qi.

You are not other than Qi, it's an aspect of who and what you are.

You feel energized - Qi, sad - Qi, pain - Qi, it is a part of the experience of feeling, period.

It is a process of interaction, the awareness exploring itself, the potential and the differential, the transition - meaning flow. 

 

What I see a lot of folks doing is to separate Qi from me and then trying to restrict it somehow - in a pathway, in "my body", outside of "my body." Controlling it, letting it control "me" - storing it, losing it  - all that is a wrong view, in my view.

And I don't profess to offer a dictionary, authoritative, or orthodox definition - more like jazz right now.

It is more a-tuning to a different perspective, almost a different way of sensing life.

 

Just feel what you feel, inside, when the outside (and inside) are quiet - pay close attention, as often as you can and for as long as you can.

Feel what and how you feel when things aren't so quiet - pay attention to the activity. 

All of what you feel - physically, emotionally, psychologically - it is all an expression of the Qi.

 

Feel it in your anger, in your sadness, in beauty, in the transition from life to death and death to life. 

Then when you have learned to pay attention, you can even try and restrict it to certain channels and chakras, and fields, but by then you realize that all of those conventions are just an inadequate description of what's going on. So you build up the pathways with intention and them break through them and just dance. 

 

In a more direct, practical sense - feel it in your sexual energy, that feeling in your body - in your genitals, your pelvis, the gut, the dan tian, the mouth and tongue - there is no more direct way of feeling it than raw sexual stimulation. Then holding what that feels like, learn to recognize it in much more subtle forms in stillness and in movement, play with it in your body as you move, play with moving your attention through the body, scanning, refining. Learn to zoom in with your focus to unimaginably small targets and then feel them open up into unbounded space.

It is not other than your awareness combined with intention.

 

Feel your awareness scanning through the body and feel the movement, the balance and imbalance, the stiffness and pain. 

After getting familiar with what it feels like inside, move the body more vigorously through space getting a feel for the energetic exterior. Feel it in the elements especially!

 

So play with it, have fun with it... Just feel your experience in a different way, through guiding your awareness with intention, feeling what that feels like, inside, knowing it is the very energy that seems so elusive.

 

I hope that helps...

Good luck

[CelibacySeeker]

Do not listen to the guy above, straight bs. Just do what I tell you and you will feel Qi without any talking like this.

[Jeff]

For perspective on how I am thinking about this, I will say this as well: if I had the money, I would travel around to a handful of qigong healers I've heard are supposed to be qi-supermen, get a chee healing, and see if I can feel their energy in a concrete way -- not just, "Master's hands are very warm." I'm a show me kind of person. Of course, if they could loosen up my back, that would be something as well.

 

There are two main types and how they feel or translate qi/energy. Some notice it as vibrations or feelings of flowing. Others, notice it more as increased mental clarity, sort of like your mind gets calmer/quieter. You are more of the second type at this point. Additionally, feeling big movements of energy/qi often come with the opening of your heart. With such a shift, you will easily begin to notice it.

 

A teacher can definitely help you to feel such an energy flow, but big shifts and movements are about breaking down existing stored energy structures in your body. It is about clearing and letting go of deep issues and fears.

 

Best wishes.

[Rakiel]

Second time I did the active exercises for Spring Forest Qigong (Level One), breathing of the universe, I really felt the chi flowing between my fingers.

[Zhongyongdaoist]

So you're the source of the Big Trouble in Little China!
 


Dang, I luv that movie!  Are you still looking to make it with green eyed girls?

 

 

 

Note: the reference is to Rakiel's picture avatar at the time of posting, the Dao Bums being what it is, it may have changed by the time anyone reads this, making this response appear nonsensical.  Of course it is nonsensical anyway.

[Rakiel]

I'm keeping the Avatar! I have yet to meet a green eyed girl who can withstand the burning blade. Besides Lo Pan and Egg Chen are clearly high level energy masters!

[lessdaomorebum]

I would think that with the type of spine you are describing that you may want to continue with bodywork of some type. Look into the Chinese methods.

 

If you are not willing to practice how are you going to ever feel energetics?

 

The sensory aspect is all over the place with people. Some I can project qi to and sling them several feet, others may bat an eyelash. First rule: THERE IS NO SUPPOSED TO!

 

There is only one way out of your "predicament". It is called PRACTICE.

 

But here is one thing; your own sensory aspect can be clouded by the mental until you practice enough to burn through your filters of perception.

Hi Michael, I am responding since folks here seem to think well of you. Your reply, like some others, makes me think either I can't communicate what I am trying to say or you may not have read what I said as what I said. I did practice. I practiced a little. Then I practiced a lot. I had a teacher who stressed no expectations and learned before the internet or many books on qigong being published, so I don't think there was a lot of qi envy involved. At that time I had daily back pain. I just have discomfort these days. I can not do standing meditation, as previously explained. Most of that was covered earlier in the thread. Can Chinese methods of body work be so different than the ones I have tried so much of? Qi, ok, but how differently can one do massage? I did have massage once and acupuncture once (two different people) in Taiwan, many years ago. Maybe different practitioners would have had some noticeable result; those two did not. Yes, I do expect some sort of results.

 

To various other posters:

All this advice about my mental state and issues, it sounds all well and good if you don't know someone.

 

It is fascinating how sure everyone here is that they know about qi, yet there is such disagreement about what it is and how it works. Some people talk about the tantian; others insist you need bone marrow washing. Some teachers insist that if you can't feel qi, you are wasting your time; others think it all comes out in the wash. One person PMed me, starting out by saying most people here don't know the first thing about qi; maybe he's right; how would I know? In the quote above, Michael says "Some I can project qi to and sling them several feet, others may [not?] bat an eyelash." Clearly that means your qi doesn't do much or isn't very real. Obviously, what you are describing is almost entirely subjective and unreal, a placebo effect. With all the stories of qi healing, and one first hand story of martial use of qi I have been told of as well other stories I have read about, if the stuff is real it should work. Otherwise it is like those videos of lama so and so and his students faking the effect his qi has on them, or that qi guy who went into an MMA fight and was shocked that his voodoo had no effect on the guy who bloodied him up. You can see aikido and aikijutsu students falling every which way to maker master happy. There is mostly bs out there, that is for certain, so I am trying to find out if there is any truth to qi at all. Anyone who thinks they or someone they know can use qi to heal, objectively, can PM me, especially if it can be taught.

 

Spring Forest has not made me feel anything. Zhineng Qigong almost does, and attracted me initially due to its purported safety and wide use, as well as the lack of guruness. I am curious about Pangu Qigong, but who knows when he will even be within 200 miles of me again (not this year, it seems)? There is also the very new Xuan Gong (built off of Zhineng), as well as the somewhat defunct and discredited Xiang Gong (fragrant qigong). In the past I did Yang style taichi's qigong set and eight brocade from Li Qingyun's lineage, as well as some very short qigong sets. I can go to a beginner class full of people saying they felt something, and I am left wondering if someone forgot to pass me the wacky-tobacky.

 

How long would you lift weights before asking "When will I feel stronger?" Is the idea of progress so odd?

 

I am not a seeker looking to spend my life in full lotus and make others feel my qi at one hundred paces. I am just looking to add to my health maintenance repertoire (and heal others, if this stuff is real) and I have known some sane people who felt qigong was quite beneficial (and I have seen in the past how real tai chi's logic defying physical skills are, so I am open to things that don't make sense at first).

Edited June 21, 2016 by lessdaomorebum

[Marblehead]

How long would you lift weights before asking "When will I feel stronger?"

 

I have stayed out of this thread because there are many who are much more qualified than I to speak to you questions and comments.

 

But I saw this question and thought I would speak to it as my response applies to many aspects of our life.

 

Lifting weights is a challenge.  (Isn't most things in life?)

 

With a proper set of exercises and schedule, when we start lifting we impress our self with what we can do.  A little later our muscles start hurting like crazy.  The next day (when I exercise I work out every other day) we exercise our muscles are still hurting and we actually lose some of our capabilities and capacities.  After that session we are in real pain.

 

This is because our body is adjusting to the new things we are doing.  We are burning fat that is embedded throughout all our muscles.  Our muscles are complaining and want us to stop doing that.

 

For my body, I can expect the first two weeks to be nothing but pain with no observable gains.  In fact. I am generally more at a loss that I was when I started.  But after the first two weeks the pain is less and my capabilities and capacities begin to increase.  About four weeks in the pain is gone and my strength and endurance has increased.  I continue to work out until I have attained my goal and this sounds the end of exercising for a while.

 

When we make changes in our life about the same thing happens whether we are talking about physical or mental.  We will almost always see a decrease before we see an increase.  That's because we are losing fat (physically and mentally).

 

Whatever it is we engage in we should know generalized expectations.  After that initial burning of fat, if we don't begin to see improvements then we need to investigate the reason why.  Ask questions of those who are supposed to know about whatever it is we are attempting to accomplish.  We may have engaged in the wrong practice to accomplish our goals.

[lessdaomorebum]

Marblehead, I'll stick with the lifting analogy if it helps us.

It takes a month or two to really notice gains from weight lifting, or for an experienced lifter to notice whether a new program is making the changes he wants. But, you start lifting to begin with because you know for a fact that other people have done this to get stronger. For decades, researchers have known how weight lifting makes you stronger. You change your routine because some book or person says try it this way and get better results. People often change things because they find it doesn't work, but weight lifting is not a secretive exercise with lifter dudes only agreeing to teach the chosen ones how to do a proper curl. Also, aside from poor technique, no one suggests that doing curls a certain way will lead to you forever damaging your biceps or something like that; such claims are common in qigong. Some people are teaching things that others say are flat wrong and harmful. And that back and forth comes even from students of well known teachers or styles, not just some sort of American health club qigong.

 

All I am asking for is someone to zap me with qi, so to speak. I am a big skeptic (of anything). I used to lift weights a little, and I would try different things, never believing in any of them unless they showed results. If someone can give me unequivocal proof of their ability through sensation in my body or healing results on me, then I would be willing to work for some months with no tangible results.

 

Some people here will jump on that last line and ask if the teacher demonstrates to my satisfaction, why wouldn't I be able to practice for eons without tangible results? Because even qigong enthusiasts talk about teachers who can't or won't teach 'the real stuff'. In other words, the teacher may be good, but he either is not able to efficiently get his students to get that ability, or he intentionally won't teach them the most efficient method he knows of to get that ability (a common complaint I have heard among qigong enthusiasts).

Edited June 22, 2016 by lessdaomorebum

[lessdaomorebum]

Just put the hand before you like you would holding balloon, or big ball or tree and the Qi will start flow. (post natal tho). Keep it for like 5 minutes and the thick coating of thickened air will start emulsification around you, that the Qi but it will be around your as you did not have opened channels to it will take time to be absorbed. 

 

 

If you think it's too hard to keep hands that way, move your hands like you would clap a hands with arm spread before you but without clapping and slowly repeat the movement of closing and opening the chest. . 

 

 

Also there are different feelings of manifestation of the Qi and Qi itself. 

 

Standing meditation is not possible, as previously explained.  The second method you mention, seemingly common to all styles, does nothing for me .  If it were that easy, I wouldn't have started this thread

[Marblehead]

 

All I am asking for is someone to zap me with qi, so to speak.

 

I don't do long range zapping.  Hehehe.  Sometimes my short range zapping isn't effective.  But look into my eyes and listen to the tone of my voice and you will know there is more than meets the eyes and ears.

 

Chi (energy) is real.  Radiating it outward is real.  Healing is real but there are many conditions to this that determine its effectiveness.

[Marblehead]

Standing meditation is not possible, as previously explained. 

I don't agree with that statement but I will agree that it is not possible for many, perhaps most, people.

[lessdaomorebum]

I don't agree with that statement but I will agree that it is not possible for many, perhaps most, people.

My middle back locks up. Hence, rather than a relaxing posture that opens things up, standing meditation (站樁) gives my middle back tension to the point of numbing the muscles around the middle spine due to the tension and even causing what I would call nerve pain in my arms and hands (the latter only in the past when I was stupid enough or advised by a more adept classmate to keep standing to see if I could 'break through' the tension to relaxation, since I know even people with a healthy back find standing to be a workout initially).

 

I should add that while lower back issues respond very well to standing or tai chi since one learns to relax the lower back and let the pelvis naturally tuck (though many even in tai chi use an active tuck, which is different), if you are hunched your middle back muscles are constantly trying to pull up your upper torso and head, so it is the opposite situation and therefore not possible to relax them. They are pulling any time you are sitting or standing. That's why one gets the extra muscle there (which in an extreme case gives the Quasimodo look), because it is a 16 hour a day workout for that area, seven days a week.

Edited June 22, 2016 by lessdaomorebum

[lessdaomorebum]

I should add that if you know what you are doing and want to do a remote scan or remote healing, have at it! You can even deposit money in my bank account . I mention this since one generous soul contacted me asking permission to do a remote scan.

[cheya]

A couple more things about feeling chi... Feeling chi has been kind of an obsession for me for many years. What has grown into a pretty good aptness for it, started out very tiny. Minute sensations, when followed, grew.  

 

In his book Juice, internal energy teacher Scott Meredith writes: "You need to learn to feel and focus within yourself. It's like the kids game of cold, cold, warm, warmer, hot! You're continually either focusing more precisely and thereby strengthening the energy run, or else you're moving away from it. Just as in the game, you need to seize on even small sensations, not to fool yourself, but to check them out. Pursue them awhile. Some sensations are dead ends or self-delusion. But sometimes very minor sensations are the camel's nose beneath the tent, the first indication of a big new development." (p 104)  Once you can feel it, Meredith writes, only then can you grow it. Meredith's description didn't initiate my search, but it totally described my first steps as I stumbled into feeling chi. 

 

A few other notes: a dear friend has always claimed she can't feel chi. This puzzles the rest of us, because she meditates, sees light, and has done healing in her travels to sacred sites in S.America. Still she claims she can't feel chi. The rest of us suspect that one day, she's gonna say "Oh! You mean that!", something she has felt all along, but never identified as chi.

 

Lastly... For many years, I've been meeting with four other women in what  we call a healing circle. We often talk about energy, chi, and do healing on each other, discussing what we're noticing.  A year or two ago, I finally asked an obvious question that we had never discussed. "What does chi feel like to you?"

 

Was THAT ever an eye opener! None of them described what I felt! Some got a visual sensation, some actually "see" the energy". One had some kind of astral (my word) outside-the-body knowing, and then there's my sense, usually a kind of hydraulic internal movement.  All these seeming differences, yet we had been pretty much agreeing about our energetic experiences for years!  That still cracks me up.

[Marblehead]

My middle back locks up. Hence, rather than a relaxing posture that opens things up, standing meditation (站樁) gives my middle back tension to the point of numbing the muscles around the middle spine ...

I agree with you.  If it is causing you pain then likely you should not be doing it.

[lessdaomorebum]

A couple more things about feeling chi... Feeling chi has been kind of an obsession for me for many years. What has grown into a pretty good aptness for it, started out very tiny. Minute sensations, when followed, grew.  

 

In his book Juice, internal energy teacher Scott Meredith writes: "You need to learn to feel and focus within yourself. It's like the kids game of cold, cold, warm, warmer, hot! You're continually either focusing more precisely and thereby strengthening the energy run, or else you're moving away from it. Just as in the game, you need to seize on even small sensations, not to fool yourself, but to check them out. Pursue them awhile. Some sensations are dead ends or self-delusion. But sometimes very minor sensations are the camel's nose beneath the tent, the first indication of a big new development." (p 104)  Once you can feel it, Meredith writes, only then can you grow it. Meredith's description didn't initiate my search, but it totally described my first steps as I stumbled into feeling chi. 

 

A few other notes: a dear friend has always claimed she can't feel chi. This puzzles the rest of us, because she meditates, sees light, and has done healing in her travels to sacred sites in S.America. Still she claims she can't feel chi. The rest of us suspect that one day, she's gonna say "Oh! You mean that!", something she has felt all along, but never identified as chi.

 

Lastly... For many years, I've been meeting with four other women in what  we call a healing circle. We often talk about energy, chi, and do healing on each other, discussing what we're noticing.  A year or two ago, I finally asked an obvious question that we had never discussed. "What does chi feel like to you?"

 

Was THAT ever an eye opener! None of them described what I felt! Some got a visual sensation, some actually "see" the energy". One had some kind of astral (my word) outside-the-body knowing, and then there's my sense, usually a kind of hydraulic internal movement.  All these seeming differences, yet we had been pretty much agreeing about our energetic experiences for years!  That still cracks me up.

Thank you for an excellent post! The last three paragraphs were particularly interesting. I am slowly trying to look into Goodman, and trying to get his book through interlibrary loan (it's too new). I will look into Juice and tai chi ruler in the near future.

 

 

I have been slow to reply (big gap in the thread there for a while), and to try things, because on May 16th a family medical emergency happened and that is still ongoing, so I am just now trying to do some things I would have done in my pre-May 16th life. I mention this only because I don't want anyone to think I don't appreciate their advice. I very much do appreciate anyone who posts or PMs me, even if some of their replies make no sense to me or seem self-contradictory. I am a very open-minded skeptic

Edited June 24, 2016 by lessdaomorebum

[cheya]

lessdaomorebum,

See if it's easier to get Goodman's first book, Foundation. It's got plenty to get you going, and I'm not sure you will find the newer book more helpful. If you watch his "thirty day challenge" you tube (3 minutes!), you could get started sooner.    

 

Interesting to me, often when I do his poses, especially the lower hand pose (from the Tedx talk) I get a really good foot-to-hands- chi flow going! Very cool!

Edited June 23, 2016 by cheya

[EmeraldHead]

My suggestion to people who struggle is to do some concentration exercises. You need to be empty (water element) to move your awareness past your body properly and feel/sense the chi. If you've been in a very air-element/yang mental plane since birth because of conditioning or thats your own nature well, that definitely the reason.

 

Do exercises like sitting still and putting your full awareness on the breath. The breath should slow down. You can even get a pen and mark after each breath if you were succesful to stay on it fully for the full duration - or not. In time, it will come.

 

With that said, it gets easier to feel/sense it when you have more. Celibacy, earthing, sungazing, working out and other stuff will do the deal. You (the author in the first post) said you tried feeling your body and all kinds of stuff. That is exactly what you have done you have tried and never actually put your mind to 'sense'. You're stuck in this mental state/plane that is not very sensitive/intuitive, to put it in clear language.