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None of the foregoing theory would be a worth a fig unless it had some practical application. Its primary focus is therefore application, and not theory for its own sake [1].
To be honest, the practical application of all this is very simple ... Simple in that it is based on the natural way for our nervous system to function - being the way that our mental-mind and our body-mind evolved to work cooperatively, symbiotically together in an integrated organic fashion.
On the other hand the practice is not simple - because the practical application of these principles is for the most part diametrically opposite the messages that our western scientific-medicalised-technological-industrial culture constantly gives out, the demands that it makes, the “knowledge” it is based on, and the sensory and information noise it generates that we have to swim through each waking moment.
Consequently the practical exercises are somewhat clunky - because they have to facilitate a huge transition. Whilst some large and substantial steps can usually take place very quickly - the whole journey is measured in years, maybe even decades, maybe a lifetime. Application requires some trust in your own Body/body-mind), and a habit of non-judgemental self-reflection. The waymarkers on this journey are an increasing palpable sense of the body becoming more available - first more solid, then more energised and buoyant. Health tends to improve, mental activity tends to be more stabilised by the body's presence. The more subtle interoceptive landscape becomes more familiar, and so more subtle relational information - with yourself, with other people and with the rest of the Living world also becomes more available and everyday.
As the more superficial adaptive layers are cleared, the bigger ones underneath will always rise up at some time or other to be healed. Therefore, as you re-build a capacity for awareness of the subtleties of interoception, it becomes more and more necessary to have a cultivated set of skills and tools that orient you towards health and resilience. Given this ability to tap into your innate resources - although difficult states may come and go, they remain for shorter and shorter periods; maybe lasting months or years initially, and then gradually reducing to weeks, then days, then an hour or so, then a few minutes - or less. The journey is a spiral rather than a straight line.
Another problem that often arises is that the generic ideas appear far too familiar, and so are taken for granted and not engaged with sufficient depth to have an effect. This is a Left-Brain/Right-Brain issue as described by Iain McGilchrist. Seeing the new is always uncomfortable. A nice phrase I saw recently was that "we all need to become more comfortable with feeling uncomfortable". Not pain discomfort, but the discomfort that arises in noticing that inner experience may be at odds with how we have been told the world behaves. The choice then is to either ignore the inner experience, or to trust it and be willing to go through the unknowing that eventually allows us to re-frame a comfortably familiar world-view.
My final comment before you begin the practical exercises is that this work does not stand alone. It is a shortcut. It describes a relatively but direct and healthy practice that can accumulate depth - and most importantly, is not palliative, and does not lead down a blind alley. But it is nevertheless just a start - albeit a useful one, and is certainly not sliced bread.
References & Notes