Psychogeography is the concept of where you experience emotions within your body. For example you can be heartsick or your heart can feel like it is soaring. Butterflies in your stomach is a flavor of anticipation that can be positive (meeting your crush on a first date) or stressful (presenting a project at work or school).
A heavy sinking lurch in your gut- think going down stairs in the dark and anticipating the number of steps wrong- is often associated with fear or lack of safety if sudden and depression if prolonged and chronic.
There are also entire branches of therapy associated with the physicality of the human body that operate under the idea that our nervous system distributes these experiences to various regions of our bodies and then seeks to utilize that principle to resolve content such as anxiety and depression and at times even very traumatic content such as the victims of physical and/or sexual assault.
Somatoemotional release and Hakomi touch on some of these aspects as do NLP (neurolinguistic programming) parts therapy and more than a few types of talk therapy and some assignments that may be given in REBT (rational emotive behavior therapy) can involve working through physical sensations.
What does this have to do with cuddling?
Quite a lot, actually.
Firstly, being in touch with and acknowledging your physical promptings can help you maintain your physical safety. Even popularized sources such as The Gift of Fear endorse trusting your proverbial gut if a situation feels unsafe.
(That book also provides tips on identifying other warning signs such as false teaming- creating a false sense of “we” in an attempt to emotionally leverage their outcome on someone. It’s worth a read, I think.)
Secondly, if you happen to have a trained mental health professional as your snuggle bud they could potentially help you process. Again- this is something that is deeply individualized and should be discussed beforehand unless it happens spontaneously, at which point the person snuggling should automatically give the person having the experience space and situate themselves in a non-threatening manner.
This could be sitting on the floor a few feet away, for example, as standing over the person could trigger more anxiety.
While I am not advocating this as a widespread practice I am offering it as an example of one end of the spectrum of what this type of thought and interaction can entail.
On a more basic and daily level this could involve checking in with your body while breathing, standing still or walking, or other mindfulness exercises. You could even use this to help alleviate muscle tightness or cramps associated with the menstrual cycle or after remaining in one position too long while studying.
These are all simple things that can put you more in touch with both your body and your emotions which will likely make you happier in general and a more carefree snugglebud.
If you would like more information please feel free to reply here or DM me and I can post additional resources or information. If you are not interested then I am wondering why you even read this far…
-All the love,
Rusty