Developing Proprioceptive Body Awareness in a Dialogue Circle

Abstract

Dialogue is a much debated, contested, and interpreted idea that can be understood as a constitutive element of human experience spanning the radically subjective and phenomenological to the social, historical, and political. This article explores dialogue from the perspective of individuals within a small dialogue practice group with a focus on their conscious learning of the skill of proprioceptive bodily awareness. The practice of purposeful dialogue discussed here offers practitioners a way of relating to each other and themselves that has the potential for significant transformation of normal patterns of communication and self-reflection. The overarching goal of this dialogue practice is to facilitate a creative, honest, and deeply engaged communication of perspectives. Postmodern and poststructuralist theorizing about identity, multiculturalism, and power; the rapid increase in global trade, migration, and outsourcing; and the explosive growth in social tools are creating conditions that both afford and require effective, sensitive, and open-minded human relations. Results of this qualitative study indicate that this type of focused dialogue practice can result in increased awareness of automatic body states which in turn inform relational dynamics in a positive way.