Body Freedom Exercise (9): Body Sounds

Body Sounds

The body makes very interesting internal sounds, including: digestion as food moves through the stomach and intestines, breathing, heart beating and pumping blood, and eating food, including chewing and swallowing. Listen to these sounds, become familiar with them, and notice how they change under certain conditions.

Time for Exercise: five to 15 minutes

Properties Required: food snacks, stethoscope (optional)

Steps:
Place your ear on your lover’s body at different places.

1. Have your partner lie on her stomach. Place your ear on the small of her back. Move from side to side and up and down her back. You will notice a number of sounds of digestion, breathing, and heart pumping depending upon location.
2. Instruct her to roll over onto her back and place your ear on her belly. Once again move your ear from side to side and up and down.
3. Have your lover chew some food on the right side of her mouth, and hold your ear against her left cheek.
4. As she swallows, hold your ear at her neck, then her chest, then her stomach to discover what you hear. Notice the difference in the sound of liquid and food being swallowed. Try hearing the different sounds made as she chews different kinds of food.

If you can obtain a stethoscope, you can hear many more wondrous sounds from inside the body.

Variations:

• Write a short paragraph or poem about the sounds you have heard.
• Heartbeats: notice how the sound changes when she is completely calm, excited, exerting herself physically, and before and after lovemaking.

Comments:
This exercise helps you become more intimately familiar, comfortable, and accepting of the human body—yours and your lover’s.