I am reading Eckhart Tolle's book, A New Earth, Awakening to Your Life's Purpose. I came across a passage in the second chapter (Ego: The Current State of Humanity) under the subheading, Feeling the Inner Body which I want to share.Tolle talks about developing awareness of the inner body by doing the following exercise: Close your eyes for a minute and find out if there is life inside your hands. Don't let your mind answer, bring your awareness directly to your hands and see if you can feel anything such as a slight tingling or an indefinable presence. Once you can feel this presence move on to feeling it in your feet, and then on to other body parts until you can feel this "being-ness" in your whole body.
Tolle says,
What I call the "inner body" isn't really the body any more but life energy, the bridge between form and formless. Make it a habit to feel the inner body as often as you can. It almost seems like a paradox: when you are in touch with the inner body, you are not identified with your mind. You are no longer identified with form but moving away from form-identification towards formlessness, which we may also call Being. It is your essence identity. Body awareness not only anchors you in the present moment it is a doorway out of the prison that is the ego. It also strengthens the immune system and the body's ability to heal itself."
This is exactly like Restorative Yoga. In Restorative Yoga we practice being one-pointed, focusing our mind/attention on our breath and the sensations inside our bodies to bring peace and quiet to our minds and our bodies. This "inner body" awareness exercise of Tolle's is a great way to focus the mind while doing your Restorative Yoga practice.