We live in a thought world - a fabrication, an abstraction - far more than we realize. See:
http://jglovas.wixsite.com/awarenessnow/single-post/2017/03/19/Ego-Soma---the-Body-Mind-Relationship
and:
http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/2017/03/mindfulness-practice-emotions-recovery.html
and:
http://mindfulnessforeveryone.blogspot.ca/2017/02/736-words-concepts-definitions-limits.html
and:
http://mindfulnessforeveryone.blogspot.ca/2017/02/737-prolific-conceptualisation.html
“Since we have lost access to our nonconceptual experience, we tend to live in our facsimile versions.” Reginald A. Ray
Meanwhile, our bodies and the rest of nature remains "real", in "real time."
Mindfulness practices, by emphasizing "direct perception", "felt sense" and "letting go of words, thoughts, concepts, stories" - ie are body-based (somatic) meditations, train us to gradually "see clearly", reconnecting with the way things actually are.
“The body itself, the cells of our body, are always and forever in a meditative state, meaning the awareness of the cells is unconditionally open and receiving information from the ends of the universe. Everything that can ever be known by us is already known by our cells - these pools of awareness, these trillions of worlds that are like receptors. Meditation can only be practiced by our cells – by the totality of our Soma. Our job as meditators is simply to tune in to the meditative state – the infinite open meditative state – that is the basic truth and reality of our Soma. For the first time with Whole Body Breathing we see truly what it means to meditate in an embodied way.”
"Practice Five: Whole Body Breathing & Rooting" Guided Meditation: http://www.shambhala.com/theawakeningbody
accompanies the book: Reginald A. Ray. "The Awakening Body. Somatic Meditation for Discovering Our Deepest Life." Shambhala, 2016.