There are so many reasons why we lose touch with ourselves, resulting in feeling constant stress, feelings of fear and anxiety, burn out and a continuous feeling of being run down. Life loses it’s joy.
So what causes this? Well it can be a combination of many things, family stresses, work responsibilities, endless lists of things to be done, financial pressures, social expectations. Add to this the stress causes by modern life, the daily struggle to balance family, work, relationships, adverse life experiences, illness and many more pressures that we seem to take for normal these days.
Given all this, it’s no wonder that we start to feel overwhelmed, numb, emotionally dysregulated, disconnected from ourselves.
Before you know it, you are living a life that priortises work and income above family, there never seems to be any downtime, we end up focusing on everything and everyone else and neglect your own emotional, mental and physical wellbeing.
If any of this sounds familiar to you, then you are not alone, so many seem to be feeling like this these days. Life pulls us in all directions and every direction is taking you further away from yourself, from your connection with your body. At some point your body will pull you back, usually by means of an emotional collapse or physical illness. This is when most people generally start seeking help to regain their health.
And this is where mind body somatic practice comes in, a way to reconnect with your body and restore your natural balance. Somatic practices are a powerful way to re-establish your mind body emotional connection, to connect with yourself in this present moment, to start to listen to your body.
So what are these somatic practices and how can they help you to reconnect with your body?
What Do Somatic Practices Do?
The word ‘Somatic’ is a common term in todays world, but what does it mean exactly?
‘Somatic’ comes from the Greek word soma, meaning “of the body.” Somatic practice focuses on becoming aware of your body, tuning into the very subtle changes, the sensations and signals of your body, and using these sensations as a guide to body self awareness and better health.
Our mind and body are deeply interconnected and the health of one has a direct effect on the health of the other. Somatic practice brings your conscious awareness to your breathing, how you move, how your body feels in every situation and how all these impact on your emotional, mental and physical health.
I would also add how we speak to and think of ourselves to this list. The words we use to describe ourselves, our bodies, has a huge impact on our emotional-mental-physical health. Without realising it, many of us are so very critical of ourselves, we make depreciating jokes against ourselves, judge our physical appearance harshly, chide ourselves for our perceived ‘failures. In fact, some of our self criticism borders on abuse and would be actually considered abuse if it were directed at another. And then we wonder why our bodies descend into illness, no surprise considering the stress that we place on it.
By paying attention to the physical sensations within our body, we can begin to dissolve the layers and layers of stress, fear, conditioning and programming that have built up over the years. As children, we cover ourselves with layers of behaviour, to protect ourselves from our emotional environment, our parents/caregivers attitudes and angers, teacher’s criticisms, disapproving adults.
These protective patterns continue to build up over time and, while they serve a purpose in our childhood, they usually cause us damage in adulthood. By the time we become adult, we have usually lost sight of a lot of our true selves under these layers.
Somatic practice starts to gently peel off these layers, allowing us to reveal more and more of our true selves and to emotionally reconnect with our soul.
Somatic Practice And Fight, Flight, Freeze
We often think that our ‘self’ consists of our personality, our thoughts. But our thoughts and personality are not our true ‘us’, they are merely the parts of us that have been shaped, formed by our childhood. Our personality. the ‘persona’ (“a strategic mask of identity in public, the public image of one’s personality, the social role that one adopts, or simply a fictional character”) is the result of childhood conditioning, a amalgamation of traits that were considered positive by other people. The personality is the mask that we show to the world, but most of us think that this personality is our true self, it isn’t.
How we feel in our body shows the state of our nervous system and whether we feel safe or under threat. Do we feel safe enough to show our authentic selves or do we need to hide behind the protective mask of our personality? Whether or not we feel safe has a huge impact on the health of our nervous system.
If we are constantly stuck in a state of feeling not safe, then we generate stress responses, the fight, flight, or freeze response (sympathetic nervous system). In flight, fright or freeze, it’s impossible for you to feel safe enough to connect to your true self and express yourself authentically, you are in self defense mode and you hide and suppress your emotions to protect yourself.
When we have experienced adverse life events or traumas in the past, our nervous system can react in the present as if the bad something from the past is happening right now. This pulls us out of the present moment and forces us to re-experience our past emotions and our body and mind then protect themselves by disconnecting us from ourselves. This disconnected position becomes a permanent state for many and when you have lived in this state for long enough, you think that this is the way ‘normal’ life is. You may not even realise that you are disconnected.
Somatic practices create space that allow you to return to a state of safety, a state of feeling safe enough to come out of fight, flight, freeze mode and return to your natural rest and digest mode (parasympathetic nervous system). Returning to rest and digest mode allows you to reconnect with your true self and also prompts your body into repair and self healing mode. The parasympathetic nervous system is a very powerful tool in your healing journey, releasing stored stress and tension, regulating all your organs and body systems and generating happy brain chemicals.
Enhancing your body awareness helps you to exit fight, flight and come into your natural rest, digest action. Somatic practices are one of the most effective ways to achieve this.
6 Somatic Practices To Reconnect You To Your Body
Here are six somatic practices to help you reconnect with your body. They are very simple to do and can easily be incorporated into your daily routine.
- Body Scanning: Sit, stand or lie somewhere quiet. Bring your awareness to your body, starting with your left or right foot. Become aware of how it feels on the ground, the feel of your footwear against your skin. Then move your awareness to your calf, how your clothing feels against it, can you feel the air brushing by, does it feel warm or cool. Gently move over your body, placing your awareness on each body part. If you notice any sensation, pain etc, don’t focus on it, simply note it and move on. Over time, this practice will bring you into deeper awareness of your body, how it feels, what it feels, and you will begin to see where your somatic blocks are.
- Somatic Movement: This type of movement is all about slow, gentle and mindful and allows you to come into tune with the subtle sensations occurring within your body. Don’t pre-think your movement, just stand and allow your body to start naturally moving. Your first body movement will most likely be a sway, allow your body to sway and see where it goes. You may find yourself wanting to gently stretch or move your hands or feet. Just allow the movement without concentrating on how the movement looks. Your body will know how it needs to move. You can bring your awareness to any areas or muscles that feel tight, restricted, compressed and gently stretch and release them. Don’t force anything, just let it happen. As you move you may feel some emotions arise, let them, allow them to release themselves in whatever way they wish. This simple movement is very powerful when practiced over time.
- Breathwork: The breath is one of the most powerful tools for regulating your nervous system. There are so many breathwork practices to choose from, some are designed to calm your nervous system while others can ramp it up to energise your system. I much prefer the calming, soothing and regulating breathwork techniques, designed to reduce stress and release long held tension. Belly breathing, also known as diaphragmatic breathing, is one of my favourites for calming a dysregulated nervous system. Sit, stand or lie and place one hand on your belly and the other on your chest. You can also place your hands by your side if you prefer. Inhale deeply through your nose, bring your breath into your belly, feeling your belly rise. Hold your breath softly for a few seconds and then gently exhale through your mouth, allowing your belly to soften as you do so. Make your exhalation longer than your inhalation, this signals your nervous system that you are in a safe space and allows it to drop into rest and digest mode. As you breathe, pay attention to how your breath feels entering and exiting your lungs, the sensations as it passes your lips. You may also notice some shifts in your emotional state, allow them to happen.
- Grounding: Grounding is powerful and you don’t need to be in nature to do it effectively. Remove your shoes (and socks if you wish) and stand or sit with your feet planted firmly on the ground. Make sure that your are supported and comfortable. Close your eyes and imagine roots growing from the centre of your soles and going deep into the earth, down and down through the soil. Breathe deeply and slowly and bring your awareness to the soles of your feet and the feeling of the roots going deep into the ground as they anchor you safely to the earth. You can place your hands on your heart, belly or abdomen if you feel a desire to do so. Feel the stress and tension being drained from your body, down your legs, through your feet, into the roots and being expelled into the earth. You can visualise this stress having a colour if you wish. When the stress has drained, visualise bright golden green energy coming up from Mother Earth, into your feet, up your body and dispersing into every cell of your body. Feel the vibrant earth energy suffuse your body, skin and the air around you. You may feel sensations in your body or skin at this point. If it feels right for you, you can wrap your arms around yourself, stroke your arms or your face, whatever feels good. If your mind starts to wander, gently bring your awareness back to your body and how your body feels. This practice creates self awareness and allows your feelings to feel safe to be expressed.
- Self Compassion: Most of us are very hard on ourselves. We judge ourselves and find ourselves lacking. If we received criticism as young children, then we may continue this as self criticism in adult life. This is a very emotionally damaging practice and is one of the main causes of emotional dysregulation and illness in later life. During somatic practices we often feel ‘negative’ emotions. No emotion is actually negative in and of itself, but, if it feels uncomfortable to us, we perceive it as ‘negative’. When we experience these emotions we usually try to push them away. Self compassion means that we allow our body to experience whatever emotion it wishes, ‘positive’ or ‘negative’, without judgement. If we constantly try to push away the negative, we train our body to feel unsafe to express fully. When the unpleasant feeling comes in, allow it, see where in your body it lies. How does it feel? Heavy? Dark? Like a stone? Like lead? Tell the feeling that you see it, that you are willing to listen to it. Talk to your feeling like it is a small child that needs comforting. These ‘negative’ feelings are there to let you know that something needs attention. They are often your ‘inner child’ wanting to be heard. Hear them.
- Mindful Touch: Sometimes called Havening, mindful touch is the combination of self soothing touch and self compassion. By now you will probably be aware of the parts of your body that feel tense or painful. Take a deep breath and start to gently stroke the affected area, talking softly to it while doing so, saying things like “It’s ok” and “I’m here”. Comfort the area, allow it to feel loved. You can also ask it what it needs in this moment. When this becomes a regular practice, don’t be surprised if your body gives you an answer.
Somatic Practice Is Powerful
Somatic practice offers you a powerful way to reconnect with your physical body and regulate your nervous system. I do these practices several times a week or as often as my body tells me it wants them. It only takes a few weeks to start becoming very aware of every nuance of your body, for your body to ‘speak’ to you. And, if you allow it, your body will tell you exactly what it needs for optimal health.
Tuning into your body in this way builds a very strong sense of connection between body, mind and soul and this is the path to your true self. As you practice somatic connection you will find that the benefits travel out into every part of your life, bringing you joys that you never knew existed.
I hope you found this article enjoyable and if you would like my help with your somatic connection, please feel free to contact me or call/text me on 086 4554748.
X, Geraldine