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In today's fast-paced, technologically-driven world, it's easy to become disconnected from our physical bodies. And if we’re honest, it can also be easier.
Being with and in our bodies can be hard. So many of us live with trauma, violence, chronic pain, addiction, aging challenges and being in our bodies may not feel safe, comfortable, or trustworthy. Being safe and resourced in our bodies is also hard to come by living in a society with white supremacy and oppression deeply embedded in our culture and histories.
And yet… we only get this one life to enjoy. If we are cut off from the sensations of our body, we are cut off from the basic experience of our own aliveness. We all deserve to feel magical, alive, and at home in our bodies. Whatever keeps us from experiencing our wholeness and the gift of our life is a cry for healing and social change.
Somatic practice is one way to address and repair this disconnection, intentionally fostering awareness of sensations in the body and how we inhabit ourselves. This integration helps us know who we are- what enlivens us, what deadens us, and what automatic, embodied reactions organize our experience- even as it offers a process for developing new embodied habits.
Somatics is a field of study and embodied practices for growth and healing that understands and includes the body in ways that other fields often do not. Its engagement with the body is about more than just the physical body, it’s about the entire experience of being in one's body. How we carry ourselves, how we understand ourselves as bodies, how we relate to or disconnect from our physicality and sensations, how we self-regulate - these are all crucial aspects of our existence.
Somatics further recognizes that our body is not just a vessel for our brain; it's an active participant in our experiences. Our bodies store memories and emotions, and it's through the body that we interact with the world around us.
The term itself comes from the Greek word 'soma', which implies the organism in its wholeness. This wholeness encompasses the body, as well as emotions, thoughts, embodied habits, identities, and more. Somatics recognizes that our bodies are not separate from the world around us - our social, political, and cultural contexts impact our bodily experiences. By attending to our bodies, we can also begin to address societal structures and norms that impact ours and others’ health and wellbeing.
We attend to our bodies through noticing sensations and the ‘felt sense’ of our body.
Coined by Eugene Gendlin, a philosopher from the University of Chicago, the 'felt sense' refers to our internal bodily awareness. (Gendlin, Eugene. Focusing. Bantam Books, 1978)
In the 1950's and 1960's, Gendlin and a group of researchers sought to understand why therapy worked for some people and not for others. They found that those who could connect with their internal bodily awareness, or ‘felt sense’ of the situation, had better outcomes in therapy. Over time, these clients experienced what they called a ‘body shift’ in how they felt about the situations that had initially brought them into therapy. They responded differently and experienced growth.
Gendlin describes the 'felt sense' as a physical, not mental, experience, noting it is our bodily awareness of a situation, person or event. Peter Levine, renowned for Somatic Experiencing and author of Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma, further describes the 'felt sense' as akin to hearing a whole song versus one note. Rather than sensing one physical sensation, the felt sense is about experiencing the body as a whole.
(Levine, Peter, and Ann Frederick. Waking the Tiger Healing Trauma: The Innate Capacity to Transform Overwhelming Experiences. North Atlantic Books, 1997)
There are many ways to begin.
However you engage, I hope you find a method that resonates with you and allows you to connect with your embodied aliveness!
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