Incorporate Somatic Healing and Begin Healing Today
Have you ever heard the phrase, our issues are in our tissues?
When we experience anything, whether it is traumatic or not, our bodies collect and retain that information. A simple example is noticing the little lines across your face as the years pass. The lines from laughter. The lines from sorrow. The lines from disappointment, anger, joy, pain…
Your body tells a detailed story. The story of your life and your experiences on this earth. Some experiences we wish we could recall more fully from our memory, while others we wish we couldn’t recall so easily.
Regardless if the experience is deemed as positive or negative, the mind and the body are intricately connected, and processing those experiences is part of the mind-body connection.
Humans have become exceptionally skilled at compartmentalizing. We lose a loved one, we experience a trauma, we have our hearts broken… the expectation is to allow a set time limit for processing and then wrap it all up, tightly and securely, push it to the side, and continue with life. Continue doing and producing. Like a machine.
But whether we are conscious of it or not, even if we have compartmentalized it, doesn’t mean we’ve processed it. In fact, wrapping it up tightly and securing usually translates to: I’ve tucked it away in my body somewhere.
Suddenly, a year down the road my hips are tight, and my lower back aches. My shoulders tense more so I have a consistent headache or neck ache. Seemingly, out of nowhere.
Except it all has an origin. We’ve just compartmentalized that well.
Luckily, over the last few decades or so, somatic therapy has become a very hot topic within the mental health and holistic health fields. It’s becoming apparent that our bodies retain information from our lived experiences and that retention can contribute to dis-ease and ailments on all levels of our being.
So let’s dive in.
What is Somatic Therapy?
Now that we have the awareness that our bodies hold on to our lived experiences, especially when the mind isn’t allowed the time and space to process, what can you do about it?
A possible answer and solution lie within somatic therapy. Somatic therapy is the practice of bringing the mind and the body back into connection with the goal of bringing awareness into the body so the mind can begin gently and safely processing what it needs to.
Forms of Somatic Therapy
Typically you could be guided through these processes, by a therapist or experienced practitioner, but you can also utilize the various practices on your own.
Dance
It sounds simple but dance can actually be incredibly helpful in processing emotions and information we’ve been carrying. Dancing forces you to be in the moment and after a while, your movements become less thought out and more intuitive. This means you’re releasing control and tension, which only helps to release and process without having to sit and think about it.
Breathwork
When we’re in fight-flight-freeze-fawn, or simply put, dysregulated in our nervous system, our breathing suffers. Our breath becomes more shallow, perhaps quicker in pace, and definitely not as long and full. However, when we allow full, deep breaths within the body, that oxygen carries to all our organs and cells and prevents stagnation. The breath becomes healing.
Meditation
Meditation is the practice of going inward. In allowing stillness. When we find ourselves in stillness and looking within, it becomes impossible to compartmentalize and push things to the side. Sometimes our body is simply asking for presence and attention. Kind of like how we seek that within our closest relationships. It’s essential to develop that same love and reverence toward our relationship with ourselves.
Visualization
Visualization can be a broad term so let’s use an example of body scan visualization. This form of visualization brings all your attention toward your physical body and all of its sensations, tensions, and emotions. Again, it simply becomes about allowing your body the time and space to communicate with you without being brushed aside. As you complete a body scan visualization you may be surprised at what your body has to communicate.
Massage
When we experience aches and pains it’s common to seek out a massage therapist. But did you know the massage is so effective, in part, because it is helping to release all the stored emotions we’ve held on to for who-knows-how-long?
Exercise
Like dancing, exercise is a wonderful tool to subtly process emotions. Especially for those who aren’t necessarily ready to discuss their emotions, like in talk therapy. It is a way to get back into the body, lengthen the muscles, pump oxygen through the body, and literally cleanse your body.
Yoga
Could you guess the final form would be yoga? Yoga can absolutely fall into the exercise category, the breathwork category, and the meditation and visualization categories. But that’s also why it gets its own category… because it incorporates all these other healing modalities in one. Additionally, yoga poses are designed to target all aspects of the body, all organs and meridians. If you’ve heard that pigeon pose can release trauma it’s because the pose itself allows an opening and releasing of the hips, a common spot for held trauma and emotions.
How it Heals
There are countless ways somatic therapy can heal, but here are a few issues and ailments that can be alleviated through the use of somatic therapies:
Anxiety
Depression
PTSD
Chronic pain
Chronic fatigue
Digestive issues
Grief
Addiction
Stress
Incorporate Somatic Healing into Your Life Today
You can begin healing today.
Whether you practice these techniques in the comfort of your own home, or you seek out professional therapy, or you find a group class you can begin this process of releasing the “issues in your tissues” and incorporate somatic healing into your life. Gone are the days when we have to white knuckle our way through life or push it all to the back burner. Lucky for you, and me, we’re in an age where healing is encouraged and supported. And we don’t have to go it alone. So find your modality, find your community, and come back to yourself.
