Mind-Body Therapy for a Peaceful Fulfilling Life (Somatic Thera…

Have you ever experienced a particularly stressful day and felt tense, nauseous or ill? Your shoulders may feel tight or hunched over. You may experience a loss in appetite even though you haven’t eaten for a while. However, just stepping away from something stressful for even a few minutes can give you the space and distance to feel calmer. Doing some yoga, running a bath or even going for a walk can alleviate some of the emotional stress you’re feeling.

This form of therapy given to yourself provides the fundamentals for somatic therapy. The mind-body connection can provide the answers to help individuals suffering from stressful situations by utilizing physical exercises to release tension. In many instances, anxiety can cause muscles to be rigid, which may lead to pain and stiffness in almost any area of the body. And constant worry can also inhibit the immune system from working correctly, making the body less resistant to disease and infection.

Somatic exercise is a form of therapy centering on the mind-body connection. “Somatic” refers to the body and is often used in connection with one’s health. And with special techniques, somatic therapy can help people alleviate any pent-up trauma or stress “trapped” inside their bodies. Although this technique is relatively new in Western medicine (the mind and body are treated separately in Western medicine), the mind-body connection has been long recognized in Eastern philosophies and medicine.

Somatic therapy is designed to help you heal on a cellular level. It can help you focus on the emotions trapped within your body. After a traumatic event, stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline are released into the bloodstream to prepare you for an emergency. However, these hormones can remain in your body for months after the traumatic event has taken place. Physical symptoms can occur when your body is constantly under this type of stress.

Also, bad experiences can affect deep-rooted beliefs in our unconsciousness. This may include unhelpful or negative thoughts like “I am not good enough” or “I am worthless.” These thoughts can re-occur over and over in our minds and become repetitive patterns. We can also reactivate these patterns if a similar stressful situation presents itself. This can cause us to relive past traumas over and over again. The theory behind somatic experiencing is that PTSD symptoms are an expression within the body of the trauma experienced. One of the goals of somatic therapy is to help clients become aware of how their bodies are expressing the trauma that occurred to them.

If you’re interested in trying somatic exercises, here are six basic exercises you can try.

In somatic therapy, cultivating body awareness in and around your body is a prerequisite to creating change on a cellular level. You can start by identifying areas of tension and constriction within your body. Are your shoulders hunched, or is your neck stiff? After recognizing these physical stressors, try to bring behaviors or feelings that promote a sense of calmness into your consciousness. You can practice softening your hunched shoulders to begin working towards body alignment. Understanding your physical body can deepen your overall mind-body oneness and healing experience.

Resourcing is how you can strengthen your sense of safety and stability in the world. Begin by identifying the resources you have. Identify the relationships, experiences, significant people, and ego strengths that can strengthen the sense of choice and safety. You can resource nurturing or wise and protective figures who can give you strength and empowerment by bringing up these images. How does it feel when you think about these figures? By resourcing, we can connect the thoughts, feelings and sensations in our minds to help alleviate the anxiety or trauma in our daily life.

After an unpleasant event, it’s normal to experience anxiety, flashbacks or other uncomfortable symptoms. Grounding techniques can help you turn your attention away from these unpleasant thoughts, memories or worries and refocus on the present moment. One such technique is the 5–4–3–2–1 technique.

Using language to describe the experiences you feel can assist in processing anxiety, tension and trauma memories more efficiently, allowing you to have the experience move through you. For example, if you’re annoyed at something that’s occurred but don’t want to stay annoyed, you can use descriptive words to address the issue. Begin with some words like “It feels like a wound-up ball of rubber bands in my chest…”. As you say this, follow the sensations in your body, of how the feeling changes when you focus on the physical body rather than the upsetting event.

Body movement allows you to tap into our bodies’ stories while understanding how we respond to stress. Movement can assist us in moving through trauma, insecurities, intense emotions or challenging scenarios. How we interact with others, the postures we hold, our gestures and the volume of our voices can resonate with how we feel at that moment, and taking time to notice these cues allow us to understand ourselves better.

For example, if you are in an environment with others but prefer not to speak or raise your voice. Bring this feeling into your consciousness and describe what you physically want to do. If you want to “stay hidden” or “crouch behind a wall,” do it. You may then have a thought saying, “it’s not safe to talk.” An image may also come up linking why you want to stay hidden. You can unleash all of this data when doing this exercise with movement.

Self-regulation is when we use techniques to calm ourselves during a period of tenseness. In somatic therapy, self-regulation relates to dealing with trauma within our body’s autonomous nervous system. Often, unresolved tension can have unknown side effects in our everyday life. You may be anxious all the time or react to daily events in a negative manner, oftentimes linking them to past traumas.

Somatic experience can give you the knowledge to understand complex body processes. You can try some of these easy techniques to help self-regulate:

· Perform a heart-shoulder hug: Cross your right hand over your chest with the hand on top of your heart. Then cross your left hand and place the hand on the shoulder. This move should leave you feeling secure and safe. Hold the hug for as long as you need.

· Perform a body-tap: Tap your body, from your feet to your head. When you do this, follow the feeling on your skin and how the taps feel on different parts of your body. Tapping yourself can help with grounding and also help the body recognize its boundaries.

Somatic breathing exercises can benefit your mind and body in many ways. It’s a sophisticated form of conscious breathing that teaches you how to control your breath and focus your attention. It teaches you how to breathe fully and get more oxygen to your body while calming your mind and relaxing your body. Learning to practice it regularly can have many benefits for your body and mind. Here are some benefits of somatic breath therapy:

1. It can help reduce stress and anxiety by teaching you to focus on your breath and take deep, slow breaths relaxedly.

2. It can teach you to focus on the present moment rather than being caught up in stressful thoughts or negative memories from the past.

3. It can help you develop a more positive mindset by helping you become more aware of the thoughts and feelings running through your mind and allowing you to learn to calm them and let them go.

4. It can help improve your balance and coordination by strengthening your arms and legs and increasing your flexibility as you practice focusing on your breath and moving your body in various positions while focusing on the sensations in different parts of your body.

5. It can help strengthen your immune system and reduce the likelihood of developing illness by getting more oxygen into your blood and energizing your cells to fight off foreign invaders more effectively.

6. It can help you sleep more restfully by reducing stress, lowering your heart rate, and relaxing your muscles.

7. It can help you feel more energized and improve your mood by providing a boost of endorphins and other benefits from practicing deep breathing regularly.