3 Somatic Practices from a Somatic Trauma Therapist
Trauma, stress, systems of oppression, and our culture’s perception on women and mothers all contribute to our somatics, or how we feel in our bodies. We all have different experiences out in the world, varying forms of privilege, and most importantly different relationships with our bodies. When your looking at building a relationship with your body, it’s helpful to do this when your feeling in a calm or neutral state. I find first thing in the morning helpful or in bed at night.
Before I shaare these practices, I want to caveat that if trauma or sexual assault is in your past experience these practices can be explored within your own comfort. It may be helpful to keep your eyes open during the practices, try some movement exercises first listed below, or experiment doing these with a trauma-informed somatic counselor who can support your grounding and help you maintain a feeling of safety.
Three Easy Beginner Somatic Practices
Good Day, Good Place: Sit cross legged or lay down and envision your best day ever, a moment of pure joy. Imagine what was in your mind during these moments? What showed up in your sense, was there a sweet smell, sound, taste, or touch?
Non-Linear Music: Look uo “up-beat instrumental” if you listen to Shamanic or instrumental music already you can play a favorite. Set a timer for 5-10 minutes, if comfortable close your eyes, and try to let your body move. A good prompt for this is, “How do you want to move body”? Let your arms take up space, your hips swirl, roll on the ground, let out a yell, whatever it is your body is craving. Yes, no matter how many times you do this it will feel silly in the beginning and blissful at the end.
Tracking With Curosity: This is important if we have had a traumatic event whether acute, like a car accident, or chronic like an abusive relationship. I don’t recocmend doing this around a memory that is not positive or neutral without a licensed trauma somatic counseling. Lucky for us, our body remembers good memories as well. Write or speak out loud a positive memory. Perhaps meeting a spouse, the birth of a child, a big work accomplishment, or personal endevor. What we’re looking is changes in our body. These tend to look like our posture changing, shoulder slumping, our temperature changing usually warm or cold hands, sensations of calmness, warmth, or expansiveness, and many more.
We may all have different roads to embodiment and it may look different for all. Embodiment is ongoing and to me it’s about finding your bodies’ wisdom, knowledge, joy, desires, and intuition. These three practices are a great introduction to connecting with a relationship with your body.
Sometimes we do practices like this and we feel stuck like we can’t do it right or you have an intuitive feeling there’s more to cover. I’d love to support your self-remembering.
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