Somatic symptoms are characterized by an extreme focus on physical sensations where your body feels pain or fatigue. These bodily sensations cause major emotional distress and problems functioning. Usually the reaction to these symptoms is not normal and can be helped using mindfulness therapy with body-focused exercises that help with physical and emotional needs. Although the following somatic approach may not alleviate all chronic pain, it can become a practical body-focused approach within your daily mindfulness practices, it’s cheaper than going to somatic therapists, and will apply positively to your bodies nervous system regulation.
One of the best definitions of mindfulness is paying attention to your experiences moment by moment without judgment.
As you go through your day are you like most human beings and find yourself judging yourself every moment of it? Do you ever find yourself doing a task like cooking a meal and then suddenly out of nowhere your inner mind begins being mad at you for something that happened many years ago? Have you ever felt anxious about an event that is in your past and suddenly allowing it ruin your current harmonious state and mood? These are the kinds of feelings and judgments that mindfulness can help you benefit from. This includes depression, anxiety, trauma, depression, and any number of other mental health issues.
Use Mindfulness Everyday
During stressful times, use these simple exercises to help make you just a bit more mindful. These somatic exercises could potentially keep you from falling into an unwanted depression spiral. Another example of how we sabotage our life and subvert our mind-body connection is when you’re doing a daily task such as taking a shower or even going for a walk, and self-talk subconsciously begins focusing intensely on what someone said to you at work two weeks ago that disturbed you. As this thought goes through each of your five senses you get angrier with each moment.
Learning to Accept Your Thoughts
Have you ever felt like you were having a good day, and then out of nowhere, you thought of something from your past that just completely changed how you were feeling? In a moment’s time, you went from having a pleasant day to being very upset? Learning to notice changes internally and being curious rather than judging your thoughts can help. Using Mindfulness Methods Skills can help. Mindfulness training can help in the development of learning to pay attention to experiences without judging them or being deeply influenced by them in a destructive manner. That means, instead of your thoughts having total control over you, you can have more control over your emotions and emotional wellbeing.
A 6-step somatic exercise:
1. Attentiveness.
As we take these first steps it’s important to notice yourself inhaling through your nose and exhaling through your mouth. Be attentive and notice internal sensations and your body’s nervous system. Notice what your body is feeling internally as well as externally. Be attentive and identify your speed of breath, your heart rate, and even your body temperature the best you can. If you’re chilly, put on a sweatshirt or sweater. Try and get your whole body in as much of a comfortable place and state as possible.
2.Think back to your “safe place.”
We covered the safe place meditation in an earlier article. Think back to a recent moment you felt most calm, safe and most like the you that’s comforting.
3. Identify the area(s).
Identify at what point in time and/or which part of your body began experiencing disturbance or stress.
4. Repeat.
Repeat and replay the scenario from your calm state to the stressed state. Repeat this in slow motion (like watching a movie in slow motion). Notice the people, any of your previous conversations, any objects, and behaviors that may have created the stress in your body, created your discomfort, or that peep out as you’re repeating and replaying the recent event(s) to yourself.
5. Fine-tune.
Dial down into your bodies sensations and all the different parts of your body as you recall the event(s) and slow your mind frequency down and notice any shift in your body, a sensation of tingling, tensing, warming, numbing or cooling in your chest, arms, legs, face or an overall change in body temperature.
6. Hand healing.
Place your hand on the area that has experienced a shift or change, and breath deeply. If it’s an overall feeling, you can simply place your hands on your heart.
Performing this six-step exercise allows your body to process the negative somatic experience and release physical tension. This exercise also creates a passageway to release any tension present in your body and physiological system.
Notice what comes into your mind, an image, feeling, vibration, awareness or understanding that offers clarity to your situation. If nothing enters your mind or senses, don’t worry about it. By slowing down your mind frequency closer to theta state, pacing your breathing, and raising awareness to your body is progress and helpful in itself.
I encourage you to practice this after an experience has created unwanted stress. Doing it quickly after the event will allow your body to process emotions and sensations of your body. You may also choose to practice this before you enter into what you know is going to be a stressful situation so that you can identify potential triggers and plan ahead for ways to improve yourself.
As you go about your day, I encourage you to mindfully tune into your body with undivided attention and attune closer into your physical self. Doing this can lead to a stress reduction and strengthen your threat response, all while improving your internal state with improved emotional regulation.
You will eventually find a comfort zone and fully accept negative past experiences with no negativity. This is a state of freedom for your body and mind as well a giant step towards your physical health.
If there is something you don’t like about your body and can change it—like an extra fatty layer—then begin controlling what and how much you eat on a daily basis. If there is something that’s out of your control just begin to accept it. It is part of you and remember how unique and special you really are to the world and how you can help and touch others with your special talents and gifts.
Conclusion:
It is important to note that this exercise is not in place of trauma therapy of extreme experiences of trauma, and it’s not somatic psychotherapy. Rather, it is a skill you can become part of your regular practice to give you a significant improvement. If you are in therapy and notice something new while doing this exercise, record it in your phone notepad or calendar app (I encourage planning your day) and bring it to your daily planning session for deeper and continued work.
If you are not doing a mindfulness meditation routine and realize that there are lots of bad self talk and chatter in your mind, I encourage you to begin meditating today. You can add this somatic meditation to your regular meditations and they will all become a powerful tool in alleviating areas of tension. Keep in mind this is a mental process that turns into a physiological process affecting your physical body in a very positive way.
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