Somatics- Embodied Awareness

If thoughts exist in the mind, feelings exist in the body.

If “the root of all dis-ease is emotional imbalance”- then the root cause of many physical manifestations can be addressed by assessing our emotions and where they appear in the body.

This image shows some possibilities to explore.

Close your eyes and take 3 deep breaths.
Then notice what is going on inside of your body.
What is most alive?
Is there heat or cold anywhere? Any pain? Is it sharp, dull, aching, stabbing? Do you feel heavy or light?

What do you feel in your body and where do you feel it in your body?
Where does it manifest? How does it manifest?
For example- is it in your chest? The back of your heart? Deep in your gut?
Does it have a color, a sound, a sensation, a texture, an impression?

Perhaps allow the diaphragm to be a demarcation line of the upper and lower half of the body. 

Most often “anxiety” is above and warm. It flutters, pulsates, pounds. In the chest. In the ears. Blood pumping, skin flushing.
Most often “depression” will be below. It will feel damp, heavy maybe like a wet blanket. Sluggish. Lethargic. Unmotivated. 

When determining herbs for treating, often symptoms above the diaphragm will need more anchoring and grounding herbs (shells and stones) whereas symptoms manifesting below the diaphragm could use more liftng and floating herbs (flowers.)

My favorite guided meditation for modulating stress, including PTSD- a technique I learned at Walter Reed working with war veterans- is to bring the self or another back to the present moment using the sense gates.

What do you hear?
What do you see?
What do you smell? And taste?
What do you feel? Where your feet are touching the ground, your bum on a chair or bed.

Sometimes even more guidance is helpful. For example:

What do you hear outside of the room- how far away can you hear?
What do you hear inside of this room? My voice?
What do you hear inside of your body- your breath, your digestion, your blood pumping…

Create a daily practice of doing a sfull body can from the top of your head to the bottom of your fingers and toes. Get to know what is “normal” for you so you can pick up on, sense, when something is “off.” And then make choices to balance and harmonize the body mind.

This can also be a lovely practice as you are falling asleep at night- to relax every muscle of the body and melt into your bed to rest.

These exercises will bring more awareness to the body , rather than the thinking mind, and help us to engage with the full human experience.
This holistic approach will also guide us to root causes and thus lead us to do the emotional work on our selves to lead a more fully integrated life.