SOMATIC FIRST AID: for when you're feeling out of sorts
Try these short somatic enquiries whenever you feel demotivated, restricted, unbound, tense, or off-centre. Your body can be your resource in so many ways.
Originally compiled during the first lock-down, I’ve continued to collect somatic enquires as simple remedies for all sorts of everyday stresses and strains. These are just a few ideas I wanted to share with you that seem to stand the test of time and I’ll expand on them more in the Companion Notes, along with sharing some guided practices with you.
1. FEELING DEMOTIVATED?
When it's hard to get going or you need to rekindle your passion for something, tapping into the vitality of your arterial blood flow can help. This deep, scarlet fluid has weight and purposefulness as it courses its way to your cells with oxygen on board. (The venous flow is a bit different in quality and support).
To connect to this energy, move quickly to lift your heart rate. It doesn’t have to mean a full on work-out, even a brisk walk around the block or dance like nobody is watching for a few minutes will do the trick. You need to be active enough to feel a warmth or glow in your tissues.
If your possibilities for movement are limited for whatever reason, try rubbing and patting your skin briskly to draw the warmth to your surface layers, and look for a sense of pulse and rhythm in any way that makes sense to you.
Creating a playlist of music that is a workout for your spirit as well as your body is a useful and uplifting investment of your time. Think Kitchen Disco!
2. FEELING RESTRICTED?
This can show up when you don’t have enough space to be you, perhaps when everyday responsibilities get in the way of more heartfelt aspirations or you feel limited in your professional opportunities. If this sense of constraint seems familiar, begin to pay attention to the sides of your body.
Start with some simple side stretches whether you are sitting or standing, even leaning over to each side without any stretchy sensations can be useful. Find a sense of the spaces between your ribs widening on the longer side of your body and narrowing on the shorter side - take a deep breath in and out. Swap sides and repeat. Opening up the side-seams of the body can give rise to a refreshed sense of space inside as well as in the spatial awareness you have around you. You’ve made your bubble (kinesphere) bigger!
If you’re able to get up and down from the floor with ease, then you could try lying on your front with your forehead resting on your hands, legs together like a long tail, and swish them slowly as if you were a fish propelling yourself through water. This is even more satisfying if you can lie on a smooth surface since you will then have a chance to involve your upper body and perhaps start to travel along the floor through the fish-like movement of your spine. (More of this in the Companion Notes).
3. FEELING UNBOUND?
When you’re feeling a bit lost, going round in circles, or unsure of your direction, it can be useful to reconnect with the density of your body. It’s a different feeling to tuning into the weight of your body, it’s more about finding the substance (I like to call it the “fact” of my body).
I find that working with resistance helps exaggerate the physicality of my body, I can feel the forces of the world moving through me in the here and now. Try something simple like pressing your hands into a wall in such a way you feel connected to your centre and from there to your feet. This might feed a sense of solidity into your body that your nervous system may be missing.
If you have a movement practice, you could think about using some resistance bands to feel a sense of containment, a sense of where your body begins and ends. And, in a yoga practice, pressing your hands/forearms into the surface of a wall for modifications of Sphynx, Crocodile, Half Forward Fold, etc can be helpful, and if a headstand is something that you do ordinarily, then explore the feeling of support from the corner walls of a room.
*Premium subscribers to my Field Notes From the Body have access to my Companion Resource Library which includes my Pinterest boards, Spotify playlists, guided audio and video practices.
4. FEELING TENSE?
When we feel tense, it is not uncommon to realise we are holding our breath. This holding can be accompanied by sensations of fullness (or over-fullness), firmness, even a gripping in your tissues. There could also be a heightened sense of concentration or focus. It’s quite possible that a held breath is the appropriate nervous system response in that moment, and the noticing of it may give you helpful clues about your emotional or mental mood. However, when you do exhale, how will you exhale? Will you sigh softly or heavily? Will you hiss or hum your breath? Will you roar?
When you can, give yourself the choice of how to exhale and notice how the physical sensations transform. Generally speaking, exhaling gives us a chance to let go of unnecessary tension so you may become aware of a softening in you skin, a feeling of decompression around your organs, and possibly a quietening of your senses.
5. FEELING OFF-CENTRE?
Feelings of being uncertain, a bit wobbly on the inside, or even a little nervous are really common and arise for all sorts of reasons. If you feel they are not helpful in the moment, then seek out stable and steady objects that you can lean into (you need to make sure they are safe to receive your body).
Let the back of your chair hold your weight, or try a wall, or a tree. And, there may be choices you can offer yourself: do you lean into your back, or your sides, or your front? However you meet the object, tap into its steadiness and allow yourself to lean into it for as long as you need to; try not to hurry things. If you allow it, there will be a moment when your tissues have soaked up enough support and the easing away from the object arises without you needing to think about it.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this mini-collection from my somatic first-aid kit. I have some more to share and some guided practices coming up in the Companion Notes, but please feel free to share any of your own resources in the comments.
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I love love this. Wish I could keep a copy in front of me at all times
What fabulous ideas, and such a refreshingly sensible way of looking at our mind/body connections...thank you!