Reflections arising from a Somatics Practice

Part 2 – How much of my body is my friend?

When I started somatics I was stunned to realise that I couldn’t directly sense much of my physical body. I didn’t have any direct feeling for it at all.

This was after a lifetime of body-centred activity – yoga, meditation, tramping, cycling, swimming etc. I had thought of myself as quite a touchy-feely person. However when I started to explore my body in more detail, from a direct sensing point of view, I discovered that large parts of me were not available at all. 

Even more disturbing I realised that these parts barely moved. They seemed locked out. Where there is no movement, no feeling, there is no life. Had I really abandoned so much of myself? That was scary. Chronic tension had frozen, shifted large areas of myself from awareness. 

Somatic exercise focuses on the importance of bringing more and more of ourselves back into direct experience, in order to enrich our self image. Physical differentiation and integration leads to a richer sense of self. All self healing is a journey of re-connecting and integration. 

Through somatics, the blank parts in me have started to sparkle and move and my sense of freedom and self confidence has definitely increased. I have become an embodied organism moving in space. There is so much pleasure, power and vitality in this movement.