Reclaim Your Body: The 7 Transformative Benefits of Somatic Movement

By Sophie Rey

Somatic Teacher & Coach, Artist & Yoga Teacher

Hi and Welcome to this mini-blog!

I'm Sophie and I teach Somatic Yoga for older adults, alongside Somatic Coaching for sensitive, anxious, creative souls, and creative fun arty events for adults to play!

I apply a Somatic approach to movement & Yoga Asana to any class or practice that I guide to really help my clients learn more about themselves and their bodies, understand their nervous system and needs, and in turn feel more at home in their experience.

What is Somatic Movement?

Somatic Movement is any movement that allows you to sense your experience from within.

This can include walking, dancing, Yoga Asana, Tai Chi, Swimming, Pilates and more. It's not about the outward appearance of the movement, but what's happening for the individual on the inside, incorporating their whole sensory and Somatic experience. A key focus with somatic movement, is that it is intended to be slower, to provide enough time and space for you to feel, sense, observe and name what is happening within your physiology; your muscles, your breath, nervous system and within the deeper felt sense, which is often unclear and fuzzy.

Specific Somatic Exercises can help reduce muscular tension and improve sensory awareness

This is especially useful if you are new to movement, somatic exercises or have a health condition. If you're hoping to reduce muscle tension, slow is also best as your brain needs time to catch up and create new neural pathways, or if you’re learning to connect with your body after a period of disconnection or traumatic experience.

It is about going at the pace that feels best for you, and the slowness gives you time to check in with how it feels for you, and make adjustments or stop if it gets too much for your system to handle. 

With that in mind, moving slowly can be very challenging for many reasons, so if you need to move a little quicker, then by all means do, still aiming to pay attention to how it feels and what's needed to support you.

Here are my top 7 benefits of Somatic Movement!

1. Somatic movement is slow paced giving you time to experience how it feels and make necessary changes or adaptations to suit your needs. As I've said, if you experience muscle tension, physical pain, fatigue, have a health condition or feel disconnected from your body, it’s important to take it at a slow pace so you start to become familiar with sensations in your body and what they mean. You can choose what feels good for you giving you a sense of autonomy and empowerment over your body. When we slow down, we can tune into the deeper felt sense of our experience which includes; the physical sensations, emotions, feelings and what's going on in your life. Our bodies are always communicating with us, but we are sometimes too busy or disconnected to really listen and do anything about it. We end up repeating patterns of stress or burnout for example, even though there are physical, mental and emotional signs from within us.

   
   

2. Somatic movement helps you learn how to feel safe from within, and build trust in your body.

   
   

   Your autonomic nervous system is always scanning for signs of safety and danger. When you don't feel safe, your brain and nervous system will communicate this and it's one job is to protect you. Even if the situation is in fact 'safe', you can still experience feelings of danger and fear, which all comes from the information sent from your brain. If you have been in a previous situation where you've felt unsafe, or perhaps you've been avoiding your body for a while for different reasons such as health issues, it's important to take things slow as you reintroduce yourself, to yourself and not overload your nervous system. By exploring resourcing tools such as grounding, soothing self-touch, breath awareness and movement that feels good and instils more compassion and understanding to your needs, you begin turn to yourself for support, rather than feel the need to dissociate or numb out, to get away from the internal feelings.
   

   
   

3. Somatic movement encourages you to be gentle and effortless to avoid straining, forcing or unnecessary tension. Less is more with Somatic Movement. Thomas Hanna created Somatic Practices and Exercises to help people gain more sensory awareness and motor control over areas of your body that become 'lazy' or 'go to sleep' due to a sedentary lifestyle or injuries. He introduced the idea of sensory-motor amnesia, meaning we become disconnected from areas within our bodies and over time could lead to your muscles becoming chronically tight and tense, you might walk with a limp which puts pressure on your other foot and leg and causes an imbalance, or you unintentionally lean slightly to one side which causes pain in another area of your body. When we apply a gentle and effortless approach to certain movements, we can unwind the tension in our bodies and reduce the risk of additional strain or tension. If you are experiencing pain or discomfort I recommend seeing a Physio or Thomas Hanna trained Somatic Teacher for a body assessment and more specific guidance.

4. This slow, gentle approach is what helps your brain to process the movement and create new brain / neural pathways. Your brain needs time to process what's happening, and going slow is the key! We create habitual patterns and behaviours to make life easier for ourselves, so that we don't have to keep relearning how to tie our shoelaces or brush our teeth every single day, however we can also become habitual in our movement patterns too and being on auto pilot means we don't realise when we are doing some so repetitively (like tensing our muscles) that it's beginning to cause an issue. It was thought, until fairly recently, that we couldn't rewire our brains! That once we reached a certain age, they were stuck as they were. This is NOT TRUE and neuroscientists have found that it is possible to rewire the pathways in your brain at any age. This can support changing your habits, even those longstanding and deeply ingrained ones, and recognise a new physiology, such as activating the parasympathetic nervous system and reducing chronic tension, after being in a state of high stress for a long period of time.
   

   
   

5. Somatic movement helps you gently stretch your connective tissue, without over doing it. This is similar to point 3, however I'm referring specifically to the connective tissue known as Fascia, which weaves throughout your whole body and provides structure and stability for your muscles, your skeleton and the regulation of your blood pressure and blood flow, as well as helping your body to move. More research is being conducted into Fascia and the important role that it plays within our bodies. I remember learning about this on my Yoga Teacher Training 7 years ago and was absolutely fascinated! When we are sedentary for too long, even when we're in bed at night, our fascia can become tight, and you might feel stiff or tense when you try to move or get out of bed. Somatic movement, with its slow 'massage like' approach, helps to unwind this stiff fascial tension and keep your muscles relaxed, your joints lubricated and working to their full range of movement. This is also important for those suffering from chronic fatigue.

6. Somatic Movement helps to release or reduce tension from your muscles. Many of these points do link together, but each has their individual importance and educational benefit. When your nervous system senses danger, your body might go into fight or flight, which tenses your muscles in preparation to fight or run away. This constant or repetitive action over time can cause chronically tight muscles, which may end up as the health condition Fibromyalgia. This isn't something you are always consciously aware of, so Somatic Movement helps you become aware of how you hold yourself and how you are feeling on a nervous system level. This can also impact your Fascia, which weaves around and throughout your muscles. Unwinding your Fascia, is a great step to unwinding the tension in your muscles and regaining control over your system.
   

7. Somatic Movement can be intuitive and help you understand and express yourself. When we pay attention, Somatic Movement helps you recognise how you might be holding stress, anxiety or fear in your body, alongside how it feels to be safe, content and joyful within your experience. This can be really powerful for anyone who hasn't felt safe or hasn't been able to fully express themselves within their bodies. Through movement that is intuitive and free-flowing, like dancing, you can begin to understand and connect with your emotions and help them play out or be felt. You can express yourself creatively and playfully, helping you discover more about yourself, release judgment or expectation of how it looks, and help you become more confident in who you are!

   

   Somatic Movement and Dance can be an intuitive expression of yourself and how you feel

   
   
   
   

   I hope this has given you more of an insight into Somatic Movement and how it can be used to support you. I encourage you to do a deeper dive into any of the points that sparked your curiosity! Try a Somatic Practice with me....

   
   

   Understand why you might work with a Somatic or Body-Focused Coach?

   
   

   I look forward to seeing you again soon!

   With Gratitude, Sophie x