Come dress yourself in love, let the journey begin.

Francesca da Rimini
Somatic Release:
Terminology:

A term you have (hopefully) heard about throughout this blog is called “Emotional Digestion”.

When we experience anything, whether it be pleasant or unpleasant, if it is to intense for us at the time we store the energy of these experiences in the body. In the theory of Yoga they often call these samskāras, in Traditional Chinese Medicine we often just refer to them as “blockages of energy”.

This storing of energy is actually protective and (in the short term) beneficial. Imagine if every time something challenging occurred such as the passing of a loved one, the loss of a job, or the diagnosis of an illness; you had to process the entire experience all at once in the moment AS it’s happening.

While protective in the short term; these blockages in the body overtime can lead to dis-ease and more importantly they can lead to feeling shackled to your life experiences (becoming a victim of circumstance).

Somatic Release is a broad term often used to describe therapies designed to help release or free up these blockages.

How it works:

Whenever you turn away from your experience, from what’s happening right here, right now, that energy is stored in the body. To heal from these blockages there are 2 steps:

  1. Get the stuck energy moving
  2. Digest that experience (don’t turn away from what’s happening, don’t block it out again)

Getting the energy moving can be done in many ways. Some of the most common you have likely used yourself already and not known it are:

  1. Physical Movement (walking, going to the gym, yoga, swimming…)
  2. Many foods that are bitter can be helpful in the short term (coffee, dark chocolate, alcohol)
  3. Letting go of the story that the energy is attached to (talking it out with a friend, family member, or therapist)
  4. Bodywork (massage, chiropractic, or even being hugged or held by a good friend or family member)

There are specific therapy techniques that are very effective as well. Those I use will be discussed on page 3.

Up Next: Becoming Human

Pages 1 2 3 4