Meditation saved my life.
And I know that's a big claim.
So let me tell you what I mean.
It changed my relationship to my body.
It healed me from years of unexplained physical illness.
It eased my chronic pain.
It helped me to see that I was carrying the weight of my past into my experience of the present.
It unwound my trauma responses.
It taught me how to soften.
It gave me the space to feel and release my emotions.
It opened me to joy and wonder.
It awakened me to what mattered most in my life.
And gave me the courage to pursue my dream.
I'm a trauma-informed meditation,
Yin yoga,
And somatic movement teacher with a personal history of CPTSD and chronic illness.
And the style of meditation that did this for me is called somatic meditation.
And that's what I want to introduce you to today.
Somatic meditation is a mindfulness practice of bringing conscious awareness into your body.
It involves allowing your attention to be guided by the thoughts,
Emotions,
And sensations that your body is carrying,
Welcoming all that is arising with compassion,
Inviting gentle movement into the areas of tension,
And allowing the emotions,
The energy in motion to run their course and leave the body in their own time.
The word somatic comes from the Greek word soma,
Meaning the living body as experienced from within.
The body is a complex universe in itself.
It contains the innate intelligence for life.
Right down to the cells that specialize and work together to keep you alive without you having to think about it.
Somatic meditation acknowledges that intuitive knowing as a place of wisdom.
And with practice,
You can become more attuned to the subtle information that is happening in your body beneath conscious thought.
The tightening of your chest.
The urgency in your stomach.
The sense that you want to move or that you're too warm or too cold.
All of this is information that can guide how you live.
During somatic meditation,
Those feelings and sensations can unwind.
And you might start to experience a sense of spaciousness and possibility in the body that wasn't there before.
And as the body starts to release stuck tension,
The mind can start to re-pattern stuck thoughts as well.
I find with my students that it's important to create a felt sense of safety and witnessing so that the body can surface emotions,
Memories,
And stress that it is carrying and allow it to resolve.
You don't have to change anything about your experience.
The body already knows what it needs to do.
Somatic meditation is just giving it the opportunity to do it.
So how is somatic meditation different from other styles of meditation?
Most definitions of meditation describe it as a form of mental training,
Directing you to control or clear your mind,
To focus your attention on the breath or mantra,
And to gently guide it back when the mind wanders.
Most meditation styles teach you to sit still and not give in to the distractions of the mind.
But for someone with trauma,
Stillness can put you face to face with sensations that your nervous system has been trying to avoid.
And the instruction to override the body's pain signals can actually lead people with chronic illness away from healing.
This is personally why I started practicing and now teaching somatic meditation.
Somatic meditation takes a different approach.
Rather than focusing your attention,
You are opening your awareness.
Rather than requiring stillness.
You are invited to follow the impulses that arise during your practice.
Even if that means changing positions or moving.
Somatic meditation sees pain and sensations in the body as information.
It's your body communicating to you what it needs.
Your mind and body becomes not an enemy,
But a friend.
And your job is to witness and hold space as they process and release the challenges of life.
This,
To me,
Is what it means to practice with non-judgmental awareness.
Rather than giving the mind another thing to do and rules for how to do it right.
Somatic meditation is an invitation to cultivate a new way of being.
One of gentleness,
Freedom,
Acceptance,
And curiosity,
Which you can then carry out into your daily life.
If you're curious about somatic meditation,
I have many guided practices on the platform that you can explore,
But I'll also guide you through one right now.
You can do this whether you are sitting,
Lying down,
Standing,
Or walking,
And you are welcome to change positions or move throughout the practice if that's the impulse you're receiving from within.
Take a moment to feel your feet on the ground or your sitting bones or your back against the wall.
And just connect with the sense of gravity.
Notice how it is holding you.
And how you are supported.
At any time in this practice,
You can return to this felt sense of grounding.
Starting from your connection to wherever you are grounded,
Either your feet or your sitting bones or your back.
Gently guide your awareness up the back of your body all the way up to the top of your head.
And then back down the front of your body.
Letting your attention rest at every point of contact with your body.
Maybe from your sitting bones.
To your tailbone.
The lumbar spine.
Thoracic spine.
Cervical spine.
All the way up to the crown of your head.
And guiding the attention down the front of your body,
The forehead.
Nose,
The eyes.
Cheeks,
Lips.
Chin.
Collarbones.
The chest and the ribs.
The abdomen.
And the pelvis.
I'll let you do it one more time.
Take this cycle up and down.
The back of the body and down the front of the body.
Noticing anything that is arising in your awareness.
Any sensations,
Thoughts,
Emotions,
As you connect with each part of the center of your body.
When you've completed the scan,
Drawing your attention into your center.
Can you invite more curiosity and compassion?
Into your experience of this practice.
I invite you to reconnect with that felt sense of grounding.
Connection to gravity,
Either through your feet or your hands.
Sitting bone to your back.
Bringing maybe some gentle movement into the body if you've been still.
And as you are ready,
Coming back into the room.
Carrying this curiosity and compassion for your experience into the rest of your day.
I hope this introduction to somatic meditation gives you a new path to explore in your practice.
If you have questions,
Leave them in the comments.
And if you'd like to practice together again,
Don't forget to follow or subscribe.
I hope to see you again soon.
