Somatic Exercise For Pain: Titration

A short exercise for exploring pain or tension in the body without being pulled straight into the middle of it. Using a principle called titration, instead of feeling into the heart of the discomfort, you draw a big circle around it in your mind's eye and get curious about the edge, where the area in pain meets the area that is not. If it feels too intense, you can draw an even bigger circle further out, and you finish by letting your attention move away, taking a deep breath and checking in on what support you might need. This content is educational and is not a substitute for one-to-one professional care.

Transcript

Bye, Everyone. Today I'm going to share with you an exercise using the somatic experiencing principle of titration. To help you resolve or manage pain in your body and also to help you expand your window of tolerance for those uncomfortable sensations. So often when we are in a bit of pain or we have some chronic pain or discomfort happening anywhere in the body, It creates somewhat of an inner conflict for our awareness, For the brain. Because on the one hand, The pain that's there is saying, Look at me, Pay attention to me, Something's not right. And it's trying to get our awareness to go right in and feel that painful place and pay attention. And then there's also that part of us when we have chronic pain that wants to avoid the pain and doesn't want to feel it all the time because it can be really unmanageable to be feeling into our pain all the time. So what happens is it can be very exhausting to be in chronic pain. Split in our awareness where we're drawn into the pain, And then we're trying to avoid the pain, And then we're paying attention to the pain, And then we're avoiding the pain. And it's very tiring for the nervous system. So I'm going to introduce this principle of titration as a way to explore. The pain, The discomfort from a place of curiosity, Just from the periphery of that discomfort. And as a way to help resolve some of that inner conflict with the awareness and the brain. There's a way we can do both. We can feel the pain a little bit, And we can feel not the pain a little bit. And I'm going to share with you a way to do that now. So go ahead and find a comfortable seat. Or if you're laying down, That's fine too. We just wanna be supported here underneath your seat, Behind your back, So you can just let your hands and your arms relax. Let your legs relax. Finding that comfortable position, Whatever is the most comfortable. And if you do have a place of tension or pain in the body, I'm going to invite you to notice it. See if you can bring a little curiosity to this noticing as if you are tuning into that sensation maybe for the first time. So kind of. Bringing a beginner's mind. To the experience of noticing your discomfort. And instead of going right into the heart of that discomfort with your awareness, I'm really going to invite you to play with expanding your awareness out around the pain into the periphery. So if you could take a marker and draw a big circle all the way around that part of your body that feels uncomfortable. Do that in your mind's eye. So instead of feeling right into the center, We're going to the periphery of the pain, Just finding the edges. And being curious with your awareness. What is that edge like? What is the border like? Where the area that's in ping meets the area that's not in paint. As you just sense into your body. See if you notice that border. Is it a distinct? Line. Or does the area of discomfort kind of fade in to the area of comfort? Dissipating toward the edges. So there's no wrong answer. We're being curious here. What is this like in your body? What's the border like? Soften your tongue. Let your breath flow. Notice if you're holding your breath and we want to exhale and just relax into it a little bit. And if it's feeling too intense to do this, Then I'm going to invite you to actually move your awareness even further out. So draw an even bigger circle around that point of discomfort in the body. And move your attention there. So we're really just expanding further and further out into the periphery of that discomfort. And noticing what it's like there. Forever. Textures or colors that come to mind as you explore that periphery of your discomfort. What does it look like? And you may notice as you hang out on the periphery of your pain that something starts to shift in some subtle way. In your discomfort. You might find the border, That line around the. Point of discomfort starts to get a little fuzzier. Maybe it moves a little bit. Maybe there's a sense of some breathing into that space or something you didn't notice before. So again, Just being curious, What is it like for you to just touch in to that periphery? And then let it go. We're gonna just let the awareness move away. We'll let our bodies just breathe. Take a deep breath and notice. How you're doing. And if there's anything else you might need here. For support.