Unlearn Or Reduce Fatigue With Somatic Tracking Meditation

Kent Bassett, LMSW, is the director of the feature documentary This Might Hurt, which was an official selection of the Austin Film Festival. This Might Hurt follows three patients as they undertake a mind-body healing program run by Dr. Howard Schubiner, MD.
This mind-body program seen in the film is similar to Pain Reprocessing Therapy, for which somatic tracking is one of several tools used to unlearn chronic pain.

Transcript

Hello, I'm Kent, And I'm going to be guiding a somatic tracking meditation today, Specifically for people who have fatigue. So fatigue is a danger warning from the brain that is activated when the brain perceives some kind of a threat. It's common for people with certain conditions like chronic pain or MECFS, Chronic fatigue syndrome, To develop fatigue. And through paying attention to fatigue differently, It's possible to begin to reduce or live with fatigue over time and to begin to unlearn it. So we're combining ancient mindfulness practices with the modern neuroscience around how fatigue can be a learned neuroplastic condition that's not as threatening as people tend to feel that it is. So to begin the somatic tracking exercise, We begin much like a meditation. You wanna find a comfortable seated position. You can also do this while standing. Lying down or walking. And you begin by grounding in your body, Just noticing what is it like right now in the body physically. Noticing touch points. The softness pushing up against you from below. Noticing where your hands are resting. You can notice the touch of your two lips together or your eyelids touching. And then you can turn your attention towards breathing, Taking a few deep breaths. Noticing the in-breath and the out-breath. And any kind of pressure that happens in your abdomen as the breath comes in and out. After spending a moment grounding in the body, You can switch your attention to mental factors that are present. So you can look at your mind states. What is happening in your mind right now? Is there worry, Fear, Anxiety? Is there calmness, Tranquility, Joy? Is there a low mood or an excited mood? Are you having racing thoughts? Or are your thoughts moving more slowly? And just sort of taking the temperature there. And the way to be mindful of these mind states is just to try to notice them and allow them. You're not trying to change them, Push them away, Get rid of them. You're not trying to cling to them, Hold onto them. You're just allowing your mind to be as it is. Allowing it to shift and change as well, Knowing we can't control our moods. We can't control our thoughts. Can't control our emotions nearly as much as we wish, And just allowing them to be just as they are. So if you're experiencing fatigue right now, And you're having an attitude of mind towards it. Let's say you're wishing the fatigue would go away. Or you're afraid of it, You're afraid of having overdone it, Having some kind of a setback. Some kind of a crash, So you might have some fear right now. Whatever's present, You just wanna notice that. You can say fear is here or anger is here. Aversion, Wanting to push it away, Is here. This is a strategy called mental noting. Where we give. Labels, We name what's happening as a way to gain perspective, As a way to feel into these things rather than just being in them, Being lost in them. And noting is a really powerful practice. Just the act of noting alone can go a long way towards starting to get a handle on runaway anger. Fear, Anxiety, Just saying, Oh, The mind is anxious right now. The mind is anxious. This is what anxiety feels like. In the body, In the mind. That alone is an important first step and can bring a lot of relief. Just to know what's going on, To have an advantage point. And we're not lost in it. After noting your mind state and being with it for a moment. We can turn toward the sensations of fatigue. So first a note that fatigue is a concept. Tiredness is a concept, And these are concepts we can break down into more specific, Precise, Physical sensations. So some common sensations that accompany fatigue are heaviness. Density. Some people notice a flutteriness or a lightness, Or they feel like they almost have no strength. Sometimes the fatigue is accompanied by pain, So you may notice. Burning. Pulsating, Tingliness. And the attitude we want to bring towards these sensations. Is different than the typical attitude of usually wanting it to stop, Wanting to make it go away. During somatic tracking, We want to bring a curious attitude of mind. As if it's the first time you ever felt these sensations to really get a good sense of exactly what they are. What is this heaviness? And if you notice the anger, The fear, Worry coming up strongly, See if you can acknowledge it. See it for what it is, And then set it to the side during the semantic tracking. We can acknowledge the fear. And we can set it aside for now and return to being curious about these body sensations. Heaviness, Density. Than noticing how the mind reacts and then back into the sensation of heaviness. So often we are accustomed to automatically thinking, This is a sign I have no energy. This is dangerous. But chronic fatigue. Is a signal generated by the brain. It's a warning signal. And for most people with chronic fatigue have been checked out medically and had thyroid issues ruled out and other medical issues ruled out. We can think of this chronic fatigue as a kind of warning signal, Like a false alarm that's going off, Even though there's no fire in the kitchen. The brain is creating this warning of fatigue. Even though we have plenty of energy, We've only engaged in moderate activity. And so it's this runaway feedback system of fatigue, Danger, More fatigue, More fear, More danger signal of fatigue. Just starting to reverse that cycle or cut off the cycle in the middle and saying, I don't have to be afraid of fatigue. I trust that my body has enough energy. I'm gonna be okay. You can even say to the mind, I don't need this warning signal anymore. I'm gonna take care of myself. I'm not afraid of this fatigue. So somatic tracking with fatigue has these two components. On the one hand, You're using mindfulness, Being aware of. Direct sensations. To become curious. And on the other hand, You're pairing the mindfulness with. What's called safety reappraisal. So you're saying these heavy, Tired, Fatigue sensations are not as dangerous as I once thought. They're okay. I can be with them, I can withstand them, I can be aware of them. They're not threatening to me. I am safe. My body is safe. These sensations are fundamentally safe. And you can go back and forth. So once you're you've given yourself the messages of safety, You can go back and become curious about different parts of the body, Maybe. You might notice fatigue is more present in your torso or your head. For other people, It's more present in their limbs. And just tracking the sensation, Watching it shift and change, Noticing it's not monolithic, It's not steady and identical every moment. With mindfulness we can see it's constantly changing around the edges. A little heavy here, A little lightness here, A little dense here, Maybe more. Tingling over there. For some people, Bringing curiosity towards the fatigue is not possible. Maybe the fatigue is so overwhelming and so extreme, They just can't do it. And in that case, It's better to just wait until the fatigue signal is less overwhelming. It's rarely overwhelming 24-7, So you can try doing somatic tracking later when it's more moderate or low. And for other people, The fear becomes so overwhelming that they really need to turn and do somatic tracking or mindfulness with the fear itself. And I'm going to record a separate meditation just for being with fear. So if that's happened to you, There will be another recording to listen to. And it's a good skill to be able to pivot from fatigue to fear and back to fatigue, Or pain to fear and back to pain again. And you can kind of watch the mind-body dynamics unfold that way, From an emotion to a physical sensation, Back to a fear, Back to a physical sensation. And that can help boost understanding. If the heaviness in the body. If it ever becomes too much, You can also just return to focusing on the breath, Noticing the in-breath, The beginning, Middle, And end of an in-breath. The beginning, Middle, And end of an out-breath. Noticing the coolness of the air as it enters your body. The warmth of it as it exits. You're practicing mindfulness with fatigue. We want to look for change. Noticing how it shifts and changes. If it goes up by a lot while you're observing it or feeling into it, That's something to make a note of. If it goes down, That's something to make a note of. If it moves from one part of the body to the other. If it shifts from feeling amorphous to more solid or dense. Or from heaviness to lightness. Or if you're mental, If the speed of your thoughts goes from slow to fast or vice versa, Just noticing any changes in the mind-body system as you're bringing gentle, Curious attention. And then you can. . . Open your eyes. You connect with the world around you. And that concludes the somatic tracking for fatigue.