Hi,
It's Mandy here.
Welcome to a short somatic tracking practice.
So just taking a moment to settle into whatever posture you've chosen,
You can do this practice sitting,
Lying,
Standing.
The main point is to find a posture that makes you feel comfortable and relaxed,
Warm and safe.
Somatic tracking is about attending to pain in the body and it can probably feel a little bit tricky,
But what we're trying to do is bring a sense of calm and reinforce to your brain that you are safe.
Often with people that have experienced chronic and persistent pain,
The brain has learned to generate pain when there is actually no physical danger.
So this practice is about reinforcing safety in the hope that we can retrain the brain to have a different relationship to pain.
So let's start by bringing our attention to the breath in the body,
Connecting to the place where you feel the breath most strongly.
That might be in the rise and fall of the belly,
The movement in the ribs and chest as your lungs fill and empty,
Or maybe you feel the wind of the breath in the nostrils.
Just allowing your attention to settle in the rhythm and flow of the natural breath,
Receiving and letting go,
And knowing that at any time throughout the rest of this practice you can come back here to the breath and anchor yourself to the present moment just by settling back into the movements of breathing.
So when you're ready,
Bring your attention to a part of the body where you might be feeling pain or discomfort,
And just trying as best you can to observe the sensations of that discomfort without judgement,
Just bringing a sense of curiosity,
Noticing the sensations that are present,
Maybe breathing with those sensations if they're particularly intense.
You're noticing kind of as if you're sitting in a crowd and watching something play out on a stage in front of you.
So opening to allow those sensations to be observed without fear or resistance,
And perhaps this is a new idea for you.
So bringing those painful sensations to the centre stage,
Seeing if it's possible to identify the quality of the sensations.
Is there tightness or burning?
Aching?
Are the sensations widespread or quite localised?
Can you feel the edges of the pain?
Just describing the detail of these sensations as best you can.
We're not trying to get rid of the pain,
Just observing the sensations as they are,
And remembering that this is safe.
These sensations are safe and you can breathe with them.
Your brain has wrongly interpreted this as danger,
So just observing and watching these sensations with curiosity and without judgement as best you can.
Noticing what happens when you pay attention to these painful sensations.
Do they change at all?
Do they move or shift?
Whether they change or stay the same,
Or even if they get slightly more intense,
It's okay.
You're safe here.
Breathing with these sensations as best you can.
And when you're ready,
Beginning to bring this short somatic tracking practice to a close.
Reminding yourself that you're safe.
