What Comes After?? ❤️My Somatic Healing Journey Part 2❤️

TIME TO READ: 6 mins

WHAT’S INSIDE?

• Signature Story

• Video Summary of My Somatic Healing Journey

• Quick Start Actions

• Resources (A few of my favorite things)

So much of my life was a never-ending road, driven by achievements, responsibilities, self-conferred obligations, and seeking something outside of myself. The road was filled with highs and lows—the highs of executing goals and tasks, the lows of seeking to fill an emptiness that I couldn’t find.

The back and forth resulted in stuck emotions, fears, anxiety, and nerves that built up over time. Because I didn’t have the awareness or coping tools to face them in healthy ways, they were released in ways that did not serve my mental, physical, emotional, or financial health.

This season, I focused on prioritizing my healing through learning somatic exercises daily. If you want a recap of what brought me to somatic work, click HERE.

In the previous edition, I wrote about why I chose to start learning somatic practices. This is focused on my experience after 31+ days of daily consistent practice.

I was curious to see if the daily practice of somatic exercises could provide visible changes in my well-being and overall life.

My Experience After the 31-Day Series

The overall experience was beneficial in many ways. I was able to carve time out of my day to actions that served me. The experience taught me the importance of taking time to do things in life that serve you vs. leaving them to do after you tackle the countless items on a never-ending to-do list. I take daily walks with my dog and write, but this was a different method and strategy. I did my exercises in the evening right before bed. This helped my brain to wind down because through consistency, my body knew that it was going to be fueled with something that brought me calm. My sleep improved because my nervous system wasn’t running and racing.  

The series also brought a whole new set of tools, many I had never done before. Some I liked and others were okay but not for me. The ones that I resonated with, I saved to a playlist and now access them on demand if needed. Some of the tools, my brain grabs unconsciously and uses them when needed. That was the big goal from this experience and it worked.

This experience taught me some overarching lessons about healing and exploring new tools for well-being and life transformation.

Tips to Help You Learn New Tools

Learn a well-being tool through a 30-day exploration period. This can be done through one series or by saving 30 days of videos in a playlist to access.

The daily practice helps to prime the brain and the body to expect this time. Think of this time as "you" time, and your body will want to do it.

Keep it short. Many of the videos in the series were no more than 13 minutes. This helped me to ensure I had the time to do it.

Make time—You don’t realize how much time you spend on daily to-dos. If you don’t prioritize yourself by taking 5-10 minutes to do something that serves your well-being, no one will do it for you.

In Conclusion, my goal in learning these tools was not just to support my well-being by sharing my experience on the other side of taking 31+ days of daily practice. It’s about showing you the power of continuous exploration for new tools that support you on your journey. This was new for me. It took time, but in the end, I built consistency and integrated a habit. I learned new tools to resource my nervous system. I developed a daily practice that infused healthy energy that countered stress and nervous energy.

The practice also opened the doors of awareness to see just how much I trapped, stored, powered through, and pushed down emotions and energy that had manifested itself in my body in ways that were harmful to me. Or in the best case, didn’t serve me as well as I needed. Many times, in our lives, we may be in situations at work or personally where we can't fight or flee, so we freeze and stay, trapping unhealthy emotions that build over time. Don’t spend your life with stuck emotions that will eventually manifest themselves in ways that don’t serve your well-being; instead, learn tools to release them when possible. Healing begins with you.

• Quick Body Check-In

  • Time to Complete: 5 minutes

  • Action: Take 5 minutes to sit quietly, breathe, and check in with your body. Notice any tension or discomfort. Acknowledge it without judgment.

• Evening Energy Release

  • Time to Complete: 10 minutes

  • Action: Before bedtime, practice a quick somatic exercise from the YouTube series FEEL to HEAL. Choose a 10-minute session to release the energy accumulated during the day.

• Mindful Stress Break

  • Time to Complete: 7 minutes

  • Action: When stress hits, pause for 2 minutes. Close your eyes, take deep breaths, and perform a simple hand-on-body exercise. Use these moments to reconnect with your body amidst stress.

• Daily Consistency Commitment

  • Time to Complete: 5 minutes

  • Action: Dedicate 5 minutes each morning to reaffirm your commitment to consistency. Remind yourself of the overarching frameworks: finding your home, learning what methods work, using the breath, and creating daily consistency.

• Stress-Busting Somatic Playlist

  • Time to Complete: 10 minutes

  • Action: Create a playlist of short somatic exercises from YouTube. Spend 10 minutes selecting and organizing brief exercises that resonate with you. This way, you'll have a customized playlist ready for instant stress relief whenever needed.