Reconnecting to Self: ❤️My Somatic Healing Journey Part 1❤️

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)

I was so far from the vision I had for my life, so I let other’s dreams become my nightmare.

The Reading

My quest to pivot the work that I do outside of my legal career led me here. But as I write that, I know that is a lie.

This experience was years in the making. Pushed down by other priorities and the desire to be more.

I was doing a year-end reading (similar to a tarot card reading, but different) and had potential paths and wanted to get clarity on the best path to take. None of them was her response. Instead, she began telling me about how disconnected I was to my body, and that disconnect was keeping me from the clarity I needed and was hurting my body.

As lawyers, we are taught to think. Our value is in our intellect, but we often disconnect from a very powerful part of us. When the reader recommended starting a somatic healing practice 1st or 2nd quarter of 2024, I was in disbelief and a bit frustrated. This was not what I was asking for nor was close to any ideas I had about the first half of 2024. I didn’t want to do it. I have always thought my way out of problems…or so I thought. I didn’t want to accept that, and that day and the next, sat in that discomfort. But she had a point. I was not connected to my body. I didn’t know or understand what my body was saying.

2023 set off a chain of events led by my desire to face discomfort at great costs. The identity, behavior, habits, and life of the person I wanted to become required what was on the other side of it. So the painful work began. And as the pain and discomfort came, I used my tools to move through what I could and push through the rest. Certain decisions (that I will have the freedom to discuss at a later date) created experiences of anxiety and frustration that just stays stuck inside of me, until they come out in less desirable behaviors and actions. I couldn’t just think my way through this experience.

Many people (especially lawyers) live their lives within the mind and disconnect from the wisdom the body can provide. This leads to the body screaming at you through exhaustion, sickness, burnout, and fatigue. Things get trapped in the body, and they stay stuck there because we solve problems through intellect, and the release doesn’t happen there.

With hesitation but a commitment to execute, I started my journey. I canvased the internet for more than 60-second clips and discovered a recent series taped in December 2023 on YouTube, a 31-day video series, FEEL to HEAL | 31 Days of Nervous System Practices.

Background of the Series

Infinity, the teacher with the School of Emotion, describes the series this way:

“A 31-day journey focused on building a resilient, flexible, and well-resourced nervous system. Gentle, subtle techniques that focus on the body, enhancing awareness, movement, and the mind-body connection. Due to overwhelming emotional pain that is often present with trauma and life, it is common that post-traumatic stress remains in the body stifling the healing process and causing disease and continued suffering. By utilizing these daily practices, you will begin to release stored emotions/energy/trauma, thawing the symptoms of innate trauma responses that are held in the body and nervous system.”

My Intention

My goal for this series was to be open to learning new tools that my nervous system needed.

Nervous System and Somatic Practices Help To:

• Release emotions and trauma that have been stuck and stored in your body

• Connect the body with its powerful self-healing functions to assist in resolving intense states of stress, deep emotional release, physical tension, and trauma

• Teach you how to ride the waves of these energies/emotions

• Develop the capacity to feel emotions without judgment or restriction

• Harness and move the transformational power of emotions through your being to create change in your life experience

My First 15 Days

What worked

• Doing the practice daily before bed helped with my sleep by releasing the energy from the day.

• I’m learning new tools that I’ve never learned before.

• I’m finding that hand-on-body exercises and tools really work for me.

• I have started doing these exercises within the moment of stress.

What I’m working on

• Just staying consistent

• Continuing to explore what works for me and what tools I want to keep

• Finding a tool to help with the tremors in my voice and neck

I would summarize what I’m learning into these overarching frameworks:

• Find your home

• Learn what methods work for you

• The breath helps to pull it all together

• Take 10 mins out of your day to create consistency

• Use what works and discard what doesn’t

Lawyers are taught that their value lies in their intellect, and so they stop listening to their body. The body has to scream in order to be heard through the disconnect. Somatic healing exercises are a tool to help restore that connection so that your body won’t have to scream to be heard, and the mind-body connection working together can help harness true power and release what doesn’t serve you.

Stay tuned for Part 2 in the next edition, where I give you my overall experience of completing the entire series. Thank you again, Infinity and the School of Emotion, for such a wonderful experience and introduction to life-changing tools.

• 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.