somatics

Why your Greatest Ally Against Quarantine Stress is a Mindful, Expressive Movement Practice

Why your Greatest Ally Against Quarantine Stress is a Mindful, Expressive Movement Practice

Maybe you are someone whose stress levels have not actually gone up in the last weeks. If that’s you, that’s wonderful! For, me, though I don’t overly have reasons for my anxiety and nervousness to increase, I have still been feeling this at times. At times I wonder whether it is even my anxiety that I am experiencing or whether it is more my picking up on a sense of collective angst; an increase in the overall level of tension in society at the difficulty of less contact with others and the uncertainty of the future that every single one of us is facing. Either way, it doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that I do my utmost to keep my own system regulated, calm and vibrant. Here are two reasons why a movement practice is a powerful tool to do exactly this.

Twelve Principles for Powerful Somatic Practice

Twelve Principles for Powerful Somatic Practice

Over my decades of experience as an athlete, professional dancer and practitioner of meditation, I have come to realize several key ingredients that deepen the potency and impact of somatic practice. Take a look at these foundational ways of relating to your embodied experience, bring them into practice and begin to feel the full magic of somatic practice unfold for you firsthand.

What is embodiment anyway?

What is embodiment anyway?

‘Embody’ is one of those words that is getting a lot of use these days. Like most words that become trendy, it is also getting a lot of WRONG, or at the least vague, use.

It is often being used as a replacement for the words ‘be’ or ‘do’ or ‘succeed’ and while there is truth to that, it isn’t the whole truth.

To truly embody something means that you have a full-body, FELT experience of that thing/state/experience. It means that you don’t just know something as thoughts or mental understanding, but that you also feel it as it occurs within the sensations of your body.

You CANNOT develop your embodiment through thinking. You can think about embodiment and that is very different from actually getting into, experiencing and increasing your felt sense/awareness (also known as somatic awareness) of your body.