Understanding Somatic Awareness
Have you ever felt your “heart leap with joy” when reuniting with a loved one? Have you “girded your loins” walking into a professional presentation? Have you startled hearing an unexpected “bang”? Experienced being transported back to childhood by the aroma of your favorite food? How about glancing away to contemplate an unexpected opportunity, or feeling enthusiastic tasting the first frost of the autumn season?
In a nutshell, somatic awareness is mindfulness of our internal states and the external influences shaping our experience of being. Our senses—touch, hearing, smell, vision, and taste—continually transmit information about our internal and external environment to the brain. Much of this sensory processing happens outside of conscious awareness, and bodily signals are integrated across multiple areas of the brain involved in sensation, emotion, attention, and decision-making. In other words, our bodies can respond to internal and external stimuli before our conscious minds have fully recognized or interpreted what is happening.
In a nutshell, somatic awareness is mindfulness of our internal states and the external influences shaping our experience of being. Our senses—touch, hearing, smell, vision, and taste—continually transmit information about our internal and external environment to the brain. Much of this sensory processing happens outside of conscious awareness, and bodily signals are integrated across multiple areas of the brain involved in sensation, emotion, attention, and decision-making. In other words, our bodies can respond to internal and external stimuli before our conscious minds have fully recognized or interpreted what is happening.
What is your body saying?
Soma is Greek for the body experience from within, including in relationship to external stimuli. Awareness is a state of active consciousness and perception. Somatic awareness is an active practice of bringing to consciousness our automatic responses, which have been seasoned over time and may or may not have anything to do with the current moment. Depending on how well these responses serve us in the present moment, once aware of them, we have the choice to change them.
As a function of embodied intelligence, mindfulness reminds us to stay in the present. Mindfulness focuses on internal sensations, emotions, and movements while perceiving their connections to the external environment. Whether a circumspect comportment presenting to our colleagues, a joyful hugging of loved ones, or giddiness pointing your skis down the slope, being present in the moment keeps distractions at bay and focuses our attention on the task at hand. It’s when we are aware and mindful that we observe not only how the external environment and its inhabitants affect us, but also how we impact the world.
Some people are intentionally physically active in the course of daily life, running the stairs to their fourth-floor office, playing with their children in the park, and exercising multiple days a week. Others are intentionally cognitively active, solving aerospace computations, gaming, and relaxing while spectating a favorite sport or watching their favorite crime drama on an electronic device. Wherever you find yourself in the balance of physical and cognitive activity, internal and external somatic awareness can be practiced.
As a function of embodied intelligence, mindfulness reminds us to stay in the present. Mindfulness focuses on internal sensations, emotions, and movements while perceiving their connections to the external environment. Whether a circumspect comportment presenting to our colleagues, a joyful hugging of loved ones, or giddiness pointing your skis down the slope, being present in the moment keeps distractions at bay and focuses our attention on the task at hand. It’s when we are aware and mindful that we observe not only how the external environment and its inhabitants affect us, but also how we impact the world.
Some people are intentionally physically active in the course of daily life, running the stairs to their fourth-floor office, playing with their children in the park, and exercising multiple days a week. Others are intentionally cognitively active, solving aerospace computations, gaming, and relaxing while spectating a favorite sport or watching their favorite crime drama on an electronic device. Wherever you find yourself in the balance of physical and cognitive activity, internal and external somatic awareness can be practiced.
Body Scanning
Start to tap into your sensations and related thoughts and emotions while engaged in your favorite activities; observe and record them. Get curious. What’s the message?
As you immerse yourself in your activity, ask questions to guide your somatic awareness practice.
Volume/Intensity: How much energy is present while pushing your kids on the swing set? What’s your ability to “adjust the dial” to what serves you and your children in the moment?
Parameters: What is your source of energy while solving complex computations? Where is it going? Where does your movement begin and end?
Quality: What is the “flavor” or texture of the direction of movement when you exercise? Is it sharp, heavy, light, smooth, bitter, sweet?
Cadence and Rhythm: Is your movement steady, pulsing, or erratic?
Anything else? What body parts are moving—eyes, facial muscles, appendages, toes? Does one body part move more than another, or in a different direction? How do your breath and heart rate change? What other unique nuances do you observe?
The human body moves, even at rest. Tiny structures, called mitochondria, supply chemical energy to the body’s cells, which feeds the body’s capacity to continue breathing, heart beating, digestion, and sleep. Nicknamed the “powerhouses of the cell,” mitochondria are key to metabolic function while awake or asleep, and throughout various stages of consciousness.
As you become more adept at somatic awareness, pause, take a slow, deep breath, and body scan while engaged in not-so-favorite, though important, activities. Get curious. What is different? What serves you? What’s the possibility of shifting your interpretation of what’s occurring in the present moment?
Exploring your body’s messaging links sensation, movement, emotion, and thought. Through deepening understanding, somatic awareness can transform meaning and enhance the experience of well-being.
To dive deeper into body scanning, click here for a resource.
This is the 2nd of a 6 blog series on Somatics. Read the first one if you missed it, or check out my previous posts HERE.
As you immerse yourself in your activity, ask questions to guide your somatic awareness practice.
Volume/Intensity: How much energy is present while pushing your kids on the swing set? What’s your ability to “adjust the dial” to what serves you and your children in the moment?
Parameters: What is your source of energy while solving complex computations? Where is it going? Where does your movement begin and end?
Quality: What is the “flavor” or texture of the direction of movement when you exercise? Is it sharp, heavy, light, smooth, bitter, sweet?
Cadence and Rhythm: Is your movement steady, pulsing, or erratic?
Anything else? What body parts are moving—eyes, facial muscles, appendages, toes? Does one body part move more than another, or in a different direction? How do your breath and heart rate change? What other unique nuances do you observe?
The human body moves, even at rest. Tiny structures, called mitochondria, supply chemical energy to the body’s cells, which feeds the body’s capacity to continue breathing, heart beating, digestion, and sleep. Nicknamed the “powerhouses of the cell,” mitochondria are key to metabolic function while awake or asleep, and throughout various stages of consciousness.
As you become more adept at somatic awareness, pause, take a slow, deep breath, and body scan while engaged in not-so-favorite, though important, activities. Get curious. What is different? What serves you? What’s the possibility of shifting your interpretation of what’s occurring in the present moment?
Exploring your body’s messaging links sensation, movement, emotion, and thought. Through deepening understanding, somatic awareness can transform meaning and enhance the experience of well-being.
To dive deeper into body scanning, click here for a resource.
This is the 2nd of a 6 blog series on Somatics. Read the first one if you missed it, or check out my previous posts HERE.
Did this blog resonate with you? Please share by leaving a comment below!
2 responses to “The Body Talks: Unlock the Signals Your Body Sends”
-
Maria, how generous of you to share your somatic wisdom and gorgeous photos! I have enjoyed reading your two blog entries! What a gift you offer those of us who understand the body’s wisdom and those who have yet to discover how powerful it is. Jane
-
It’s a gift to “pass it forward!”
Thank you, Jane.
-
2 Responses
Maria, how generous of you to share your somatic wisdom and gorgeous photos! I have enjoyed reading your two blog entries! What a gift you offer those of us who understand the body’s wisdom and those who have yet to discover how powerful it is. Jane
It’s a gift to “pass it forward!”
Thank you, Jane.