Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsTypesSomatic TherapyPotential Health BenefitsTips for Getting Started
Table of ContentsView All
View All
Table of Contents
Types
Somatic Therapy
Potential Health Benefits
Tips for Getting Started
Somatic exercises might help with healing when used with conventional medicine. Your somatic nervous system (SNS) is part of theperipheral nervous system.SNS disorders cause physical pain and feelings and behaviors (i.e., anxiety and anxious behaviors) related to physical symptoms.
Few studies have examined the effects of somatic movement. One study found that somatic exercise can help manage negative emotions, and other studies have found benefits of physical movement.
Somatic movement requires you to focus your attention on how your body feels as you move. Examples of somatic exercises include dance, yoga, and Pilates.
1. Dancing
Dance is a beneficial somatic exercise that promotes feel-good chemical messengers calledendorphins(such as serotonin).It can relax you, lift your mood, and even lead to physical health benefits.
Somatic dance practices are specific dance moves where the primary focus is the dancer’s experience and not that of the audience. Research shows that dancers who enjoy somatic dance practices can focus on their feelings and emotions, cognitive processes, and improved physical health.
2. Yoga
Somatic yoga uses traditional yoga poses, emphasizing internal awareness over external results.It encourages you to tune into what your body is feeling rather than aiming for a specific movement or pose. You explore movements slowly and pay attention to how those movements feel.
A 2014 study reported that research on somatic yoga shows beneficial effects onsomatization, psychological symptoms, and stress-related biomarkers.Somatization occurs when psychological symptoms become physical ones.
In the study, 24 healthy study participants had no experience with yoga. They were followed for 12 weeks of yoga training. After 12 weeks of yoga training, questionnaires from the participants showed decreases in tension anxiety, depression, anger-hostility, fatigue, confusion, and somatization. Researchers concluded that yoga was a helpful exercise for improving somatic and mental health symptoms.
3. Pilates
TraditionalPilatesaims to increase strength and flexibility. Somatic Pilates emphasizes improving the connection between the mind and body.
Research on somatic Pilates shows it has significant health benefits, including:
What Is Somatic Pain?
4. Aikido
Aikido is a self-defense martial art that originated in Japan. It incorporates meditation and breathing techniques from Zen Buddhism and requires mindful concentration and physical effort.
Research on aikido as a somatic exercise shows that it promotes improved coordination, focus, and concentration, increases joint muscle flexibility, and boosts mindfulness and self-awareness to manage mental well-being.Aikido also teaches self-defense and safe techniques to manage falling and avoiding injuries.
5. Mindful Walking
When you walk mindfully, you walk at a pace that allows you to notice everything around you—the sights, sounds and smells. You might notice how your feet move through the grass or how the breeze gently shakes the tree branches above you. Mindful walking helps you feel grounded, relaxed, and even less anxious, sad, or stressed.
6. Tai Chi
The research on tai chi shows it can be used to manage various disease types, including involving:
When prescribed as an exercise treatment, it is considered a moderate-intensity exercise.
7. Other Mindfulness Techniques
Somatic exercises include variousmindfulnesspractices. Mindfulness focuses on awareness and acceptance.
With awareness, you focus on the present moment, and with acceptance, you observe and accept. The goal of mindfulness is to be keenly aware of what you are thinking, sensing, and experiencing in the present moment without judgment, interruption, or attachment.
Mindfulness techniques have evidence to support the improvement of chronic pain and the management of emotional health and mood symptoms.
Some mindfulness methods include:
Meditation
Mindful meditation is a mental training exercise that helps you to slow down racing thoughts, let go of negative feelings, and calm the mind and body.It combines mindfulness with meditation.
Techniques vary and can be done standing, sitting, walking, or moving. You don’t need any special tools or props. All you need to do is find a comfortable place, a few minutes of free time, and a clear mindset.
Breath Work
Breath work is a breathing technique that intentionally channels and focuses on breathing. It includesdiaphragmatic breathing, in which you lie on your back with one hand on the chest and the other on the stomach. You inhale slowly through the nose, keeping the chest as still as possible, and then exhale through pressed lips.
Mindful Stretching
Stretching is a safe and helpful activity for all healthy adults to improve muscle and joint health. It can also affect the mind and body, especially when done in a slow and focused manner.Mindful stretching is an excellent way to relax and reduce stress.
Stretching Exercises: Daily Full-Body Stretches and More
Body Scanning
Body scanning is a type of meditation that involves paying attention to your body and bodily sensations in a sequence from the feet to the head.It can be a helpful way to deal with physical tension that you may not even be aware of.
Body scanning can help you become aware of how every part of your body is feeling, including aches, pains, and tension. The goal is not to relieve the pain but to learn from it so you are better equipped to manage it.
Grounding
This exercise involvesplacing your bare feeton the earth’s surface or participating in other types of body awareness in which you sense your body parts and their movements and sensations.
Research on grounding shows that it can help reduce pain, boost healthy immune system responses, and reduce chemical factors related to inflammation and infection.
Is Somatic Exercise the Same as Somatic Therapy?
Somatic therapypractices focus on how the body expresses painful experiences, such as trauma or complicated grief, to aid in recovery.It is described using various terms, such as somatic movement, body psychotherapy, somatic psychotherapy, and somatics.
Somatic exercise may be part of somatic therapy. Somatic therapy provides you with the tools you need to relax, manage stress, or relieve trauma.
With all these somatic therapies, the goal is to bring awareness to the sensations that stress or trauma are producing, and ultimately, for the person to feel safer in their body and heal. Trauma, in particular, affects the somatic nervous system.Various types of somatic therapy can be helpful for healing trauma and its effects.
Scientific evidence to support specific somatic exercises is limited. This is mainly because this is a new concept in the Western world. Even so, the evidence that does exist is promising.
Benefits of somatic exercises include:
Somatic exercises are a great way to improve your physical health and enhance your overall well-being and self-care.
Tips to help get started include:
Summary
Somatic exercises use the mind-body connection to move your body based on how you feel rather than an end goal or result. They are a type of somatic therapy, which therapy practices focus on body awareness and reflection.
Such exercises include dance, yoga, Pilates, mindful walking, aikido, and tai chi. These exercises offer many benefits, including emotional awareness, trauma healing, pain relief, and less stress and anxiety. You can begin with simple exercises and aim to be consistent. Pay attention to what your body is telling you.
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