“Somatic” has been all the buzz lately on TikTok and Instagram. Somatic healing. Somatic movement. Somatic practices.

How amazing yet so overwhelming, right? What do these all mean and why should we care now?

Why the sudden interest in somatics?

Soma means body, so all these terms relate to body-based exercises. For starters, mindset work is powerful especially when working with the subconscious; however, mindset work ALONE provides very little solution. Mindset work is surface level, provides temporary relief, and just touches the tip of the iceberg. Where mindset work can work its real magic is in partnership with body-based work, hence why somatic practices have been “trendy” lately. We can’t work on one without the other.

(This just reminded me of Philosophy 101 where I got a freakin’ C+ in the class because I was struggling to understand whether the mind and body are separate entities or one. I still don’t know, but I think I deserved more credit because I went to office hours… lol)

Anyway, within the past few years, the self-help world grew popular. Maybe it was the social media boom or a shift in people’s desires to want to improve, but I started falling deep in the consumption hole.

After consuming all the self-help content I could get my hands on, I started craving more. I wasn’t getting much out of mindset work alone. After all, there is only so much affirmation work I can do in the AM. If my body didn’t fully believe the words I’m saying, then I’m merely just repeating words trying to convince myself that they were true.

So, I started googling things like “mind-body connection,” which only confirmed my desire to do work that combined both mindset and body work since they complemented one another. When we experience a traumatic event (big or small), this affects how we perceive our environment and ourselves. Our brains then get wired to respond a certain way, which then leaves our bodies to be stuck in that same response time and time again UNTIL we do something about rewiring that state.

What is somatic flow/yoga?

Somatic flow has been my new go-to lately because it combines yoga, dance, barre, and other fitness elements into a flowy practice with a more playful lens.

Somatic flow, in relatively easy terms, is the practice of being present in your body, encouraging you to center self-exploration and self-expression, and build that connection with your body.

Somatic flow encourages you to honor your body and to give yourself permission to feel all the feelings. There is no right or wrong way to do this. It can get uncomfortable, but that’s probably because you are facing head-on how you’re feeling in that moment aka no more suppressing yourself.

If we can’t be present, we can’t be aware of our bodies… and if we can’t be aware of our bodies, we can’t embody.

This practice is meant to foster a liberating space free of judgment and releasing things like body guilt, burnout, perfectionism, stress, anxiety. It invites you to assess whether:

1. You are feeling too attuned – lots of anxiety, conflicting signals/thoughts, feeling overwhelmed, feeling stuck in both mind/body
2. You are feeling too muted – experiencing difficulty describing emotions, only noticing intense feelings, not recognizing anything subtle

I usually incorporate 15-20 mins for this type of movement. Below is an example playlist that I put together and it’s all about moving in a way that feels good to you for that song. Think of the beat, the rhythm, what your body is encouraging you to do. THAT is somatic flow – flowing in accordance with YOUR body.

What are the key elements?

There are various ways to go through a flow, but because I did my practitioner training through BodyStories, I will speak on that experience. The way I put my somatic flow classes together incorporates different elements like:

1. Centering
2. Lift/Drops
3. Free Movement
4. Flow
5. Barre
6. Wings
7. Bridge
8. And more!

Each move has a purpose and in a way, attends to various parts of our bodies. For example, the lift/drops cue us to lift our heels up and then drop to the beats of the song letting gravity take over with each drop – letting all the heaviness “drop” with you with each beat.

Another example is bridge. Similar to glute bridges in your workout classes, the bridge cues our focus to our hips.

Lastly, free movement is one of my fav components solely because it invites us to PLAY, to move in a way that’s fun for you without judgment or cue from the practitioner. All of these components are pivotal to uncovering truths like: “What am I feeling? What is my body telling me to do? What am I facing? Why does this feel uncomfortable? Where is the discomfort? How am I feeling now?”

Why add somatic work to our routine?

I know this all sounds overwhelming, but think of somatic work as simple 10-20 min exercises you can implement into your existing routine.

Simple practices like EFT tapping, somatic flow, breathwork, and grounding are some examples of how we can invite our bodies into the conversation and to be more present in the things we do.

How can we tune in to what our bodies are telling us? How can we listen to what our minds are saying in that moment? How can we pay more attention to the things we slowly keep suppressing?

Body awareness tells us to be in the present moment and to work with what we are currently experiencing.

By adding somatic yoga to our routine, we are giving ourselves the OK to fight traditional fitness norms. We aren’t listening to all the “shoulds” on Instagram, but rather, we are tuning into ourselves following our internal cues and building that trust with ourselves.

We live in a world of “busy.” Different parts of our bodies, like the pelvis and our jaw, can display what is happening within our body. It’s important for us to pause, slow down, and cultivate a sense of safety in our bodies, like giving it permission to release. Being present allows us to be with and connect within ourselves and with our external world.

I like to think that somatic work is a conversation between our mind and body. We don’t often get to do that naturally, so by being intentional with this conversation, we can strengthen this relationship and embody how we are meant to feel.

Curious about somatic flow? Sign up here and I’ll send over a mini-movement experience for you to do on your own time. Let me know how you felt during this experience, I’d love to hear from you!

Happy embodying!