What is Somatic Movement

What is somatic movement? There are a few definitions out there, but the one that I have been working with since my initiation into the movement space over twenty years ago is: 

Moving your body consciously and fully aware of your surroundings is essential to seeking and creating a safe space for your physical self (brain and systems) to release and feel free. 

This is not for fitness. Somatic movement is expression, and I learned about it while training as a performer. To perform and present yourself convincingly as someone or something else, you must create a sense of safety and awareness for your body to express "truth" (the character, etc.) and for your mind to recognize and recall, to tether the body in reality. This is not for the method actor. Those hacks. 

If you have danced (trained, done it professionally, or are a fan), you may be aware of an exercise called contact improv. It is considered research and usually works like this - you go to a dance class, don't know anyone else there, are partnered with one or more people, and wordlessly move with each other by contact. Breathing in each other's faces, pushing your hands against someone's back and allowing them to hold you up, laying on one another in a pile of limbs. It is not for the anxious; to do it, one must have gone through somatic experiencing. Or be very connected to their inner child. Because what is contact improv if not watching children play? 

Examples of somatic physical work reside in what we are already familiar with. Breathwork, body scanning, breath focused movement like arm swings and leg kicks, jumping, shaking and a return to stillness. We’ve done it all before, but somatic means we do it like we mean it.

In the present world of movement, wellness, and fitness, the ties that bind them all together are an unacknowledged acceptance of somatic movement, except it's usually referred to as "releasing your hips."" This is an unfortunate conflation of the work. 

Don't get me wrong - any movement is good movement. I'm a fan as long as your body and brain can find a way to vibe, chill, and have some kind of fusion. It's just not somatic.

Where are we at regarding intentional actions? That's a question for you to ask yourself. I've seen many social posts and personal interactions where people have brought up "self-care." The full quote about self-care, attributed to Audre Lorde, is this: 

"I had to examine, in my dreams as well as in my immune-function tests, the devastating effects of overextension. Overextending myself is not stretching myself. I had to accept how difficult it is to monitor the difference. Necessary for me as cutting down on sugar. Crucial. Physically. Psychically. Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare."

We're seeing a lot of folks saying they are cutting off family members and friends to keep their peace; they aren't going to watch the news to keep their peace; they are not going to talk politics, and so on and so forth for the good of their peace. That is their right, and that is their privilege. But for the people who do not have the privilege - the people who must continue to interact with a public that does not want them, with friends who have not been able to empathize, to maintain their livelihoods (financial and more often than not, their actual lives), self-care is a necessary act to keep going. To keep working and supporting themselves through the fight for their very existence. 

Somatic movement is not gentle, and it is not a way to get away. It is also not a sustainable everyday practice because we need moments of peace to survive. However, in times when we must be aware of our surroundings and the people in them at all times, especially now when a great many of us are feeling disappointed, betrayed, sad, and scared, achieving balance in that awareness is a way to support our joint task of overcoming and succeeding. 

Somatic movement is a tool for channeling frustration and rage into physical energy, which may be used at the moment or temporarily stored in our internal systems to sustain our bodies for the ongoing work. 

If you read this the whole way through - this is my experience and opinion as a professional. Opinions in movement may differ, and your experience will as well. There is no right or wrong way to be in the somatic sphere. Soma, or somatic, is defined as "of the body"; it is visceral, fleshy, and of the moment. Pain and beauty are involved in being present, and as a ceremony, the process of presence, intentional and aware movement can make magic.