10 Ways to Reclaim Equilibrium Using Somatic Practices

 We like to think that, just like a little bobbing toy sailing boat, our balance, body-mind coherence and equilibrium are naturally coded into our human systems. To some extent, this is true, except when it isn't. Life experience can propel us into versions of ourselves that no longer seem familiar, and the usual ways that we might find our way back to ourselves can fail.

So then what? 

Writing from the perspective of a somatic therapist in private practice, with years of lived experience of a mixed lolly bag of traumas, adverse experiences, and even violence, I want you to know, dear reader, that there are some tools that you can use to find your way home to yourself. 

Here are the ten best and simplest that arise time and time again in clinical practice.

— The Observational Self

We humans have one thing that truly sets us apart from other animals and it has many names, and takes many forms. I like to call it metacognition. That's a fancy word for being able to observe your own thoughts, sensations, and emotions. Cultivating the observational self, or the soul's point of view if you like, can be practised in many ways, but by far the simplest is to imagine a mixing desk with volume dials. Your thoughts are one input, your emotions another. You (or your essential, non-judgmental, part) is the one fiddling the dials. Even one minute meditations will help to build this space between you and your thoughts and help bring things back into perspective. The goal: just be with whatever is going on internally without making meaning, passing judgment or taking action. 

— Levity and Lightness

Bringing even a tiny element of lightness to the conversation works wonders. It has been said by many a sage and wise guide that a slight upturn of the lips and an inner smile can offer periods of respite and a break from the heaviness of the world. Think: the beatific smile of the Dalai Lama, or the generous and loving face of an angel. Finding ways to bring lightness into your awareness can also allow space and expansion where there was only tightness and contraction. 

— More of what works, and less of what doesn't

Awareness can bring a myriad of opportunities to appear on the road through challenge. When we start to notice what is and isn't supportive, relieving or freeing, we are then better able to make choices about what does and does not further our soulful path toward our most aligned and holistically healthy life. Only by accepting the reality of where we are at, and meeting ourselves there, are we able to make different and more enlivening choices for ourselves. Only we know what is and isn't for us. 

— Movement is Medicine

Move your body however you can: incidentally while bending over or stretching in bed; intentionally in some form that you love; slow or fast; walking, running or lifting. It doesn't matter. Just keep moving no matter what.

— Act as if

Build it and they will come. Suspend disbelief. Fake it till you make it. All of these are different ways of saying the same thing. You don’t have to understand the how and the why to start embodying what you truly desire in your life, or for yourself. It has been said that if you can hold an emotion for 20 seconds, that is enough for you to recalibrate yourself to see and feel more of it.

— Mental Stimulation

Minds are there to think, so give them something good to do. Do puzzles, solve Sudoku, learn a language, or create beautiful art. Pick your play, but make sure that you are in flow and those neurons are firing. When the mind is idle, it will seek complexity elsewhere or try it’s best to tune out in ways that are not always optimal for our wellbeing. If all else fails, focus on gratitude - research it, write lists about it every day, give the mind a healthy space in which to rest.

 — I am here, I am safe

The power of self-talk, affirmations, and inspirational quotations is often misconstrued as positive psychology and superficial. So what’s the real deal, and what’s just scraping the surface? The difference is how it feels in the body. It’s ok if it feels like nothing at first, but over time, you may begin to perceive small ripples of sensation that can turn to larger waves. Presence and safety are key to nervous system health. Write these on your bathroom mirror, the back of your hand, your computer desktop, wherever you might see them regularly enough to explore their effect on your reality.

— Affective touch

Simply placing your hands wherever you feel a sensation and offering acceptance, love and compassion along with it, is proven to allow greater connection and soothe the body-mind. Extend that also to hugs for and by you, making sure they last for 7 seconds or more to really juice those endorphins and get that parasympathetic nervous system back on board.

— Nature heals

Feet on the grass, sounds of the ocean, fingers in the dirt, hugging trees. It doesn’t matter how you do it, but reminding ourselves that we are part of nature and it is part of us is a fundamental human need. Circadian rhythms included, as in do your best to see the sky when you wake, sleep when it’s dark, because our eyes are the only part of our brains outside of our skull. Consider this your medicine and take it as religiously as you would any other life-saving remedy.

— Cultivate Your Presence

Take a breath and tune into your 5 senses. Ask yourself, what can I hear, see, smell, touch and taste right now? Ground yourself by sending your fear, denial, grief, and resentment down to the earth or up to the sun. Give it all to your ancestors to heal it, so you can stay right here and right now in the present moment. Soft focus your eyes on what’s right in front of you. Gently coax your thoughts away from projection in the future of the past. Summon the essence of your spirit and expand it till it is as big as the room, the house, the suburb... whatever you can hold, for as long as you can hold it. 

With these embodied somatic practices, you can incrementally grow your capacity for the full spectrum of human emotion and transmute and release what has you leaning off balance, or spinning your wheels. 

We are made to change and shift and evolve with each thousandth of a second cellular vibration, and with each breath in and breath out. Perhaps this will help you do just that.