Somato-Emotional Awareness

“Awareness is the greatest agent for change.” ~ E Tolle

Somato-Emotional Awareness

Somato-Emtoional Awareness is a form of self-awareness. “Soma” means body and emotional, well hopefully you get that part. Join me for a look at body-emotion awareness and it’s importance in healthy development. A few definitions first, so we’re all coming from a common place:

• self awareness - awareness of our thoughts, actions, and emotions, in order for alignment. we are aware how other’s can perceive us.
• introspection - our ability to examine our thoughts and emotions
• interoception - our ability to make sense of internal sensations

All of these are very important! But what I’d like to explore is somato-emotional awareness, which is a bit of a combination of all 3. This is a very important concept I explore in great detail with tools to nurture this in my yoga trainings and as part of my Craniosacral practice.

Why is Somato-Emotional Awareness Important?

When we understand our emotions and how they are communicated through our body, we are able to move through and with our emotions with greater ease. While emotions are a temporary state, they are very real to the person experiencing them and are a large part of what makes us human and enables us to learn and grow from experiences. This is a very important tool for all to develop and ideally nurtured at a young age, however; it’s not something most of us are taught… in fact very few. In my work I come across many adults who are not aware of these subtle sensations, which leads to a large disconnect within ourselves. Sometimes we purposely disconnect so we don’t need to feel or if we have experienced traumatic situations that we are not yet ready to move through. Some are also born with neurological conditions that make it harder to develop this skill, however; it can still be shared and learned.

Benefits of Awareness

• understanding our emotions to be able to move through them before they become ingrained in our nervous system, fascia, and tissues
• the ability to give voice to our emotions, again to prevent bottling up
• confidence in being able to articulate how we feel in a healthy and appropriate way
• healthier and happier relationships
• development of empathy or the ability to try to understand another’s perspective stems from self-awareness
• greater intuition - awareness of subtleties in and around us
• emotional resilience (you can read more about resilience here)
• release physical or chronic concerns (“we hold issues our in our tissues” - Tom Meyers, Anatomy Trains)

How Do We Nurture Awareness?

As I mentioned, this is so important to me in order to support others in their holistic health, connection to their Inner-Child, healing, and offering tools to children for their healthy development. If we can learn these tools particularly as children, just think how many of societies perpetuating traumas and concerns we can overcome in the next few generations! Here are 3 simple tools I like to share - I think everything should be simple, otherwise we don’t practice it:

Check-Ins

A long meditation is amazing to have in the morning (definitely sets you up for the day!), but more important is getting a few check-ins throughout the day. If you can only take 3-5 minutes to notice your breath and other sensations within in the morning, and a few more times throughout the day, this is often even more helpful at helping us to be more clear-headed, objective, and move through emotions or those of others we may have picked up. For more details on Meditation for adults and children, please see my blog Meditation Myths.

Body Mapping

This is a favourite tool of mine, something I stubbled upon as a child. When I was younger I didn’t do it visually, but rather began to notice where I felt strong emotions in my body - anxiety for example was in my chest. I noticed when I did backbends (wheel), I felt so much release. As I learned about 15 years later when taking my Yoga Teacher Training, heart opening poses, such as backbends are great for anxiety release. So this skill is about noticing what emotions you feel where - it’s different for everybody. Another amazing part of this tool is understanding what is yours and what you may have picked up from others. To do this visually, draw an outline of a person and colour in the different emotions on the body in different colours - a great tool for all ages. If you can then identify a few ways that help you release the emotion, it becomes that much more powerful!

Words for Emotions

This is especially important when working with children or those who have been through difficult experiences (and may feel disconnected from their bodies). Learning how to articulate our internal world brings so much clarity to ourselves, to others (no one really knows what’s going on inside us), and releases the power the emotion may seem to have on us. Teaching children words for emotions and offering them the opportunity to express how they feel without judgement is subtle but so empowering! From here, you can encourage them to explore ways to release the emotion - see details below on Somatic Tools.

Somatic Tools

Here are some somatic tools to help move through emotions, when you experience or notice them. By doing this, we prevent build up in our nervous system and viscera (organs):

• sound (a great tool for those who are not or not yet verbal)
• movement (a great tool for those who are not or not yet verbal)
• sharing
• journaling
• art
• meditation or mindful practices
• music

Learn More!

I also have a free, downloadable Self Care Journal (designed with Parents + Educators in mind).

Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions - I always love to hear from you!

Katie

Please share this with anyone you feel would benefit!