The deeper I get into mindbody science, the extra I’m blown away by what it has to show me. On this publication I’ll dig into an method to meditation I by no means actually understood till now. I’ll share my perspective on what makes it highly effective and discover the way it differs from my conventional longstanding meditation follow. 1
First, the groundwork. A primary search of phrase “somatic,” or, “referring to the soma,” will lead you to the Oxford English Dictionary definition the place you’ll be taught that “soma” is a fermented ritualistic intoxicant (aka a Vedic model of Kiddush or Communion).
As actually enjoyable as that drink sounds (and it does sound enjoyable), I desire Thomas Hanna’s2 definition of soma as described in his groundbreaking book: “the physique skilled from inside, emphasizing the mind-body connection and the physique as a dwelling, self-aware course of.”
In different phrases, somatics is the examine of how people expertise their our bodies from inside. This can be a extra nuanced take than I understood just a few years in the past, once I thought, like most individuals do, that our our bodies are exterior objects transferring via area, and that somatic merely meant “of the physique.”
It’s an vital distinction, and it pertains to why somatic meditation has been misunderstood and underexplored. In case your mindset is “a meditation for a physique transferring in area,” then somatic meditation is a fairly easy factor. In actual fact, as a part of my early work on How We Feel in 2021, I produced this video on strolling meditation:
