Guided Somatic Rest Session

You may fall asleep. You may feel the urge to do something else or pick up your phone. You may feel resistance, especially if you’re used to survival, have  a go go go mentality or have a history of disassociating and struggling with feeling present.. Whatever sensations emerge, your body is sharing information with you to help you understand where you are in this moment—and that is beautiful. 

DISCLAIMER/BEFORE WE BEGIN

• Just as we digest and metabolize our food, we must do the same with our emotions and experiences—or else we may feel constipated. By practicing somatics (different movements, techniques, and breathing that engage sensory awareness, mindfulness, and presence that strengthen our mind-body connection), we come back to our body, which stores trauma, emotions, and memories. Engaging in trauma-informed somatics is a way we can safely release, process, and stabilize our emotions.
• The goal of somatics is to feel connected, safe, and present in your body. It is a daily practice to build a foundation of being able to process emotions and experience and be present. However, when our bodies are used to being hypervigilant, dissociative, or surviving in certain ways as protective factors, returning to our bodies can feel scary and uncomfortable. Building the muscles to discern between noting when we are uncomfortable versus unsafe takes time. Please engage with this resource based on what feels most appropriate to you.
• This is a practice that can be done entirely laying down on the ground, bed, or couch. When I have facilitated rest sessions live on Zoom or in person, most people have fallen asleep. It is also common to feel hungry and thirsty as you start landing back into their body. Please have some water nearby and build your cozy rest nest!
• Everything offered in this audio is an invitation. Feel free to pause and practice at your own pace. You may want to repeat a certain rest exercise or skip forward to what interests you. This resource is for you and you can shape it as you’d like. ♥️
   

GUIDED SOMATIC REST SESSION

LINKS TO INDIVIDUAL ACTIVITIES 

1. Introduction + Breathing | 00:00
2. Check-in  | 14:00
3. Activity: Body Scan | 19:34
4. Activity: Sensory Awareness, Step by Step | 29:00
5. Activity: Becoming a Pencil  | 35:20
6. Activity: Toe Tapping  | 43:00
7. Activity: Self Holding & Self Swaddling  | 46:46
8. Check Out + Closing | 48:10 

Thank you for listening and treating yourself. 

When I first started engaging in somatics, I felt so frustrated because I thought I was over my trauma since I understood it, could name it, and talk about it. And yet I was not able to sit through a full yoga session without either falling asleep or feeling restless. I would zone out in meditations. And that’s OK. You don’t have to force yourself to engage with every method of healing because it’s different for everyone. The fact that you’re open to somatics is so wonderful. It can be very disembodied as a survivor to come back to the body, and so let’s do it slowly and gently. 

Thank you for choosing yourself. I hope you feel deeply proud of yourself for resting, as that is very revolutionary and important in our fast paced society that can make it seem like there is no time for rest and when healing can be so tiring, draining, and frustrating. I see you and am so thankful for you. 

Thank you for giving yourself the gift of restorative rest and feel free to check out the next best steps below!

NEXT BEST STEPS

• Check in with yourself right now. What is your body telling you? To sleep? To eat? To stretch? Allow yourself to follow your body’s sensation. Doing so helps us become more fluent in our body’s language, which trauma can make us forget. Engaging in rest, stillness, and somatics helps us build our muscle to tune into our body’s language again!
• Notice, observe, and reflect: Which parts of this rest exercise felt delicious to you? At which point did you start to feel sleepy? Was there a point you felt resistant or distracted?