The complex world in which we live has most of us running at full throttle. Slowing down and noticing what happens inside the body has become an anomaly in our culture. However, somatic awareness (soma is from Ancient Greek and means body) and the practice of sensing into the body are fundamental for living a long and healthy life. When we lose our attention to the body, we lose ourselves. Under stress, our default orientation is to revert back to the primitive brain (amygdala) and make decisions and take action in the world from a survival state. The results can be detrimental to our internal systems, shutting down our ability to function and over time, result in profound chronic medical conditions. When we pull back and take a systemic view of our culture, we can begin to see how our thoughts and actions are deeply inhibited by our ability to self-regulate and access our higher order thinking.
One practice that I often advise my clients to do is to take on meditation or breathwork, which will retrain the nervous system and brain functioning to slow down, opening up the system’s ability to self regulate and access higher order thinking. See my post on a simple but powerful breathwork practice you can do or go to my Resources page for more ways to incorporate mindfulness into your daily life.
Rebecca A. Ward, LMFT, SEP, PCC
Founder, the Iris Institute
Psychotherapy, Executive Coaching & Consulting