Redheaded Jill

First of all, what does somatic even mean? According to the Oxford Dictionary Somatic is defined as “relating to the body, especially as distinct from the mind.” The Workout Witch (whom I discovered on IG) says, “the intimate connection that our physical body has with all the other parts of it. And especially the psychological, emotional, and mental part of it.”

A couple months ago a friend sent me a link to the workout witch because she was talking about some symptoms I’d been describing. Getting stuck in a state of mental freeze. When tasks like going to the post office or returning an article of clothing to a store seem like giant mountains that you will never cross.

I started researching somatic exercises after seeing those posts.

Somatic exercises are able to help with: losing hard to lose weight, inflammation, balancing hormones, relieve pain, regulate sleep, clearing brain fog and more.

These exercises are gentle movements that will connect your physical body to your emotional body.

Have you ever heard someone say, “Grief is stored in the lungs?” (Someone besides me that is…) I have seen lists from Chinese medicine that talk about grief being in the lungs, anger in the liver, sorrow in the heart, etc… If you can relieve some of the pain/trauma from these places in the body it can help you heal.

Western medicine is usually just that… medicine. Take a pill for every symptom. Eastern medicine, or traditional medicine asks why you have the symptom and what can we do to fix the cause of these symptoms?

Oh, you have tight muscles and a sore back? This can be caused by stress, what is stressing you? You have a cough you can’t get rid of? Why are you sad, what are you grieving?

Essentially: The body stores emotional trauma, somatic workouts can help you release it.

I am on week three of my somatic workout challenge and it has been amazing. I do the stretches/exercises before bed each night. I am relaxed and comfortable. My sleep has improved and I find myself falling asleep more quickly. Each video is between 2 – 20 minutes.

There are courses available (for extremely affordable prices) with the workout witch. I really like her program because she has you take a quiz and then makes recommendations. She’s been practicing this type of treatment for over 15 years. Her videos are in depth and she includes extra information about the parts of the body that you are exercising. (For example, I am doing a course that focuses on the hips.)

There are also options like the betterme app, though I know less about them.

I am not an affiliate with either program.

Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional. The things I will wrote about today are based on my personal research and professionals I trust. I have linked or at least named all the people/accounts that I talked about today. I also have to say that even though I prefer a natural approach to illness I can appreciate the power of modern western medicine for emergencies and operations. I have been on the receiving end of surgeries and medications and so have my loved ones. I am very grateful for that.