This is day 4 of the 7-day process challenge where each day I commit to write about one internal process I use to navigate challenges.
Sometimes I feel stuck, which includes experiences like:
feeling suffocated/contracted, e.g. a lot of tension in my head or discomfort in my belly
wanting to distract myself, often with social media or small life admin tasks
feeling like I need to leave home, my room, otherwise I’ll explode
feeling caught up in something gooey that’s hard to get out of (in my head? in a worry-thought? in a place of insecurity)
Something I have been trying out for the past few months to get un-stuck is a process called somatic inquiry. I am not sure where it originally comes from, but I discovered it via Laura Ward who has a collection of great (and free!) YouTube guided classes here.
I like it a lot because it’s not trying to change my state, but rather creates a space where I can slow down, more fully experience the way stuckness manifests in my body, and inquire into it. Often just by trying to experience it more fully, something shifts and I cannot quite call it stuck anymore.
I remember when I first saw the term somatic inquiry I thought it was genius.
For me, the word somatic brings up associations with somatic therapy, which usually requires someone to hold space for me and is targeted at deeper conditioning in the body. On the other hand, inquiry is a format I’ve mainly practiced in philosophical, often quite heady spaces, and have it tagged with problem-solving based on words and theories.
Somatic inquiry fills the gap in between. It looks for knots and tensions in the body rather than in the mind, but it’s also more curious and lightweight than therapy.
And then there’s the actual meaning of these words:
somatic "pertaining to the material body" (as distinct from the soul, spirit, or mind), 1753, from Latinized form of Greek sōmatikos "of the body," from sōma (genitive sōmatos) "the body"
inquiry early 15c., enquery, "a judicial examination of facts to determine truth;" mid-15c. in general sense "attempt to learn something, act or fact of inquiring,"
Looking into the body to find the truth, to learn something. I like to think about it as a daily body-mind maintenance.
It usually starts with a theme (e.g. spacious resilience) and the class is a playground to experience this concept in our bodies. I especially like that she invites different movements, encourages playing with size and tempo, and has some really good prompts on moving beyond the usual movements (e.g. If you feel like you’re moving in a familiar way, change it up!).
These inquiries usually take between 30-40 minutes and sometimes they leave me feeling freer and lighter. Sometimes I end up in tears and just let myself cry until it feels done. Other times I get creative ideas and sit to my laptop right as the inquiry ends. Every time I am surprised by what I’ve uncovered.