The Two Kinds of Somatic Writing

I've had moments recently of students expressing...if not disappointment, some judgement toward their writing for not feeling very somatic as they write or seeming very somatic on their page.

And when I say seeming somatic, I mean:

Sometimes we have a more settled presence with our bodies and our writing reflects that. It feels body aware, like this line that came out of me yesterday in Body Writers: Wondering, wondering about everyone else. Are you okay? Are you okay? Those feel like meat cleavers into my ribcage.

See how in my body and aware of sensation that sounds?

I think that's what a lot of us think somatic writing has to be in order to be successful or effective.

But there is another kind of somatic writing that's just as important and usually precedes the more somatically aware, present writing, and that is straight releasing writing. Trusting your body and releasing the stories, feelings and things that feel like they need to come out of you before any kind of peace or presence with your body feels possible.

Releasing writings tend to feel much more like a vomiting out, an exorcism, a temporary out of body experience. That's normal, necessary for your healing and good. 

It's lovely to be able to share this with my students and clients and see it land – that, Oh, I'm actually further down the healing path than I thought. Trusting my body's voice has been the exact right thing and this writing I'm doing is working. 

There is much nuance to the practice of giving your body a voice to come home to your body, trust what it wants to say layer by layer and write somatically to heal. And it's important to say that the practice is a wave too – it's not as if once we achieve presence with our bodies, we never need the exorcism. It just gets easier to tell in the moment which one you need.

A good question to ask yourself in the moment when trying to use writing to heal what you hold in your body is: do I feel like I need to just get this out of me? Or do I want a calmer experience where I sink into my body and take a look around?

If you need release and presence with your body feels impossible right now for everything you know you're holding, my Body Story Somatic Journaling Course is here to support you. Over 23 days, it will give you prompts to support deep release and help you integrate trauma energies, so you can access the softer, more present layers in your body that live below.

You can learn more and get started with Body Story today right here.