Your somatic practice should include play & experimentation

I wanted to share a little story from a client session this week, and leave you with some somatic homework for you!

I was with a client and we were at the point in session where we were drilling down into an issue he's been processing, and decided it was time to drop down from the heady stories and conceptual knowledge around this issue, into the body, to see if there was any more emotional or sensory information for him to get clarity about what he needs in order to move forward.

At one point he said, "I just want to be able to set down the 'wrong-doing' that I've been carrying. I want to set down the idea that I'm wrong or broken because of [this issue]."

Then I had a little ping -an intuitive nudge- to try an experiment. I asked him, "what might it be like if we did that, right now, together?"

And so we did that. I held space while he brought this issue to mind, and felt it in his body. And gently guided him through the process of making that 'wrong-doing' tangible, and then physically setting it down on the other end of the room in the waste-basket, thanking it and letting it go.

On paper this practice might not sound all that miraculous. It might even sound a little awkward or clunky. But I hope you'll believe me when I say that the shift in his energy was palpable, even through a Zoom room.

He was able to MOVE that sense of wrong-doing, the grief and shame and blame OUT of his body. He was able to get some distance from it, and begin the process of actually letting it go. Of tangibly healing and moving forward without the weight of that shame and self-criticism he was carrying before.

This is the part where I get super nerdy and giddy. I love coaching. I love body-oriented coaching. I swoon over getting to see and be part of these monumentally clarifying & freeing shifts for other rad humans. I'm sincerely grateful to everyone who trusts me to partner with them through the deep and messy work of rewiring their patterns & nervous system.

So here's some light homework for you:

Is there a sense of wrong-doing, shame or blame that you're holding onto and can't seem to shake?

Can you bring it to mind, but also sense for it in your body?

What might it be like if you set that down?

...

✅ Then do it. Write it down, thank it if it served you in any way, and physically set it down.