Somatics and Spirituality
There are so many spiritual teachings that might feel true and sacred, or maybe interesting and possible; yet are so often confused in their application. This confusion can lead to going ‘round in circles, and can even lead to harm. So, how do we make sense of spirituality?!
After 15 years in practice and prayer, studying the spiritual truths of this world, I know that we are so much more than we think we are. That our five senses give us but an inkling of the miracle of our existence, and that the realization of this miracle occurs within. There is a proliferation of practices that are intended to support our realization of who we truly are through shifting our experience from the solidity (rigidity) of our identity-self to a broader, visceral sense of All That Is and our part in an expansive whole. Yet, these practices seem to take those who engaged with them only so far.
Over the course of these 15 years, I experienced many peaks and valleys, highs and lows. Highs when secluded at an ashram in the practices of yoga, meditation and breathwork, and lows in the thick of extremely challenging circumstances, such as depression, care-taking, being witness to the impact of colonization in very real ways, and trauma. The omnipresent question that was so alive for me was how we might apply spiritual teachings in real life. It always felt to me that my spiritual practice was just keeping me in tact, while also eliciting confusion when I felt deep anger rather than compassion about systemic failure my children were left to navigate on a daily basis, or I was seeped in depression rather than able to connect to the miracle of life, or fear of death after diagnosis rather than radical acceptance.
I noticed this in my community as well, a connection to Spirit, and a confusion as to the application of Spirit. It is important to note here that a healing journey is spirallic, and that highs and lows are to be expected; nevertheless, it became clear that a continual reiteration of the same challenges is indicative of a missing piece in the process.
I found that missing piece in somatics. Beginning with a comprehensive understanding of my nervous system, I learned that mine was highly activated from a very young age. And that while my spiritual practice offered some experiences of regulation, I continued to slingshot back to high activation because that was my baseline, that was what my body (my PNEI system) knew. These glimpses of space through willing or attempting or even cultivating experiences of compassion, love and connection, with a swift return back to a baseline of activation is what makes spiritual practices by-passing and confusing in nature. Continually chasing the dangling carrot of space, the elusive promise of awakening leads us to keep overriding what our nervous system is longing for — a completion of charge.
As I began to release long-held charge, space was made available that I never knew possible. My meditations became a visceral experience of a release of resistance and entry into the Mystery, rather than a blanket over the tensions beneath.
Somatics has become the emergent bridge, through which my physiology became a fuller, wiser iteration of its previous expression. In the practice and process of embodiment work, I no longer cognized spiritual truths but rather felt them in my body. And through this total shift in my inner experience, my altered perspective and paradigm started revealing itself in my external life. This emergence of my externality meeting how I newly felt gave flesh to spiritual assertions that were previously all too ethereal.
Through somatics, the practice and comprehension that “what goes on inside of my body is my lived experience”, we learn to process fully all that so justly arises so that we can authentically orient towards solution, imagination and possibility. So that we might feel viscerally connected to our sincere longings rather than weighed down by rupture and the routine of capitalism. So that we can discern the glorification of a ‘thing’ from a true, soulful desire. And so that we might know ourselves to be creative participants in our lives, rather than whack-a-moling our way through, experiencing life through default.
This kind of awareness has implications in our own lives and collectively; it is a lived into paradigm shift only accessible through the body. And it is through the body that we no longer bypass our trauma but transmute it into energy that truly serves all that we are.
Our work at homebody is to keep making sense of spirituality through the soma. The weaving together of our humanness with that of our Spirit so that this journey emerges from within you, in a way that evolves and excites you.
How to apply spiritual laws to somatics as a practice, process and paradigm:
We are creative participants in our lives, which has been said, time and time again, by multitudinous wisdom paths, teachers and physicists:
~ You make real what you believe is real.
~ What would you be in the having of it? Be that and you shall have it.
~ All that you seek is within.
~ What consciousness made it can unmake.
~ Your world will follow your idea about yourself.
~ “I regard matter as derivative from consciousness.” (Max Planck)
~ “The field is the sole governing agent of the particle.” (Albert Einstein)
“Dwell not in negativity and darkness. [Especially] when things look bleak, see only perfection, express only gratefulness, and then imagine only what manifestation of perfection you choose next. In this formula is found tranquility. In this process is found peace. In this awareness is found joy.”
Our repetitive thoughts and emotions materialize into form. But we cannot simply change our anger, our fear, our judgment into authentic openness, connection, compassion, or love. To try to convince ourselves to feel compassion when our physiology feels betrayal or anger or grief is by-passing.
Through somatics, we bring awareness to the emotion that is present. Through its practices we slowly and from within, complete the emotional charge so that we are brought back to a baseline of low-toned dorsal or ventral vagal, two states that authentically support the cultivation of an embodiment of our choosing.
And thus, rooted within ourselves, we start to feel like our hands are in the clay of our own lives…
Journal prompts to explore somatics and spirituality:
If it feels okay for you now (please check in with yourself), notice, inquire, contemplate your own experiences with spiritual by-passing. Where have you over-ridden your body/self, your needs, your emotions in spiritual endeavour?
Notice now, what arises in your body when you consider these experiences? Take care of whatever is arising, allowing its completion by taking its shape, movement, connection with the land, or another anchoring resource you have.
In the taking care, notice if there are glimpses of space arising. How is it to be with emergent space? Is discomfort and unfamiliarity present? Is there ease and relaxation? Maybe a combination of both (a blended state)?
» Take some time to rest before answering the following questions.
What arises in your body when contemplating the assertion of being a participant in your reality?
Which spiritual teachings most confuse you? How does this feel in your body? Where do these sensations live?
Which spiritual teachings land clearly? How does this feel in your body? Where do these sensations live?
Mallorie Buoy
Mallorie is the founder and lead educator at Homebody School of Somatics. She currently practices as a Registered Master Somatic Movement Educator and Therapist, a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner and Clinical Somatic Therapist, as well as a psychedelic-assisted therapist. With over 15 years of studying mysticism, movement, and exploring the rich truth of cosmic law, alongside the science of it all, she now teaches others to become somatic educators and therapists without the stress or overwhelm of a traditional university setting.
Explore our 500-hour ISMETA Approved Somatic Educator and Therapist Training at homebodyhealing.org.