Progress with Somatics

Skills and Somatics

In somatics, like in any technique or practice, there are physical skills that the participants hone. What constitutes a skill may differ across practices. In Nia dance, for example, the basis of the practice are 52 moves. Heel lead, duck walk, squish walk, side kick, front kick, back kick, front punch, and palm directions are some of them. As we become familiar with them, we get more skillful at using them. To do a front kick, a side block, a clock step, or a cross over asks that we pay attention to the placement and the use of the body. In Body-Mind Centering, for example, the participants learn to initiate movements from the organs, which takes understanding and practice. In Continuum Movement, participants connect to the fluid systems inside of the body as they move. In Contact Improvisation, movers learn to come onto and off the ground and practice falling without injuring themselves. There is a lot of freedom in somatic movement classes—as in free dance or in the invitation to adjust pregiven choreographies to fit individual needs—but also skills to be learned. One way to measure progress is to pay attention to the development in the tools and the kinetic skills used in these practices.

Another way to measure progress might be in relation to injury, physical or emotional difficulty, pain, aches, and tension. For example, with the Alexander Technique, there are measurable benefits in terms of how people stand, sit, walk, and do their daily activities and professional tasks. Practitioners develop new physical habits, leading to more ease, less strain, and less tension. Learning to relax and release unnecessary physical, mental, or emotional strain in the body are common goals across many somatic practices. When a somatic movement practice helps us find ease from chronic pain or we notice how exercises are making us stronger and we have more balance or stamina, we notice clear signs of progress.

Somatic Body

One skill that all somatic practices enhance is the ability to be aware of the body and notice physical sensations. As I have explained elsewhere, some physical sensations such as ache, pain, or tension are louder and easier to notice. ¹ Other physical sensations—such as expansion, warmth, ease, freedom of movement, tiny pulsations, the energy moving—might be much subtler. “What do you feel in the body?” can often lead to the answer, “I feel nothing.” More often than not, the students do not mean that that area of the body is numb but rather want to say, “I do not notice pain or ache or discomfort and therefore I think I do not feel anything.” They are not aware of or lack the words for other types of sensations that might not be very distinct.

In somatic practices, the instructor and the participants ask questions that guide the participants to turn their attention inward, to what the body is experiencing. What do I notice in my pelvis? How do I feel in my back? How do the feet feel today? How does this movement feel in the knees? This checking in with the body, regularly performed, becomes habitual and natural. With this body inquiry, we develop our ability to move the mind’s eye around in different parts of the body. We become more aware of our sensations and start to live in closer connection with the body. A more advanced somatics practitioner has a more nuanced ability to notice—and perhaps interpret or move with—these sensations. We develop a “somatic body.”

Living with and developing a somatically trained body means that the person is in close touch with what is happening inside the body and what it feels like, from the inside out, to experience the body. Somatic movement educator, Contact Improvisation practitioner, and dancer Tal Shibi noted in an interview with the author that some years ago this type of inquiry would have made him feel uncomfortable (for classes and workshops, see https://talshibi.com/). “‘How do you feel in your chest?’ It sounded so woo-woo or New Agey. Now I take it for granted,” he said. In his somatic check-in, he divides the body into three major realms: the feet and the legs, the torso and the arms, and the head and the space around and above the head. He takes a moment to ask how he feels in each. He adds a poetic layer: is there an image or a color that emerges while we check in with these parts of the body? Maybe we lack the precise word for the sensations we are feeling, but an image or color conveys it.

I know that I am making progress in my somatic practice when I notice that I have a rich, deep connection to my internal world. My body is not blank when it comes to its different parts. The benefits of having a somatically trained body is that we are not in our “heads” only. We are able to hear the messages of the body more rapidly, which can also help in the medical realm, to search for help when needed and to feel whether the help we are getting is accurate. There is likely more flow, fluidity, connection, joy, ease, and energy. With the somatic body, the experience of living in the body can become richer—emotions, images, a livelier awareness of the senses, and poetic sensibility enter the realm of how we move and experience the body.

Individual Goals

Somatic practices invite the participants to come up with their own definitions and goals for progress. We can ask, “What do I want? What am I seeking?” Tal Shibi noted, “If I am seeking on a very broad level to feel more connected to myself, which would lead to more joy, confidence, and ease in my life, then I get to check in: if I do a movement modality that has more focus on the internal experience of the body, which is what somatics is, do I feel more joy in life, more connection? Are you a super tense person that needs to relax a little bit? Do the practices that help you breathe differently. Are you sleeping better? How are you in social situations? If you do not have much tone and haven’t done much sports, then maybe doing some dance where there is more focus and some tension for the muscles will give you confidence.”

For some practitioners, progress might be about the ability to experience the present moment. Winalee Zeeb, Nia dance instructor and teacher trainer, Yoga and MELT Method teacher, noted in an interview with the author that for her progress means “sustaining full awareness and presence in the now” (for classes and workshops, see https://winaleezeeb.com/). A somatic movement practice for her is a “deep listening in the now, in the moment, and making my conscious choices based on my ‘now’ body, not an ‘hour ago’ body, not ‘yesterday’s body.'” Staying in the present moment with awareness takes practice: “Do I do it all the time? No, I’m human. I get pulled. Then I come back to my base. ‘Go to your feet, Winalee, ground yourself. Go to your heart. Heel, hara (the lower abdomen), heart, head, hands. Integrate my wholeness. What do I feel? Am I connected to my breath? I go back to that process so that I stay present and move in harmony with my now body.” Somatic practices, such as meditation, exercise our ability to notice where our attention is moving so that we can make conscious choices about it rather than let ourselves be easily distracted.

Examples from Somatic Strength Training

Working with individual goals and monitoring them is one way to notice progress. However, sometimes progress goes unacknowledged even in our own eyes because we have not focused our attention on it or because progress is a process that unfolds slowly in time. The fact that somatic practices promote awareness can impact our overall ability to notice changes in other realms of our lives. When I teach somatic movement practices, in particular somatic strength training classes, I pay attention to progress in skills, strength, flexibility, and range of motion. I invite participants to reflect on both clearer and subtler ways in which progress is happening in their movement practice and their lives.

Following the somatic concept that people come to class with varying levels of strength, have different emotions and challenges each day, and need to listen to their own bodies, I often give some agency to the students in determining which weights and how many repetitions to do. A client recently told me that she had not used her heavier set of weights for the arms exercises. “What do you think—let’s work with these weights today? Let’s bring them to the mat,” I said. The mere fact of holding the weights and doing a few repetitions can give the necessary boost. We no longer think, “No, these heavier weights are too heavy for me,” but rather start engaging with them, even if it is a few repetitions at a time. We might discover that we are stronger than we think we are. With the client, we did a set of 20 alternative biceps curls and then 15 with both arms at the same time. This was a victory and a sign of progress—it paved the way for the client to start using the heavier weights.

I intersperse invitations to reflect on progress throughout the class. In an upper abdominal crunch, we sometimes lift the rib cage off the floor closer to the thighs sequentially—low, middle, higher—and feel each step. I use this exercise to reflect on the question, “Where in my life do I feel like there are particular steps or a process to go through—a beginning point, a middle phase, and a higher level?” This question makes me more aware of the necessary stages in any endeavor, and I can ask myself where I am on the journey. Sometimes I ask the students, “As you are doing this exercise, reflect on an area in your life where you feel like you are a beginner or on the intermediate level. In what domain are you a master, at a high level of excellence?” Reflecting on this question helps me both acknowledge the realms in my life where I have gathered significant expertise—and I can congratulate myself on that—and notice, with self-compassion, areas where the skills are new to me.

With a lateral shoulder lift, students are in a standing position: the chest is wide, the shoulder blades down, the head rising high over the neck, and the arms are lifting to the side, taking up space. I ask the students to imagine that they are standing in front of an audience that witnesses and applauds the progress that they have made. Or, with the same exercise, I might ask the students to notice progress in some area in their lives where others might not notice it. “You know that you have made progress with a habit, with a project, with a pattern of thought, with a belief you have about yourself. Others might not notice that you have a new stance, a new or refined set of values, a new sense of integrity. But you know it. Not all advancement is quickly and necessarily visible. Let us praise ourselves for this progress.”

Deepening with the Practice

A movement or meditation practice is an accompaniment to life. Having the discipline to commit oneself to a regular practice is in itself a significant accomplishment. Sometimes we do not necessarily need to become “better” at this practice or focus on progress but simply need to do it regularly in order to be in a healthy state mentally, emotionally, and physically.

As we engage with a practice over time and it becomes our habit or ritual, we develop with this practice and our understanding of it deepens. Tal Shibi said, “When you feel you are deepening in your practice, you feel more connected to yourself and via that more connected to others in the world. You have a center. For example, you sit in meditation for 20 minutes every day. It can be something very simple such as observing your breath or letting the ribs expand and then fully exhaling. And something is happening even though it might be silly to say ‘you are sitting and breathing better. You are progressing in the world of sitting and breathing.’ Your imagination can grow, your sense of style can grow. It is something very simple that becomes very profound.”

With these practices that ask us to look inside, over time the connection to the self becomes stronger. We start to understand ourselves and our uniqueness better, which is a sign of progress as well. For example, we connect to our uniqueness through free dance: somatic dance methods that include or fully rely on free dance invite the participants to move in their own ways, with their own emotional and physical expression, with their own style. As Shibi noted, “Are we feeling like we are maturing in getting to know who we are in the world, what we want, what our style of moving through the world is? The practice of dance encourages more and more of that. Dance is one little arena where you get to practice having your instinct and style at that moment. In this moment of practice, I’ll do it in my style and have it as my expression and use it as a reason for celebration.”

However, living with a practice for many years can also include periods of boredom and a sense of stagnation with the practice. One way to enliven the existing practice is to look for a focus and intent for each session. “What am I seeking today? What do I want to focus on and what would I like this focus to bring me?” As we weave this focus throughout our movement session, our attention stays more alive. In Nia dance, the instructor offers a focus for each class—the focus could be a body part (the feet, the spine, the head), a movement concept (planes of motion, circular movements, reaching, exploring reflexes), or a more abstract idea (letting go, inviting the new, developing intuition). I often ask the students or a private client to bring in their own foci. Sustaining the focus throughout the class makes each class unique, gives it a direction, and often leads to surprising discoveries. For example, in a recent session with a private client, we worked with the focus of “letting go.” The playlist started with relaxing and lighthearted songs, in the mood of a “worry-free summer day on the beach.” I realized that getting myself into a lighthearted, good mood is a different, useful way to prepare myself for “letting go.”

To enliven the connection to the body and movement, we might need to look for a new practice or a movement habit that can co-exist with our “home practice,” the practice that we feel most comfortable with and perform regularly. Shibi said, “What feels exciting to me now? Maybe I need to get a pool membership and get back to the joy of swimming which is totally solo. Or maybe I’ve been too isolated and I’ve been only doing my own little routine? There is an arena in life where we are in our comfort zone. And then there is the total edge. We do not have to go to the total edge. How do we dance in the middle? What is the practice that refreshes our existing practice? It does not feel very known and familiar. Breaking your own routine will refresh something.”

Progress as an Educator

The questions of progress, advancement, deepening, and plateauing are important for educators of somatic movement practices as well. In the work of a somatic educator, there is a range of skills that we need to develop next to movement skills. Cuing or guiding the students verbally; crafting a playlist; choosing and weaving into the class a particular theme, inquiry, and focus; knowing when and how to adjust or correct a participant’s posture or their use of tools; creating a welcoming atmosphere and preparing the space; learning how to teach in the moment and be in the flow—these are all skills. We can measure progress in all of these.

Teachers who invest in their progress and develop awareness of how they grow and mature with the practices have more to offer to their students, both in terms of their skills and in their lively, vibrant connection to the body and movement. There might be a particular path of advancement built into the teacher education of the practice. Nia, for instance, uses the belt system, following the model of martial arts. There is a progression from a white belt to green, blue, black, and brown belts. Each level has its own tool set and skills—not only physical but also emotional, relational, cognitive, creative, and philosophical—that the participants hone. Progressing from one belt to another is self-guided in that a participant can decide to move to the next level right after completing the previous one or wait for several years.

Winalee Zeeb noted that over the years, she has noticed several changes in what progress means to her as a somatic movement teacher. For example, she used to think that she could not take a new body of work to class until she had mastered it. Now she models to her students the phases of “getting to know” the moves. She is comfortable showing to her students that she too is learning the movements. She approaches the new movements with a sense of humor. “I don’t get it … It’s a ‘new to me’ skill … Let’s go to our base again … Where are my feet? Where are my hands? Let’s stay with this longer and get comfortable with it.” She has started to value the deep connection that comes when we get to know something. “Every body of work, every routine of Nia has so many different combinations of the 52 moves, different energies, soundscapes, and melodies. It’s always new to me. And that’s progress. It is not a rote; it is not cookie cutter. It is not repeated the same way in each class.”

To measure progress, Zeeb uses a dual lens. She wants to make sure that she uses the technique. “I want to make sure that with the ‘heel lead’ I am leading with the heel and rolling through my foot.” She is paying attention and checking in with her foot techniques and the techniques for the upper extremities and the core. Next to the awareness of the technique, she adds other layers. “Besides moving safely, grounded and connected to the earth and breathing with the movement and moving my 52 moves, what is it that is uplifting to me? What is deeply meaningful to me?” These questions of “Why am I here? What is it that I value?” are the other lens through which she marks progress. The question of what is meaningful for us in the moment or in the practice is different for each person. For Zeeb, noticing beauty inside and outside of a dance class is uplifting: “The beauty of wholeness, the beauty of being real with myself and with another. To really pay attention and seeing kindness in the world. I see the beauty of someone holding another. I focus on the bliss of that beauty as opposed to fear. Pay attention to what inspires you. That is the uplifting spiral.”

In my development as a somatic educator over the years, I have noticed several directions. One testament to progress is a growing number of materials that I teach and use; a more intuitive approach to teaching; a greater ease with verbal and physical expression while teaching; a richer and more intimate connection to my senses and sensuality; and a closer tie between my physical practices, my creative work, and my life. But there have also been other changes that were not my goals from the outset but have developed over the years. One way in which I notice progress is that my classes, teaching, and approach to work have become more soulful, and there is a deepening interest in seeing movement and the body as holy. Another way in which I have noticed progress is in sensing the energies of relationships, places, and people. My dedication to noticing physical sensations is becoming more refined in that I apply this noticing to the ways in which I perceive energy.

These developments, not fully intentional, show that progress and progression are sometimes unplanned and unfold slowly over a span of time. They are there for us to discover. What somatic practices teach us is to pay attention to these changes and developments, in the body and inside and outside of our movement practices. They encourage us to understand that progress happens at different times and in different ways in each individual’s life. They invite us to have our own definitions of progress and check in with ourselves regularly to notice what this word brings to our movement practices, relationship with the body, and life.

Further Suggestions