Stress relief. Body awareness. Emotional reset. This is your moment to reconnect. How often do you feel stiff, sore, or just... off? If your answer is “too often,” you’re not alone. After long hours at a desk, especially since remote work became the norm, that creeping shoulder tension or low back ache? Totally common. But there’s a way to reset from the inside out. It’s called somatic movement, and it’s not just a trend—it’s a way back into your body. Whether you're exploring this on your own or heading toward a somatic yoga teacher training, this guide is your starting point.

What Are Somatic Exercises?

Somatic means “of the body” (from the Greek soma). But it’s more than that—somatic exercises are gentle, mindful movements that reconnect you with your body’s internal experience. You move not to perform, but to feel.

You’re not just stretching a muscle—you’re inviting it to relax.

It’s used in practices like:

Somatic yoga

Free-form dance

Breathwork & grounding

Restorative somatic retreats

These practices help calm your nervous system, ease chronic tension, and improve how you move and feel.

Examples of Somatic Exercises

Here are a few techniques you can try right now:

1. The 4-7-8 Breath

Inhale for 4 seconds, hold for 7, exhale for 8. Do 3-5 rounds. Focus on how the breath feels in your body. It’s like a nervous system reset button.

2. Pelvic Rocking

Lay on your back, knees bent. Gently tilt your pelvis forward and back, slowly. Notice the sensations along your spine. Feel how your body moves with the breath.

3. Somatic Yoga Flow

Think: slow, intentional yoga. Not about the pose. All about the feeling. This is the heart of many somatic yoga certifications—learning to move with presence, not performance.

Why Somatic Movement Works

Rewires Your Brain: It’s called “neuromuscular re-education.” Your brain learns new, healthier patterns of movement. Releases Chronic Tension: Especially in places like your neck, jaw, and hips. Supports Emotional Healing: Trauma and stress live in the body. Somatic movement helps release what words sometimes can’t. Improves Posture and Mobility: Gently, gradually, naturally.

How Often Should You Practice?

Even 5-10 minutes a day can make a difference. Try:

5 minutes of breathwork before bed

Gentle rocking before getting out of bed

A short somatic yoga sequence in the morning

Thinking of Going Deeper?

If you’re feeling the call, there are ways to immerse yourself further:

Somatic Retreats: A weekend or week to drop in, rest deeply, and explore this work with experienced facilitators. Think quiet mornings, grounding movement, and real nervous system healing.

Somatic Yoga Certification: Learn to guide others. Programs blend yoga, neuroscience, and somatic theory. (Psst—many also count toward yoga alliance CEUs).

Somatic Yoga Teacher Training: Go even deeper into anatomy, trauma-informed practice, and how to create safe spaces for healing movement.

Tips to Begin Your Somatic Practice

🔹 Start simple. Focus on 1-2 movements a day. 🔹 Don’t force it. Somatic work is subtle. Less is more. 🔹 Be curious. Each body responds differently. There’s no “perfect” way to move. 🔹 Reflect after. What did you notice? Where did you feel ease? 🔹 Stay consistent. It’s like watering a plant. Small sips every day.

Not performance. Not perfection. Just presence.

You don’t need to be flexible. You don’t need to “do it right.” You just need to show up for yourself—one breath, one movement at a time.

Let's Connect

Have you tried somatic movement before? What helps you feel grounded?

No experience leaves us unmarked.

In this respect, a body can be seen as a system of impressions.

In my dance lineage, we often dedicate our practise to the dead—ancestors, ghosts, or even feelings and events that haunt us.

We dance as living altars. We dance as the remembrance of all those who came before, human and non-human.

For this event, you’ll be asked to bring one portal object for our communal altar.

This object can represent an ancestor that you’d like to dedicate your movement to, or a place that lies embedded deep within your memories.

It can even be a simple symbol representing the Otherworld, underworld, Spirit world, or more-than-human levels of reality in some way.

During our time together, we’ll be inhabiting the space between the somatic and the imaginal in order to build greater connection between them.

This sort of creative movement practise is perfect for actors, dancers, musicians, and anyone else that wants to support their body towards greater creative expression, awareness, and regulation.

Please consider your portal object selection with great care and self trust, ideally a few days to a week before we meet.

Our portal objects will serve as anchors to the tangible as well as bridges to the world beyond.

SOMA METAXY: Three Dynamics of the Extended Body. May 31st, 6:15 PM, at Haw Creek Commons.

I am looking forward to sharing creative ritual space with you!

// More about Soma Metaxy //

The "extended body" is an experience we have at the intersection of the soma, the imaginal, and the environment. As a ritual movement practise, Soma Metaxy (which translates to "body between") can help us rebuild our sense of communion with the more-than-human world.

In this 2.5 hour class, I will lead a group of 30 humans through 6 movement meditation practises for dropping deeply into centre, exploring our periphery, and meeting the edges of our sense-gates.

Join me on May 31st at 6:30 PM to learn these techniques, which are inspired by Butoh, Laban-Bartinieff Movement Analysis, Neuro-Linguistic Programming, Reichian characterology, and more.

Admission is $25. Check out the Facebook event page to learn more and sign up: