How to adapt Somatic Movement if you need things really gentle, slow or small

This post is for you if you’ve come to this work with lots of chronic pain, or are in the midst of a flare up and are wondering what to do, or you have very little physical or energetic capacity for the work right now.

(You can listen to this information here if you prefer.)

I know there are lots of us out there who are managing long-term conditions, such as chronic pain, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia and so on. I myself am in recovery from CFS, and manage my energies very carefully, as I’m sure many of you will understand.

And I know that often when we’re working with these sorts of challenges, we can struggle to get into a movement practice because it all just seems too far out of reach.

The good news is that a) you’re not alone, and b) Somatic Movement and the work you do with me has got your back.

I want to write in a bit more depth about coming to the work in this super gentle way in future, but for now, my capacity is only going to allow me to give you a few nuggets - I hope it will tide you over!

And that brings me straight onto my first point, which I am VERY sure I don’t really have to say to anyone who’s in this boat - we can ONLY work to our capacity in any given moment, and that’s completely ok and exactly what Somatic Movement allows us to do.

When I’m teaching to a group, it’s impossible to differentiate the movements exactly to what everyone uniquely needs. But I strongly encourage everyone always to really check in with their own capacity on any given day, and do only as much or as little as they feel they can.

There is no performance or efforting or trying to get to any particular position in Somatic Movement - just exploration, with no judgement around being right where we are.

So I may have people in a class who choose not to do a particular movement at all, or who finish before others and take a rest on the last repetition (or two, or three…!) of a movement. Or maybe they go much slower so they finish at the same time, but with fewer repetitions. And that’s just fine.

You can also do just part of a movement, rather than the whole thing. Not feeling like doing the full Washrag today? Maybe you just want to do the head and legs part of it. Or even just the rolling of the head because it feels good to gently move the neck in that way. Or maybe you want to do all the parts of a movement but not all together - for example, we often break down the Back Lift into its component parts before putting it all together, but what if you just did each component part and then rested for the full Back Lift?

Another very helpful thing about Somatic Movement when we really need to take it gently, is that we can make the movement smaller - or even just imagine it. Although it can be interesting and fun and it can feel good to go into a movement to the full (easy - not forced!!) extent of our range, that is not the aim, and is often not necessary or helpful. So when you’re doing, for example, something like your Arch & Flatten, you might just do the smallest possible arch that you can, and see what you can sense from doing that, and then do the same with the flatten part of the movement. Think of it like a ‘micro movement’ - it’s almost just an extension of the thought of doing it.

Which brings me onto just imagining the movement. You’ve probably heard of athletes using visualisation to perfect the movements they need for their profession - we can use this idea in Somatics too, by imagining doing the movement as we hear it being described. Because Somatic Movement is all about involving the conscious, thinking part of the brain (rather than doing movements automatically), if we’re not able to move, we can indeed just imagine the movement and the brain cells will still fire, so our soma* essentially gets the impression that we’ve actually done the movement itself.

I do think that sometimes in a class we feel we have to do what the teacher is saying, and be seen to be doing it, even if we’re not really up for doing it or it feels a bit much. It’s a whole nother post (that I definitely don’t have the capacity for right now!!) to address these cultural issues that lead to us feeling like we have to ‘do it right’ or ‘do as we’re told’, but to counter this, I really really encourage people to feel into their own capacity, and explore only to the extent that the exploration feels helpful in any given movement - which might look like very little or nothing to the outside perspective. Some of us will find that easy to do anyway - others of us are still trying to be the good girl (or insert preferred noun there) and need to hear that it’s ok not to be ’the best’ or get it ‘right’ all the time.

All that said, many of us often actually tend to overdo it at first - but don’t rule Somatic Movement out because of this. It can take a bit of practice to tune in to what works for us, but my recommendation would be to always go for less is more at first, until you sense more and can be more accurate in your decisions about what you need or not. It’s no good to you if you overdo it and incapacitate yourself the next day, as I’m sure you well know.

In terms of having a flare up of symptoms - and again, I’m probably preaching to the converted here - it’s worth taking a break of a day or two (or more!) if you need, and certainly if you’re in your early days of your practice. Or maybe lying down and listening to a recording and imagining seems within reach, if you don’t need a full-on break from practice, and that’s ok too. But it’s definitely ok not to do the work on any given day if you just don’t feel up to it. But once you’ve done a bit of practice, you’ll most likely start to notice which parts of your practice can be helpful to you in a flare up, and then you can come to it just doing those parts, as long as you stay within your capacity of course.

One thing that is really helpful in our practice at all times, is to come down to the floor (or wherever we practice), do our check in around where our soma is at right now, and then ask ourselves questions like, ‘What do I need today’ or ‘How much can I manage today’. Once we get started into our movements, we can ask ourselves things like ‘How big/small do I want to make this movement’ ‘Is this movement accessible to me today’ ‘Do I want to do only part of this movement’ and so on. These sorts of questions really help us to check in with our unique needs in that specific moment - and that really really helps in not overdoing things.

Whether you attend classes live, listen back to recordings, or, after practising for a while, start to make up your own regular practice, it’s worth remembering that even though your teacher can guide you and give you ideas, they are never going to be the expert in being you - that can only be your job of course! YOU are the expert in you, and Somatic Movement will just help to deepen that, and help you meet your own needs in your own way and time, as you grow your awareness of your soma, your movement, your muscle holdings and your patterns. It is very empowering!

Summary of ideas to keep it gentle:

• Check in with your capacity each time you practice

• Leave a movement out if needed

• Do fewer repetitions of a movement

• Go slower

• Do part of a movement only

• Make a movement smaller

• Imagine doing a movement

• Remember, less is more

• Take a break during flare ups if you need to

• Ask yourself questions about what you need

• Remember that YOU are the expert in YOU!

Already on board with all of this? I’d love to hear from you about what I’ve missed! What tips or ideas do you have for others that would be helpful in this work, when you need to take it slowly and gently?

If you haven’t started on this work yet, and are nervous about getting started - that’s understandable! Come and work with me 1:1 and I will support you to gently ease into this work in ways that work for you. Somatic Movement has helped so much in my own journey, and I want that for you too.

*Soma = your living body as you experience it from the inside.

Emilie Leeks

Author

Emilie is a heart-centred life mentor and space holder, supporting those on a healing path. This is not an easy journey, and often we can find ourselves losing our way. Emilie's work meets you where you're at, with beautiful, accepting support and connection, and weaves that support with practices and explorations in self-compassion, body connection, and a return to a deep trust in ourselves. Note: all blog post content which refers to them, has been read and agreed to by Emilie's children.

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