{"id":11,"date":"2012-12-03T23:17:00","date_gmt":"2012-12-04T04:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sparrowsomatics.com\/?page_id=11"},"modified":"2016-11-29T08:30:59","modified_gmt":"2016-11-29T13:30:59","slug":"somatics","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/sparrowsomatics.com\/?page_id=11","title":{"rendered":"What Is Somatics?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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“Movement is the message, and the messenger.”<\/h4>\n

– EMILY CONRAD D’AOUD, FOUNDER OF\u00a0CONTINUUM MOVEMENT<\/a><\/h6>\n
\u00a0\u00a0<\/h6>\n

Somatics is the living body, experienced from within<\/span><\/h3>\n

“Soma”<\/em>\u00a0is the Greek word for the\u00a0living body,<\/em>\u00a0which\u00a0Thomas Hanna<\/a>\u00a0re-defined as “the body experienced from within.” Through our direct experience of the body – noticing thoughts, movement, anatomical structure, emotions, and mind-states – we gain access to innate intelligence. We gain a literal body of knowledge. \u00a0The result is long-lasting improvements in physical function, health, self-understanding, connectedness and self-sufficiency.<\/p>\n

\u201cA soma isn\u2019t a body and it isn\u2019t a mind; it\u2019s the living process\u2026Everything whatsoever is movement: reality is movement. Life is a movement process, and the soma is a process of unified movement\u2026We are never permanently structured in any sense.\u201d (Thomas Hanna, interview,\u00a0Somatics: Magazine-Journal of the Bodily Arts and Sciences<\/em>, 1991)<\/p>\n

In the emerging discipline of somatics, we use the term somatic to mean the wholeness of your lived experience, which allows for an integration of body, mind, spirit and emotions and leaves you in charge of your own sense of meaning and story.<\/span><\/p>\n

All somatic practices have a “mindfulness” component, as well as a body-work and a movement component. Here are some prominent somatic practices:<\/span><\/p>\n