After nearly 30 years of living in pain thanks to Lupus SLE and his buddy Rheumatoid Arthritis; I was today years old when I learned that there are pain management professionals. A lupus advocacy Instagram accounts asked the internets “who has a pain management specialist?” I felt equally frustrated and grateful to learn that such a doctor exists.

FRUSTRATED: Had my rheumatologists dropped the ball by not referring me to a pain specialist as an additional resource?

GRATEFUL: I’ve been able to manage my pain to a tolerable level by mindfully monitoring my input and outputs.

I started gradually reducing my consumption of inflammatory food in 2005 by eliminating fast foods and eventually shifting to 80% plant-based diet. I walked at least 2 miles a day 5 days a week as a commuter in Manhattan from 2007-2010. When I began moving my body intentionally to increase my mobility and longevity, I leveled up my healing. I have enjoyed swimming for as long as I have been living with Lupus, but I added yoga as a low-impact exercise to my holistic healthcare routine in 2011. Which was a gateway to hiking and my exploration of the movement modalities like somatics that help to reduce the presence of persistent pain.

What is Somatic Movement?

So what the heck is somatic movement? It is a practice rooted in moving naturally and thoughtfully to tap into sensations in the body and create new habits. All forms of somatic practice are designed to increase ease and range of motion. Feldenkrais is one of the founding fathers of somatic education and focused on improving flexibility and coordination. The classes are gently guided and emphasize exploration, awareness, and autonomy. A somatic-inspired class is an easeful way to create new brain connections without the influence of instructor image. The instructors guide students through conscious movement and allow the space to intentionally focus on the internal experience. Being mindful of how the movement feels reduces muscle tension and joint discomfort.

How are somatics different from yoga?

Somatics and yoga asana are highly complementary, but also some super substantial differences between the two movement practices. I talk through the top 3 distinctions below

1️⃣ Feel the Feels

Yoga historians wildly recognize Tirumalai Krishnamacharya as “the father of modern yoga.” Krishnamacharya hosted popular yoga exhibition shows to get people excited about the practice. His students demonstrated the most advance (almost acrobatic) poses as a visual display of power and poise. We carried that showmanship into the Western World in the late 1940s, and modern-day magnified it on social media. Yoga is often taught from the lens of alignment and aesthetics – how does the pose look? Are you making the “right” shape with your body? Compared to a somatic practice that encourages exploring how the movement feels for your body. There may be a minor angle change that might not “look” like much, but those micro-movements can create a sense of relief for soreness.

2️⃣ Create Curiosity

A somatic sequence builds a bank of sensory information to mindfully inform your movements. It is a form of inquiry-based style learning that leans on the practitioner to be more curious about the nuances they feel in their body. Yoga classes often center the teacher as the star. The typical yoga student strives to mimic an “ideal” asana pose. A somatic sequence squashes all of that and challenges you to create new brain connections independent of aesthetics.

3️⃣ Floor Work

Another staple of a somatic session is to practice on hardwood or a flat floor. Most of us in the States are used to sitting on soft sofas, beds, and chairs that we sink into. It is easier to notice nuances with less effort while getting feedback from the floor. Students are not competing against gravity like many yoga standing poses. They can learn new insights from the safety of a solid surface. The ground supports gradually introducing and progressing movements that don’t cause pain; over time, this graded exposure can reduce the experience of pain.

Why do we need a movement variety?

We go through our day making hundreds of habitual movements that could potentially be causing us pain over time. Inserting myself as an example: I often sleep on my left side. When I drive, I predominately use my left hand, and when I stand, I frequently shift my weight to my right foot (which is causing an imbalance on my left). I experienced pain on the left side of my neck for years, thinking it was the result of improper alignment in my yoga asana. When I started studying somatics, I considered the possibility that maybe my persistent pain was created by my auto-pilot patterns.

In many ways, our body is resilient to repetitive motions. Think of writing with your dominant hand your whole life or opening the door to your home with the same hand; most of us don’t practice ambidexterity. If you sat with it for a minute, I’m sure you could think of a list of things you only do with one side of your body and never balance out on the other. Somatic movement challenges us to break the mold of sensory-motor amnesia that often manifests as chronic pain, stiffness, numbness, and joint clicking. Sometimes it’s the space needed to see the blind spots in a limited movement routine.

Moving Meditations

One of the common symptoms of fibromyalgia is soreness; people often suffer from body aches, sore muscles, and stiff joints. These symptoms are super similar to what I experienced living with Lupus. I kept them top of mind when I created the Move and Meditate: Pain Management Series. If you joined us live (or watched the replay) you might have noticed that we flowed through a somatic sequence for our first September session. The movements were a little different than the simple yoga stretches that we typically practice as a fibro fam.

Notice how the somatic movements are slow and subtle. Somatic yoga is the perfect time to practice how everyday habits feel in your body. The purpose of this sequence was to dial down the effort and increase ease to explore internal sensation. There was space to play and try different shapes. The peak of this practice was the rolling pattern which in many ways is like the developmental movements that we did while progressing from newborn to walking. We actually still bust this move rolling over in bed and rolling to the edge to get out.

A somatic session is like a moving meditation, and my favorite part of the sequence is the built-in rest. The constructive rest is a moment for a guided body scan meditation. This pause in the practice is the time to tap in and retrain your brain/body pain process pain until it dissipates over time. Think this all sounds too good to be true, and won't work for you? The next time you are achy try taking deep breaths and focus your exhales on the pain point. Practice that in 3-minute intervals and notice if you feel a difference over time, then press play on a somatic session when you do.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jewell Singletary is a creative entrepreneur, educator, and multidisciplinary artist. She is the founding owner of Gratitude Griot, a trauma-informed well-being-based business, a documentarian filmmaker, and host of Yoga Wit the Ohmies Podcast. Jewell has been living with autoimmune illnesses for nearly three decades and enjoys creating wellness tools for those who are also suffering from persistent pain.

Somatics for Soreness and Stiffness