Advanced Somatic Tracking
Very pleased to see that over the last several months, my "Somatic Tracking 101" blog has taken off a bit, and people are reading it from all around the world. (Hello to you all!)
For those of you that have tried this basic practice from the Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) toolkit for your chronic pain, and hopefully experienced success (reach out to me if you haven't and need help!), this post is all about Advanced Somatic Tracking!
There are a multitude of challenging experiences these skills can help you with and here I’ll offer some ideas about other realms where you can use this powerful tool.
(Note: I'm not going to review the basic Somatic Tracking flow here -- if you need a refresher head to the "Somatic Tracking 101" blog before jumping ahead. And, if you're new to this work, don't just dive into the stuff below! Take your time with the basics first. I promise those will pay off immensely with time & practice.)
As we dive in, let's revisit some of the framework for why this work works.
Remember back to one of the foundational basics of pain science that I've shared recently: pain is not necessarily indicative of injury or damage to the body. Pain is a danger signal generated in the nervous system. It's designed to keep us safe (that's a good thing!).
And, sometimes our nervous systems get it wrong.
The core idea behind Somatic Tracking is that it gently exposes our nervous systems to whatever pain experience we're having and asks us to spend some time simply being with what may feel dangerous. As we do that, over time we establish a lived-in sense of safety, which helps break the pain/danger cycle that keeps us in chronic pain.
And guess what? There are other conditions that can be looked at through this lens and successfully addressed with Somatic Tracking. Especially when you consider them as the nervous system misinterpreting something that's measurably safe for something dangerous.
Conditions like the following all have a beneficial evolutionary purpose (like pain) -- survival! And each can be a response to the nervous system's misinterpretation of a threat that's psychological for a threat that's physical.
Anxiety
Depression
Fatigue
Nausea
Itching
Hunger
So, as you broaden your perspective on Somatic Tracking and what it can be called into service to help resolve, you can consider advanced applications like these.
(Recall that "Somatic Tracking 101" suggested a pain experience of 5 out of 10 or below...these are most likely experiences that can feel a bit more intense than that and will therefore take more effort and focus. Please keep that in mind; these are "advanced" practices after all!)
Finally, an extra pro-tip for this practice -- when trying Somatic Tracking for these more challenging experiences, slow down. Literally. Move slower, let your body and mind get acquainted with and used to what's happening. That adds even more safety into the mix.
Challenging emotional states: Anxiety, anger, sadness, joy even (yep, that's a challenging emotional state for a LOT of folks)...these can all be approached through the lens of Somatic Tracking.
These often come in the heat of a very full experience, like an argument or a disappointment. Sometimes you simply have to let your System express itself a bit here first, and then when you have a bit more presence and space to be with the emotion you can dip your toes into really being with the sensory experience through Somatic Tracking.
Go gently with yourself while navigating your emotions this way. And, I promise you, some solid intention in this direction absolutely helps balance out the difficulty of these challenging states.
Strenuous / difficult physical exertion: Many of you know that I get great joy out of my trail running practice. And, this year's been particularly challenging for my runs, coming off of a year of travel in '22-'23 and then immediately finding myself navigating a slew of injuries as I got back into my regular activities back home.
So this summer's runs have quite simply hurt. Reclaiming your fitness in the heat of a Texas summer can be brutal.
And, when my lungs are screaming at me to stop and walk a bit, I can simply remember that my body's very safe, the pain is not dangerous (I'm just not fully back in shape aerobically yet), and I can continue through it by feeling the nuance of the sensation. Same goes when my legs are sore and cranky.
Heat / cold: In my original "101" blog, I tell my story about using Somatic Tracking to comfortably enter (and enjoy!) a 113-degree mineral spring pool (jump to the end of that blog at one of the links above to re-read that tale). That was amazing, and possible for anyone. And for all of you folks that want to enjoy the cold plunges, Somatic Tracking's a great bet too.
Acute injury: I'll say this one's an edge-case. Meaning, Somatic Tracking may not be the top solution for you when you've suffered an acute injury. Typically with acute injury -- and definitely in my story below -- the nervous system gets this one very right and the pain is indeed the result of something dangerous that's happening to the body. I'll report quickly, however, on a personal experience I recently had where I was very thankful for my Somatic Tracking skills.
About a month ago I rather seriously burned myself with hot cooking grease cleaning my newest, favorite bit of gear -- my Blackstone griddle. Basically I was just going too fast and not paying close enough attention. In the midst of searing pain, I was able to bring things down many notches to "more-tolerable" using Somatic Tracking.
This absolutely took tremendous mental effort and most definitely isn't the typical "5 out of 10 or below" on the pain scale I generally recommend for Somatic Tracking. But if you find yourself in a similar situation sometime, it certainly won't do harm to wrangle your attention in this way. Then go get yourself medical attention.
Boredom: Fun fact! The University of Virginia once held a study that had participants sit alone in a room for 15 minutes and rate how unpleasant it was. A whopping 43% of participants then chose to shock themselves rather than sit in stillness...an electrical shock was experienced as less unpleasant!!
A significant percentage of us really struggle with boredom, and would rather be preoccupied with something -- anything! -- than experience the stillness of boredom. For many, that something might as well be unpleasant (self-electrocution, pain, anxiety, doomscrolling, you name it).
So, next time you're bored and reaching for your phone or other favorite distraction, stop. Try Somatic Tracking here and get to know the experience of boredom in your body a bit. Then see what happens with that urge to fill space.
If you're feeling confident in your Somatic Tracking skills, give these advanced applications a try, or get creative and see what other scenarios you can come up with on your own.
Let me know how it goes in the comments below!