I’m sharing (with permission) an inside peek into an online somatic coaching session with a woman of color, I’ll call her Samantha, who has been supporting immigrant families impacted by ICE. As you can imagine, it’s a stressful, high-stakes situation for the families and her.
At the start of our call she said that she wanted to feel more present and in the moment and to feel like it’s okay if she wasn’t able to get things done or done to the level that she wanted to. In addition to the work she’s doing to support immigrants, she also leads community projects and takes care of her two young children, so she’s juggling a lot. She also wanted to learn some practices to help her stay grounded and centered when dealing with situations involving aggression and harassment by police.
We began with some grounding to help her feel her feet on the ground and the support of the chair. After awhile, I invited her to very slowly look around her room to take in her surroundings and find something pleasant that catches her eye. In Somatic Experiencing®, this “orientating” practice of scanning your environment helps bring you into the present moment and assess for safety. Samantha found her gaze drawn to the lovely view outside her window where she connected with the green trees and even some tiny insects flying around. I noticed and named her smile and deeper breath as she savored the beauty in her yard. She felt embodied and lighter.
As she continued to admire the view outside, she said with delight, “Oh, wow! There’s a humming bird resting on a branch! This is the second time in a week I’ve seen that!” I chuckled at this wink from the universe and I reminded her of her intentions for this session – being more present and being okay with not getting things done. I said, “Look, Samantha, even hummingbirds need to rest! AND it’s okay for you to rest, too!” She nodded in agreement and wonder, inspired to give herself more permission to not always have to be doing, doing, doing. We talked about how radical rest is within this grind culture of capitalism and productivity and this felt experience of spaciousness helped her really get that in her bones.
From this more grounded place, we moved on to exploring some somatic holds she could use the next morning to help regulate her nervous system before going to support the families. We also explored a couple of practices to help her discharge fight energy (for example, by pushing against a wall) should she be harassed again by an officer. So instead of feeling shaken and overwhelmed by fear, anger, resentment or sadness for an extended period of time, she could let those emotions and sensations move through her and not get stored in her tissues and nervous system.
The next day Samantha shared that she practiced orienting a few times in the morning, on the way in and after being in court and she said it really helped her nervous system. I love when folks start to integrate these simple yet profound somatic practices into their daily lives and discover new ways to rest in their bodies, even while tending to stressful situations.
If you relate to the fast and busy hummingbird flapping its wings up to 80 times per second (!!!) because you’re forever flitting from one task to the next, I hope Samantha’s synchronistic story of spotting resting hummingbirds helps to remind you that rest is okay (and necessary)!
Some reflection questions for you:
- What comes up for you when you think of rest?
- Does it come easy to you?
- Does it bring up resistance or fear?
- Notice what sensations, if any, you feel in your body. Did your heart beat faster? Or did you take a deeper breath?
For more ideas on finding more ease, flow and embodiment check out this blog post.
Written by Jenn
