A mind-body connection lets muscles release
Here’s the secret about somatics — it’s all starts with the brain.
“Most of us are so attentive to the external world that over a long period of years we develop a kind of blindness — internally — to what’s going on. So that if we are asked to feel what happens in the waist as we pull the hip up, at first it may not be clear that anything is happening. If you are very gentle and very attentive in doing these movements, you will start feeling the precise contours of your movement and range. It’s like coming to know yourself in a way that normally none of us get a chance to know. “
-- Thomas Hanna
Doing a gentle, slow somatic movement that contracts a muscle and then releases it won’t do much unless our brain precisely notices what is happening.
A somatic movement practice requires developing a clear mind-body connection where our brain senses and feels those muscles tightening and then relaxing.
How our muscles respond is programmed by the brain. Our brain’s nervous system sends out a message that a muscle must contract to work and then release once the work is done. The only problem is that muscles in a constant state of tension because of poor posture, repetitive movements, anxiety, pain, injuries or other conditions, convince our brain into thinking that’s normal and the muscle should stay contracted.
Then that tight muscle, or usually it’s a few muscles, becomes a habit because the brain won’t release it.
In somatics, we deliberately draw the brain’s focus to the slow, gentle contraction and release of muscles. The brain then learns to let go and relax muscles as they’re no longer needed.
And when that happens, we’ve achieved a clear mind-body connection.