Welcome back to Unit 2 of the Somatic series!

This series is where I’m using somatic psych theory to help people learn and map out their autonomic nervous system, develop a healthier relationship with themselves, and eventually build stronger communities.

Unit 2 focuses on explaining and demonstrating how to use 3 somatic exercises (Grounding, Body Scanning, and the Notice and Name Exercise) to learn and map out your specific nervous system.

Last chapter covered Grounding: what it is, how it works, how to use it in practical situations, and a demonstration of the 54321 grounding technique.

In this chapter, we are getting into the body scan.

Video Versions: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3!

 

Before We Begin

Remember to take your time.

There’s no need to rush.

The somatic series isn’t going anywhere. You need to go at the pace of your body. Part of somatic work is learning your pace and sticking to it. There’s literally no one to impress, no way to fail, and no boss or teacher rushing you along.

Get comfortable being present and grounding yourself AND THEN practice body scanning.

It’s ok if it takes months. Let it take however long it needs to take. These beginner skills build off of each other. There are no skips.

This chapter is going to answer important questions like:

• What’s a body scan?
• What’s a “body check-in”?
• Why is this important?

 

What’s the Point of a Body Scan?

Once you are comfortable being in the present moment, it’s time to learn how to sit with your emotions a little bit. As a somatic therapist, I use body scans to help clients become more and more comfortable learning how their emotions manifest in physical ways in their body. When doing a body scan, it’s important to pay attention to physical sensations in your body – how they feel and where you feel them. Like I’ve said before, those physical sensations are the roots of your emotions and behaviors. That’s literally how your body communicates with you about how safe you feel or how many signs of danger your nervous system is picking up from the environment, etc.

Through the body scan, from the top of your head to the bottom of your feet, you learn how to connect with your autonomic nervous system directly. And it’s a more streamlined, straightforward way to deal with your emotions and behaviors. You’re basically playing Blue’s Clues with your nervous system.

 

Some questions to think about:

• What are you feeling? No, no, I mean, in your body? What does it physically feel like in there?
• Does the feeling have a weight? Is it a light feeling? Or is it heavy? Does it feel hollow?
• Does the feeling have a texture? Is it fuzzy? Sharp? Soft?
• Does the feeling have a color? How would you describe it?
• Does the feeling have a temperature? Is it hot, warm, cool, cold, etc.?
• Where do you feel it specifically? Is it in your chest, your legs, your stomach, etc?
• Do you feel numb? Or a distinct sense of nothingness? Or do you feel not even in your body?

Now this is where having a basic understanding of somatic theory and having a basic understanding of how our autonomic nervous systems help us move through our emotions really, really starts to come in handy. I’ll throw out a quick example. So by now, you know that the dorsal vagus is connected to your gut, lungs, and heart, and you know that it’s activated when your ANS feels trapped in a situation. So practically, that can look like feeling a pit or a sinking feeling in your stomach at work, feeling frozen in the face of conflict, or even breathing/moving slower than usual while feeling disconnected or unable to focus. Knowing what you know, you can figure out that this has something to do with your dorsal vagus by noticing the physical sensations you feel (E.G. the sinking feeling or feeling frozen or moving slower) *AND* where you feel it in your body (in your stomach, heaviness in your arms and legs, etc.). And once you know which part(s) of your nervous system is turned on, you can figure out what your body is asking you for and what you need to do to address the situation and get back into regulation.

 

So in this hypothetical example, now that you know your dorsal vagus has been activated, some questions to ask yourself in this situation would be:

• What is overwhelming you right now?
• What is making you feel trapped?
• Are you grounded into the present right now?
• What do you need to do and who in your community do you need to call to move out of shutdown into fight/flight?

After you have grounded yourself into the present moment, the body scan is the essential piece to help you start to figure out what’s going on in your body physically and emotionally.

 

What’s a Body “Check-in”?

Body scans can technically be as long or as short as you need them to be, especially as you practice more and get more comfortable with the skill.

Basically, a body “check-in” is a shorter version of a body scan. Less a step-by-step scan of the body and more being still and, like I say to my clients, seeing what your body is yelling at you.

With practice, you will get to a certain place of comfort in this skill and a certain level of connection to your body, where you won’t necessarily have to do a step-by-step body scan every time. You will already know what kinds of physical sensations, emotions, thoughts, self-talk, etc. that are connected to each part of your nervous system. You will get to a place where you’ll already know that xyz means you are having a fight response, you are frustrated, and need to release some energy, for example, so a body scan wouldn’t be required. You’d pause for a moment and check in with your body, take note of what you’re feeling, and move forward with that information.

 

Practical Applications

To Just See How You Feel

• Like I mentioned in the last chapter, being able to first, recognize that your nervous system is trying to communicate with you and then, ground yourself into the present +  body scan to figure out what you need in that moment is an essential skill to learn. Top tier. A foundational skill. Mandatory.

To Determine What You Need to Feel Safe

• Similar to being able to tell how you feel, being able to figure out what you need to feel safe is so key. And that really depends on which part(s) of your nervous system is activated at any given point. Do you need to rest? Do you need space? Do you need to eat protein and/or sugar/carbs? Do you need a hug? Do you need to release some energy? You won’t know until you learn how to ask your nervous system.

If a Situation/Person is Safe

• After grounding yourself into the present moment, body scanning can give you a lot of information on how your nervous system felt about a situation deep down. Depending on your comfort level with body scanning and/or what’s possible in that situation, you can also get different information depending on *when* you choose to scan. You could body scan before you meet up with someone or before a meeting, and that could tell you a lot. You could choose to body scan or check-in in the middle of a situation to take stock of what your body is telling you in real time. You could wait and check-in afterwards to get immediate feedback and figure out how to handle things in the aftermath. Or even check-in the next day after a night’s sleep to see how things have settled or marinated since yesterday.

To Figure Out Which Exercises/Tools/Community Members You Need

• Body scanning is a great part of revamping your relationship to food, sleep, and substance use. Reminder that your whole perspective of yourself, other people, and the world is heavily influenced by which part(s) of your autonomic nervous system is active in that moment so checking in with your body regularly is a great way to assess your relationships to substances, sleep, food, etc.
• Body scanning before or after physical activity is another great application. For example, if you are shut down, now is not the time to push yourself hard at the gym or in class. Pushing yourself in a shut down state will only make you shutdown even more. That would be the time to be easy on yourself and tailor your movement to the pace your nervous system is setting, not what you think you should be doing. And scanning or checking in somatically after physical activity is great to know when to stop for the day and to know what kinds of aftercare your body needs.

When It’s Time to Leave And Go Regulate

• For you introverts out there: Do you want a more accurate read of your social battery? How dope would it be to know in advance how much energy you have and to intentionally allot some for a particular thing? Or even be able to keep a real-time measurement of how many more spoons you have for this thing before it’s time to make your exit? Or even better, what would it be like to know how to do all that and then also know exactly the kinds of recovery, aftercare, regulation and the like you need to recharge that social battery? Yeah. You’re welcome.

Body Scanning as Part of Your Decision-Making Process

• It’s 1 thing to process cognitively, meaning working through just your thoughts. You could get stuck in rumination land if you aren’t careful though. Just running on the hamster wheel of your mind with no end in sight. It’s a whole other thing to invite your autonomic nervous system and body to the conversation. Your autonomic nervous system picks up on things in seconds that your conscious mind may not be aware of, so that’s vital extra information to bring into the conversation.
• It’s easier to feel solid about the choices you make when all of you agree – the you’s in survival mode and the you fully connected to yourself and others, which all are valid perspectives to pull from. And it’s also easier to feel solid about your choices when you know you can intentionally turn your prefrontal cortex back on and put all hands on deck, aka your full brain, to the issue.

 

Body Scanning and Chronic Pain

Thanks in part to systemic ableism, I think many, if not most, non-disabled people have a very poor understanding of pain, even medical and mental health non-disabled professionals.

Because yes:

• Trauma can cause some physical pain.
• Trauma can make physical pain that was already there even worse.
• Holding our body in tension to brace for pain can increase the pain.
• Somatic work can reduce tension and change the relationship someone has with themselves, their body, and the pain.

That said, body scans do not heal pain and they do not necessarily make pain go away. I’m noticing a lot of pop psychology and even many therapists pushing mindfulness as a treatment for chronic pain and that’s not how this works. Stop suggesting mindfulness techniques to people who are dealing with chronic pain. That’s very patronizing and it’s ultimately ineffective.

Just like grounding techniques, body scans are not healing in and of itself. Body scans are reconnaissance work. Body scans are just to get a layout of the land, a summary of what’s going on for you physically. Body scans are functionally you calling up your body and asking what’s going on. And the physical sensations you feel is your body’s report on the state of the union.

So what does that mean for body scanning and chronic pain? I’ll get into explaining trauma from a somatic perspective in Unit 3 (we are 2/3 of the way into Unit 2 by the way), but I want to highlight a few points real quick. Your body/nervous system sees physical pain, psychological trauma, stress, hunger, being cold, and being overstimulated as basically all the same thing. It’s all stress, all a danger to be faced, until it becomes overwhelming.

So as a result of the pain becoming too overwhelming for your body’s capacity, chronic pain rightfully triggers your body’s shutdown survival response. If pain is a trauma (and it is), chronic pain is a trauma that your body learns the hard way that it can’t fight, flight, fawn, freeze, etc. its way out of so it shuts down instead. Working with chronic pain is working with a traumatized body in survival mode.

It’s important to remember that learning (and teaching) these somatic tools is not about following a manual, but learning and working with your body as it is. You are using the body scan to take note of which parts of your nervous system are activated and which kinds of support your body is asking you, and ideally your community, for. This is why having a basic understanding  of how your autonomic nervous system moves is so important. Assuming that your body has been living deep in dorsal vagal shutdown more often than not to help you live with the pain, I WOULD NOT suggest forcing yourself to do a body scan all willy-nilly with no prep or grace. That’s a whole mistake and, at best, your body will reject that and probably yell at you for trying.

Like I’ve said before, chronic pain has physical & psychological parts to it. There’s the actual physical parts/causes/factors of the pain itself and then there’s the psychological parts that are just as real – the internalized ableism, the shame, the stress of living in a body that’s in a constant survival mode, the trying to survive in a society that oppresses disabled people, the grief and loss from relationships falling apart, how living with pain affects people’s actions/behaviors, etc. And the body views all physical and all psychological pain like any other urgent danger, like a lion coming at you, but this is functionally a 24/7 lion attack. And this all needs to be taken into consideration when starting somatic work. There needs to be grace and ***accommodations*** to make the somatic work better suited to the person’s body and their body’s needs.

Just like I do with all my clients dealing with chronic dissociation and other dorsal vagal shutdown related experiences, I always suggest to clients dealing with chronic pain to try grounding and body scanning in pleasurable moments as much as possible first. It’s an easier method to ease your way in instead of choosing a random moment to be present. I’ve suggested clients try grounding & body scanning during physical therapy appointments that aren’t too intense, especially during somatic massage appointments.

The physical contact from a trusted specialist during these appointments can feel very grounding and can help your brain process some things. Or you could also try grounding and body scanning after using your pain management tools or work around flare-ups. Or practicing under a blanket (weighted ideally, but regular is fine) to block out extra stimulation. Or using co-regulation (which I’ll get into in a lot of detail about soon) when your nervous system alone isn’t enough.

Some people’s nervous systems are so deep in shut down that they need someone else’s nervous system to link up with in order to feel safe enough to regulate. Ideally this would be someone you trust, that you don’t have complicated feelings around. This can look like grounding and body scanning into a hug or cuddling session. Or while sharing a meal with that someone. Or while reminiscing or watching a comfort movie together.

Somatic work is so customizable. It’s about you and the clinician working together to find the right accommodation based on what your body is communicating with you.

 

Other Body Scan Modifications

Modification #1: Sitting is Not Mandatory

Although the common way I’ve seen people body scan is while sitting with their back straight and feet firmly planted on the ground, sitting is not the only way to scan. You can body scan while sitting, standing, walking, or laying down.

Modification #2: Focus

If you have issues focusing, you could also use a body scan audio or video like this one, so someone else can keep track of the exercise while you can just focus on doing it.

Modification #3: Stim While Scanning

Stimming is your body’s way of regulating and it can even help you with focus. You could need to stim in the background while you scan and that’s cool. Ideally choosing a stim that doesn’t distract from the scan, swaying/rocking, using a fidget toy or ring, doing some light tapping, etc may be grounding and fit the moment. Twerking, playing the drum, breakdancing, running, or pacing around fast, for example, may be too distracting.

 

Demonstration Transcription

[The video starts with Pierre seated with a door and a blank background behind him, wearing a black Janet Jackson “The Velvet Rope” t-shirt]

[Heading: “Somatic Series: Body Scan Demonstration”]

[Pop-up: “9m 34s” – 9 mins, 34 secs]

[0:00] Pierre: “Reminder this isn’t therapy. I’m not doing therapy with you. This is me, showing you how to do this skill and then, uh, virtually showing you how to debrief yourself. Remember, we are not using the body scan to reduce anxiety so any sort of body scans that focus on calming you or focus on reducing anxiety – those are not what I’m talking about (Pierre shakes his head and gestures)”

[0:24] Pierre: “I’m talking about, um, body scan exercises that invite you to explore and pay attention (Pierre taps his fingertips on his chest 6x with light thuds)”

[0:32] Pierre: “So the 1st step to doing the body scan is making sure that you are grounded into the present moment so I already did my 54321 grounding technique.”

[Pop-up: “Check out the chapter on Grounding for more information]

[0:43] Pierre: “You can decide when you scan to either close your eyes or look off into a corner. It is totally up to you.”

[0:50] Pierre: “Alright so let’s breathe in (Pierre inhales).”

[0:55] Pierre: “Breathe out (Pierre exhales).”

[1:00] Pierre: “Breathe in (Pierre inhales and exhales)”.

[1:12] Pierre: “And breathe in (Pierre inhales and exhales).”

[1:21] Pierre: “Ok. Let’s focus your attention on the top of your head. And let’s just sit there for a moment (Pierre pauses for 3 secs).”

[1:40] Pierre: “Let’s breathe in (Pierre inhales).”

[1:44] Pierre: “And breathe out (Pierre exhales).”

[1:49] Pierre: “Ok great. Let’s move on to the eyes. Focus your attention there. Do you notice anything? Let’s just stay there for 1 moment.”

[2:09] Pierre: “Breathe in (Pierre inhales).”

[2:13] Pierre: “And breathe out (Pierre exhales).”

[2:19] Pierre: “Ok. Let’s move on to the mouth area. Focus your attention there. Do you notice anything? Let’s breathe in (Pierre inhales).”

[2:40] Pierre: “And breathe out (Pierre exhales).”

[2:46] Pierre: “Ok. Great. Let’s move to the throat/neck area. Focus on your attention there (Pierre pauses for 3 secs).”

[3:01] Pierre: “Let’s breathe in (Pierre inhales).”

[3:08] Pierre: “And breathe out (Pierre exhales).”

[3:12] Pierre: “Great. Let’s move to the shoulders. Focus your attention there. See if you feel anything (Pierre pauses for 3 secs).”

[3:26] Pierre: “Let’s breathe in (Pierre inhales).”

[3:30] Pierre: “And breathe out (Pierre exhales).”

[3:37] Pierre: “Ok. Now let’s move to the arms and hands. Focus your attention there (Pierre pauses for 3 secs).”

[3:53] Pierre: “Breathe in (Pierre inhales).”

[3:56] Pierre: “And breathe out (Pierre exhales).”

[4:07] Pierre: “Ok. Great. Now, let’s move to the chest.”

[4:12] Pierre: “Now, you have some options here. You can keep your hands wherever they are right now. Or you can move 1 hand to your chest (Pierre puts 1 hand on his chest).”

[4:23] Pierre: “Or both hands to your chest. (Pierre puts another hand on his chest).”

[4:25] Pierre: “Um, whatever feels grounding or feels just, right for you in that moment. You can choose – you like both hands. You can choose 1 hand (Pierre moves a hand off his chest)”

[4:35] Pierre: “You could actually say, ‘Mm Pierre, no, no-hands’ and that’s fine.”

[4:41] Pierre: (Pierre has 1 hand on his chest) “Move to your chest (Pierre inhales and exhales) Let’s just sit here (Pierre pauses for a moment).”

[4:52] Pierre: “And breathe in (Pierre inhales).”

[4:56] Pierre: “And breathe out (Pierre exhales).”

[5:04] Pierre: “Great. Now, let’s move to the stomach. And again, you have options. You can put your hands somewhere else (Pierre moves his hand off of his chest).”

[5:14] Pierre: “You can keep them on your chest, if you had them on your chest. You can move 1 hand to your stomach. You can move both hands to your stomach.”

[5:26] Pierre: “Breathe in (Pierre inhales).”

[5:31] Pierre: “And breathe out (Pierre exhales).”

[5:40] Pierre: “Great. Now let’s focus on the seat and our legs. And you can put your hands on your lap, if you choose to.”

[5:55] Pierre: “Breathe in (Pierre inhales).”

[6:00] Pierre: “And breathe out (Pierre exhales).”

[6:06] Pierre: “Great. And now, the feet. So focus your attention there. (Pierre pauses for 3 secs)”

[6:18] Pierre: “”Breathe in (Pierre inhales).”

[6:22] Pierre: “And breathe out (Pierre exhales).”

[6:29] Pierre: “You can open your eyes or re-focus your attention back to the front on your own time. You don’t gotta, like, hop to it or anything (Pierre pauses with his eyes closed for 3 secs).”

[6:42] Pierre: “Alright, so, before we debrief: Do you need to drink some water, get a snack, use the bathroom, anything like that? Pause me. I’ll wait.”

[6:54] Pierre: “Welcome back! So what did you notice? How would you describe those physical sensations? Did they have a temperature? Hot or cold or warm or chilly? Did they have a color? Did they have a weight? Were they light or heavy? Um, did they have a texture? Were they feeling fuzzy or sharp? Was there, like, an energy you noticed? Did the physical sensations or that energy move at all or did they stay in 1 spot?”

[7:32] Pierre: “Did those physical sensations have a size? Did they cover a large part of your body or is it only a small part (Pierre gestures to indicate going from smaller to larger to smaller again)?”

[7:40] Pierre: “Right? Like, do you feel this physical sensation in your hand or is it like your whole arm (Pierre gestures to his whole arm)?”

[7:46] Pierre: “Or on the opposite side of the spectrum, did you feel nothing at all? Or did you feel, like, numb? Right? Um, did you feel that numbness in 1 part or did you feel numb the whole (Pierre gestures to his whole body)?”

[8:00] Pierre: “Did you feel nothing in all of your body? Or did you feel nothing in certain areas? Where did you feel those physical sensations? Remember, the different parts of your autonomic nervous system are connected to different parts of your body (Pierre taps his fingertips on his chest again a few times)”

[8:17] Pierre: “So if your stomach is activated a lot, that gives you clues on which part of your autonomic nervous system may be involved. Your dorsal vagus is involved in digestion. It’s connected to your intestines and your stomach. It might be involved. Right? If you know notice that your breathing and your heart is feeling very activated and shallow (Pierre is patting his hand over his heart, mimicking a fast heart beat)”

[8:42] Pierre: “You know? Your sympathetic nervous system may be involved. It’s connected to that part (Pierre is patting his hand over his heart, mimicking an even faster heart beat)”

[8:46] Pierre: “If you notice that you can’t stop smiling, right? Or you notice that, um, a feeling of, uh, a rush or excitement, that’s a clue. Rush or excitement could be your sympathetic nervous system. It could be you’re in a playful sort of mood. If you notice you can’t stop smiling, your ventral vagus could be activated.”

[9:12] Pierre: “Whether you noticed, you know, all these different physical sensations. Or whether you only noticed 1 or 2 things. Or whether you feel numb. Or whether you don’t feel anything at all. Or whether your body said ‘NO. None of your business!’ (Pierre puts his hand up in a Stop sign).”

[9:27] Pierre: “That’s all information. Paying attention to where you’re feeling things is really, really important.”

 

[END OF TRANSCRIPTION]

 

Thanks for reading! The next chapter closes out Unit 2 with the Notice and Name exercise – the final piece in learning how to map out your nervous system!