Have you ever felt like your emotions are chasing you? No matter how much you try to avoid, suppress, or distract yourself, they find a way to bubble up. Maybe it’s through anxiety, chronic tension, or even physical pain. If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Our bodies hold onto emotions, and when we don’t allow ourselves to fully experience them, they can get stuck—manifesting as stress, discomfort, or even trauma responses.
Somatic Experiencing (SE) is a powerful approach to healing that helps us stop running from our emotions and start feeling them safely. Developed by Dr. Peter Levine, SE is based on the idea that trauma and emotional distress get trapped in the nervous system when we don’t complete our body’s natural processing cycle. By tuning into our bodily sensations rather than just our thoughts, we can gently release what’s been stuck and restore a sense of balance.
Why Do We Run from Our Emotions?
Avoiding emotions is a survival strategy. From a young age, many of us are conditioned to believe that certain feelings—grief, anger, sadness—are too much to handle or even unacceptable. Instead of allowing these emotions to move through us, we repress them. But emotions aren’t meant to be ignored; they’re meant to be felt, processed, and released. When we suppress them, they don’t just disappear—they store themselves in our muscles, fascia, and nervous system, often leading to anxiety, exhaustion, or chronic pain.
How Somatic Experiencing Helps
Somatic Experiencing works by reconnecting us with the body in a gentle, gradual way, allowing us to discharge stuck energy and rewire the nervous system for safety and resilience. Here’s how it helps us stop running from emotions and start embracing them:
1. Bringing Awareness to Sensations
Instead of getting lost in the mind’s stories about our emotions, SE invites us to notice how emotions feel in the body. Is there tightness in the chest? A flutter in the stomach? A heaviness in the limbs? By focusing on these sensations, we shift from avoiding emotions to being present with them in a manageable way.
2. Completing the Stress Cycle
When we experience emotional overwhelm or trauma, our nervous system often gets stuck in fight, flight, or freeze mode. SE helps us gently complete these stress responses by allowing our body to shake, breathe deeply, or release tension in small, controlled doses. This restores a sense of ease and regulation.
3. Releasing Trauma Without Re-Traumatization
Unlike traditional talk therapy, which can sometimes rehash painful memories without providing a way to fully process them, SE works with the body's innate wisdom. Instead of forcing us to relive past wounds, it allows for healing at the body's own pace, focusing on safety and regulation.
4. Building Emotional Resilience
When we stop running from emotions and learn to stay present with them, we develop greater emotional resilience. SE teaches us that emotions, no matter how intense, are temporary waves. By experiencing them fully in the body, we become less afraid of them and more capable of navigating life’s ups and downs with ease.
From Running to Releasing
The truth is, emotions aren’t the enemy. They are signals, guides, and natural responses to our experiences. Somatic Experiencing helps us move from fearing our emotions to befriending them, from suppressing our pain to releasing it, and from feeling trapped to feeling free.
If you’ve been running from your emotions, SE offers a gentle, compassionate way to slow down, tune in, and heal. The body holds the key to unlocking what’s been stuck—and through somatic work, we can finally find the relief and wholeness we’ve been seeking.
Are you ready to stop running and start feeling?
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