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What is Somatic Healing and How Can It Help with Burnout?
Your life can easily become fast-paced and demanding, ultimately leading to burnout. The stress and exhaustion associated with burnout can take a toll on both your physical and mental well-being.
While traditional approaches to healing often focus solely on the mind, somatic healing recognizes the interconnectedness of the mind and body.
In this article, we explore the science behind somatic healing and how it can help with burnout, offering a promising solution for those seeking relief from this pervasive condition.
Understanding Somatic Healing
The word “somatic” means “of the body.” Because our minds and bodies are so intricately connected, somatic healing is an integrative approach recognizing the body's inherent ability to heal itself.
It acknowledges the deep connection between the mind and body, emphasizing the importance of treating physical symptoms and addressing emotional and psychological imbalances simultaneously.
It also emphasizes the reality that our minds communicate with our bodies and vice versa.
For example, you may start to feel physically ill when you’re mentally or emotionally overwhelmed.
You can also tell your mind that you’re in a safe place by your body’s posture, allowing your mind to find peace again.
The Role of Somatic Healing
Somatic healing is based on the idea that unresolved trauma and stress become trapped in the body, leading to physical symptoms and emotional distress.
By focusing on bodily sensations and facilitating the release of stored tension, somatic healing aims to restore the body's natural equilibrium, promoting overall well-being.
The science behind somatic healing (combining movement with mental exercises) lies in the intricate relationship between the brain, the nervous system, and the body's physiological responses.
At the core of somatic healing is the concept of neuroplasticity, or brain rewiring, which refers to the brain's ability to change. Neuroplasticity allows the brain to create new neural pathways, strengthen existing ones, and rewire connections based on our experiences.
The activities we engage in and somatic healing are tools used to create those new pathways.
Somatic tools essentially work by pairing movement with mental exercises.
Using these tools, individuals can harness the power of neuroplasticity to rewire the brain's neural pathways, regulate emotional responses, and restore balance within the autonomic nervous system.
By addressing the physiological imprints of trauma and stress, somatic healing promotes healing at both the psychological and physical levels.
Somatic Healing for Stress and Burnout
Burnout is a state of chronic physical and emotional exhaustion caused by prolonged exposure to stressors, often associated with work or personal life. It can manifest in various ways, including physical symptoms like fatigue, headaches, and digestive issues, as well as emotional symptoms such as irritability, depression, and a decreased sense of accomplishment.
How Does Burnout Affect Your Mind and Body?
Research has shown that burnout affects not only the mind but also the body.
Prolonged stress can lead to imbalances in the autonomic nervous system, triggering a chronic fight-or-flight response. This dysregulation can result in a range of chronic ailments and contribute to the cycle of burnout.
Pairing movement with mental exercises during stress transitions in life or when you feel like you’re in a constant state of stress can help you regulate your nervous system and prevent further health problems down the road.
How Somatic Healing Helps with Burnout
Somatic healing can be helpful during times and intense stress and if you’re on the road to burnout in two ways:
1. Addressing the Root Cause
Somatic healing approaches, including Somatic Experiencing, focus on identifying and addressing the root causes of burnout.
By working through past traumas and stored stress in the body, individuals can release tension, reestablish a sense of safety, and reduce the impact of burnout.
2. Restoring Body-Mind Balance
Other somatic tools engage the body's innate ability to regulate itself.
Through gentle movements, breathing exercises, and awareness of your thought patterns and body posture, you can reconnect with your body, promoting self-awareness and enhancing your capacity to regulate stress responses.
This process allows for a restoration of balance between the body and mind and an increase in resilience.
The Role of Brain Retraining Programs in Somatic Healing
Brain retraining programs like (REWIRE and REBOOT) are designed to help individuals retrain their neural pathways, promoting positive change in both thoughts and behaviors.
By utilizing techniques such as neuroplasticity, these programs offer a structured approach to retraining the brain, addressing the negative patterns and beliefs that contribute to burnout.
Using somatic healing as part of your brain retraining toolbox can provide a holistic approach to addressing burnout.
Somatic healing techniques help individuals regulate their nervous system responses and release stored tension while working on rewiring neural pathways, promoting resilience and emotional well-being.
The science behind somatic healing lies in understanding the brain's capacity for change and the intricate relationship between the mind, body, and nervous system.
By engaging in somatic healing practices, individuals can tap into the body's innate healing abilities, promote neuroplasticity, and ultimately find relief from the effects of trauma, stress, and burnout.
Vital-Side courses, REBOOT, and REWIRE, both incorporate somatic practices to help you retrain your brain.
REBOOT is perfect for you if you’re in a constant state of stress and on the fast track to burnout, and works well to prevent burnout from turning into physical symptoms.
REWIRE is designed to help those with chronic physical symptoms that have already resulted from ongoing stress or past traumas. If you’re not sure which course is right for you, contact our team to learn more.
If you’re not ready to commit and just want a taste of what brain retraining can do for you, check out our 7-day brain retraining course, RESET.
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