Developing somatic literacy
A somatic perspective understands that a change in one aspect of our experience affects all other aspects. ―rae johnson
👥 Serves: 1 person
🎚 Difficulty: Medium
⏳ Total time: Ongoing
🥣 Ingredients: “embodied activism” book by rae johnson (if you’re curious to find out more about it!)
🤓 Wholebeing Domains: Awareness, Discomfortability, Rest, Ritualising
💪 Wholebeing Skills: Agency, Breathing, Embodiment, Liberation, Mind-body-connection, Perspective, Presence, Relaxation, Self-awareness, Self-regulation, Slowing down
Developing somatic literacy
📝 Description
Cultivating perceptiveness to reclaim the mind-body connection.
In their book “embodied activism”, social worker, somatic movement therapist, and scholar/activist rae johnson introduces two tools for social change: “perceptiveness” and “responsiveness”. This recipe explores the former, which extends beyond multiperspectivity (meaning the use of multiple lenses and the incorporation of more than one perspective). In fact, johnson argues that it invites us to consider our “hidden agendas and unconscious bias”. It requires us to look inward as well as outward, recognising “how we use, misuse, or fail to use our power”.
To cultivate perceptiveness, you must develop “somatic literacy” which has to do with reclaiming your mind-body connection. In a nutshell, it is the capacity to read, understand, and act upon your body’s internal signals. The following recipe introduces three domains you can explore to develop somatic literacy. If you are interested in exploring the second tool, responsiveness, check out our recipe “Developing somatic bandwidth”.
🌟 Steps
Step 1 – Interoception: Sensing within
johnson explains that it “refers to the sensory information arising from within the body”. This data includes sensations of hunger, thirst, fatigue, tiredness, pain, pleasure, but also pressure, temperature, sexual arousal… Basically, interoception shares information that tells you when your critical body functions are out of balance and need attention. The capacity to witness these inner bodily sensations is critical to developing somatic literacy. Also, for changemakers, “being able to be with your complex, messy, and sometimes painful bodily sensations also helps you to be with others in the face of injustice”.
Step 2 – Proprioception: Sensing movement
Proprioception refers to your awareness of all movement impulses and actions, e.g. desire to stand up, push back, hold on, reach out, etc. Because it informs your overall sense of body position, movement effort, and speed, proprioception guides your actions. johnson points out that what is important is to feel the movements you are doing, rather than focusing on performing them gracefully or beautifully. They continue, “when we are able to feel our movements, we open up to the possibility of adding depth, nuance, and sensitivity to how we move through the world.”
Step 3 – Exteroception: Sensing the world
You might be more familiar with this as exteroception refers to the “perception of stimuli arriving from outside the body” so it encompasses the five senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. These senses help you scan the environment for possible threats as well as to locate needed resources.