Hey! Jenny here with Somatic Therapy Partners. Today we’re going to talk about something that I think is really important and often something that as a society we don’t actually do too much: pausing. So often when we’re running through our lives, whether that’s in relationship with other people or at work, we are constantly just fighting this arousal pattern where we’re getting really activated by something or a conversation or even driving. What I find is that folks often just keep going so their arousal just goes up and up and up and up and up until they feel so overwhelmed or inevitably there’s the crash.
Something that I think would be really helpful and what I found to be helpful for myself and for the clients that I work with is simply taking a moment to say “I need to pause” or “I need to take a moment for myself.” During that moment you’re allowing that arousal pattern that’s going way, way up to start to plateau. Which means you now have an option of going into regulation or rest or going up again. I encourage you to start practicing this just in your day-to-day life and simply notice what happens as you take a moment to pause. One thing that I find to be really helpful when I take that pause is to utilize a skill that I like to call self-soothing. During the pause moment the self-soothing allows me to begin to regulate my own system and my own body so that I can then move into this next moment with the conversation I’m in or when I’m driving in traffic or whatever it is to feel a little bit more grounded in myself so that I don’t feel so overwhelmed.
So here’s an example of what self-soothing can look like and I encourage you to join me in experimenting with this at home. So the thing that I like to encourage folks to do is simply begin by noticing right now if you are sitting in a certain way or you have your hands in a certain way, if there’s any contact that you’re having with yourself as you just simply sit and watch this video. One thing I like to notice for myself is that I actually like to have my hand on my heart or I like to have my hands just together sometimes they’re in my lap. What I like about that is there’s something really calming and soothing about my hands coming together. There’s a warmth that’s between my hands, there’s this almost like a hug that’s happening between my hands that just really feels good to me. And then with my heart and having my hand on my heart again there is that warmth there between my hand and my chest. There’s some pressure that I’m giving to my chest where sometimes there’s anxiety or pressure or stress. And it’s again almost like I’m giving my system and my body a little bit of a hug that maybe I wouldn’t be able to get otherwise.
I encourage you, right now, to just start playing with “what is the contact I like?” Maybe it’s arm to arm, maybe there’s something with having your hand on your heart or across your body onto your other arm. It could be your hands on your legs or your knees. You’re just kind of noticing, I invite you to notice “what is it that I really like about it?” I encourage you to just kind of play with what is it that you enjoy about that self-contact, self-soothing moment and in this moment I encourage you to play with it at home. See what feels good to you and begin to utilize it in your day-to-day life.
I encourage you to take the pause and to take the self-soothing contact with you into the next day and simply just experiment with what feels good to you. We would love to hear from you and see what works for you because a lot of people are different and like different things and we’re always looking for more examples.
Thank you for joining us today, thank you for joining me today and I look forward to seeing you in future videos.