Writing With Compassion Towards Your Own Story
Before we begin let’s break down somatic writing, shall we? The word Soma in Latin means body, so when we engage with soma writing, we are creating an embodied writing experience. This is really powerful as a healing tool with traumatic experience since often times we lose language. Why? Because the impact of painful experiences impresses upon our body, brain, and nervous system, tucking hard-to-process memories deep into our implicit neurology. Meaning, our body holds space for feelings, but words, time, and images can seem muddied. This is why when we try to talk about difficult events, words are small or when writing, our access to memory and detail can be challenging to access.
Enter, Soma writing. This practice is so powerful because it invites us to create space for our bodies to speak and listen to them as a sacred guide. When we do this, our journey to healing, integration and wholeness can occur.
In some ways, I’ve been engaging soma writing and creativity since I was little, through poems, stories, and intuitive art. I would free write, journal, splattering paint across the walls. Often, what was left on the page or canvas was revelatory, because I didn’t know what I knew or felt until it was reflected back to me. This is the power of somatic writing, it can reveal the truth within us, it can materialize what has been internalized.
The first step to creating a soma writing practice is compassion–to release pressure of being ‘good enough’ and let whatever needs to flow through you, flow. If we try to force word counts and ideas to a page, this can often trigger a feeling of entrapment similar to past trauma. What would it mean to let your body write and create for you? What would it feel like to let go and witness yourself with kindness and compassion? What trust would be created in your body’s experience when self-contempt converted to self-love?
As you begin to create your own soma writing practice (aka writing from the body), consider how to let words and art flow through you. This allowance will create trust from your body/mind to your creative output. Often, we need to restore trust in our writing, because we have been so harsh about what we produce. Believe it or not, when we treat our writing practice as a meditation, show up, listen, breathe, disconnect as we can’t help but do, but then return with compassion–this will create a healthy relationship with our writing practice and our somatic experience.
Some tips for practicing compassion in in soma writing:
Set up a space that feels comforting, inviting, and safe to write in. (Think a cozy chair, incense, candles, a favorite journal, etc).
Set up a timed experience for free writing/ journaling/ creative output. (The timing allows for a boundary. Think meditation. When you know there is an ending, it can allow you to be there for the set time without worry of being stuck.)
Take pressure off yourself with whatever it is you’re writing. Saying something like, “no one has to read this or I am writing this just for me.” Ultimately, let the writing be whatever it needs to be for this experience.
Practice noticing when you are feeling disconnected from your body or the writing–place your hand on your heart and take a deep breath. Saying something like, “I am here now. I am accepting myself as I am.”
May this first step of compassion in soma writing help heal something in you. I know every time I implement compassion in my writing, something changes in me. I hope the same for you friend.
Megan Febuary is an author, trauma-informed writing coach, and founder of Book Year, a yearlong prompted memoir writing experience. Helping women write their books, heal their stories, and understand their unique human design. You can learn more about working with Megan at meganfebuary.com
