We stay in a world that celebrates exhaustion. We brag about being busy, put on sleep deprivation like a badge of honor, and even flip mindfulness into one other productiveness hack. But once we lastly collapse on the sofa on the finish of the day, the issues we name “enjoyable”—scrolling, streaming, sipping—not often depart us feeling restored. They’re distractions, not renewal. In fact, even the speeding itself generally is a distraction, maintaining us from noticing what lies beneath.
What if slowing down might truly refill your tank in a manner that lasts? What if relaxation wasn’t one thing you needed to earn, however one thing you could possibly select—intentionally, unapologetically, and with the identical intention you carry to your exercises or your workday?
Why Slowing Down Feels So Onerous
Only a heads up: slowing down can really feel uncomfortable at first. I see this on a regular basis with new college students and retreat members. Many people are so used to shifting on the tempo of the world round us that pausing feels unnatural—and even mistaken.
I do know this firsthand. As a Division 1 volleyball participant in faculty, I used to be skilled to push via damaged fingers, sprained ankles, and again ache. I turned an knowledgeable at ignoring my physique—and for years, that mindset saved me from noticing after I actually wanted relaxation.
It took me a very long time to comprehend that slowing down isn’t weak point. It’s power of a unique type. It’s a apply of listening, of tuning in, of reclaiming energy as a substitute of leaking it. That’s the center of somatic yoga: a mild but highly effective technique to reconnect with your self, soothe your nervous system, and uncover what true relaxation and renewal can really feel like.
What Is Somatic Yoga?
Consider somatic yoga as a apply that shifts the main focus from how a pose appears to be like to the way it feels. As a substitute of striving for “excellent” alignment, it invitations you to decelerate and see the subtler messages your physique is sending.
Actions are mild, intentional, and sometimes smaller than in a conventional class—however don’t let that idiot you. These aware explorations can create large shifts: releasing tension, bettering mobility, calming the nervous system, and bringing you again into steadiness.
At its core, somatic yoga is about shifting from inside. It’s much less about attaining an exterior purpose and extra about growing notion—what you are feeling inside (interoception), the place your physique is in house (proprioception), and the way you connect with the world round you (exteroception). On this manner, somatic yoga doesn’t simply complement conventional apply, it deepens it—serving to you method acquainted poses with recent consciousness and perception.
The Science Behind Slowing Down
Why Your Mind Wants Sluggish Motion
Slowing down is required if you wish to transfer with deliberate intention and centered consideration. Quick actions start and finish earlier than you’ve had an opportunity to note something. However sluggish motion provides your mind time to assemble data, interpret it, and reply—creating a transparent, detailed “map” of your physique in movement.
Consider it like this: zipping down the freeway provides you solely a blur of the town, however strolling the streets enables you to discover the structure, the cafés, the hidden gardens. The slower the tempo, the extra element your mind can register—and the extra potentialities you uncover.
How Somatic Yoga Reduces Ache
That is why slowing down can change the way in which we expertise ache. At full velocity, you may conclude, “My shoulder hurts every time I elevate my arm.” However once you transfer slowly, you might discover the ache solely exhibits up once you elevate rapidly, at a sure angle, or past a sure peak. That consciousness provides you a manner in—an opportunity to discover new choices as a substitute of avoiding motion altogether. And once you notice your “unhealthy” shoulder doesn’t at all times harm, the story you inform your self about your physique begins to vary.
The Neuroscience of Sluggish
Somatic yoga additionally takes benefit of the Weber–Fechner Legislation, which explains that when the depth of a stimulus is low (like shifting gently and slowly), our mind turns into significantly better at detecting variations. It’s why you possibly can simply catch the distinction between one candle and two, however not between 100 candles and 101. In motion, slowing down reveals pointless stress and energy that may in any other case go unnoticed.
In keeping with Henneman’s Dimension Precept, the physique recruits small, exact motor models first, earlier than calling on the larger, much less refined ones. In apply, which means sluggish, low-force motion depends on the finer, extra managed muscle fibers—serving to us construct coordination and steadiness.
And once we decelerate, we break away from behavior. Fast actions are likely to fall into our previous, acquainted patterns, whereas sluggish actions create house for novelty. That novelty—attempting one thing in a brand new manner—is what sparks neuroplasticity, the mind’s skill to rewire itself and study.
Maybe most significantly, shifting slowly tells your nervous system that you simply’re secure. Diminished mechanical forces decrease the sense of menace, creating a peaceful setting the place your physique feels free to discover actions that after triggered ache or had been lengthy uncared for. Security is the muse for development and therapeutic, and somatic yoga offers precisely that.
Coming Again to Your self
Somatic yoga is an lively sort of relaxation—one which helps you reset and restore whereas strengthening your connection to your self. The place different types of train push you to your edge, somatic yoga pulls you inward, asking: What do I discover? The place do I really feel ease? The place do I really feel caught?
Every time you come back to a motion, it’s by no means fairly the identical—that’s the somatic precept of “repetition with out repetition.” Each breath, each shift of consideration creates a brand new expertise. Over time, these explorations construct larger self-trust, company, and resilience.
Somatic yoga doesn’t simply change the way in which you progress on the mat—it modifications the way in which you progress via life.
Strive Somatic Yoga for Your self
For those who’d wish to expertise it firsthand, here’s a guided practice on the connection between the backbone, core, and low ribs to get you began.
Take the Free Somatic Yoga Class here
And in case you really feel referred to as to go deeper, I provide weekly somatic yoga classes stay on Zoom—sure, I ship out recordings—in addition to annual somatic yoga retreats the place we discover this work in neighborhood. —Karin
References
- Enoka, R. M., & Duchateau, J. (2014). Understanding neuromuscular operate. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.
- Kattenstroth, J. C., et al. (2013). Dance improves steadiness, coordination, and cognition in older adults. Frontiers in Getting older Neuroscience.
- Doidge, N. (2025). Slowness of motion boosts consciousness and studying. Psychology At the moment.
- Hartley, L.Knowledge of the Physique Transferring: An Introduction to Physique-Thoughts Centering.
- Hargrove, T. A Information to Higher Motion: The Science and Observe of Transferring with Extra Ability and Much less Ache.
- Cohen, B. B. Sensing, Feeling, and Motion: The Experiential Anatomy of Physique-Thoughts Centering.
- Hanna, T. Somatics: Reawakening the Thoughts’s Management of Motion, Flexibility, and Well being.
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