Three Simple Somatic Practices for Awakening Embodied Awe

How you carry yourself in the world dictates your worldview. The shape you take becomes the lens through which you see everything.

Think about how most of us spend our days. If you're like me, you might spend hours at a laptop, shoulders hunched forward, brow furrowed, breath shallow.

And at 5'10", I find myself shrinking, collapsing inward. My body settles into a posture of protection, of making myself smaller. And without realizing it, my mind follows. My thoughts become contracted. I scan for threats. I stay alert, vigilant. The world feels smaller, more dangerous.

This isn't conscious. It's happening beneath my awareness. My body is quietly shaping my experience, moment by moment. And with all the challenges in the world right now, it's no wonder so many of us are wandering around in this threat-induced posture.

I've noticed we tend to apply the same contracted approach to our healing journeys. There's so much talk of trauma and nervous system regulation, almost as if that's the only point of embodiment. But, to me, somatic embodiment is about so much more. It's about being alive, thriving in the here and now.

Flipping the script on nervous system healing

What if, instead of always working to regulate and manage our nervous systems, we practiced opening up to more? What if your nervous system actually needs to learn how to hold more capacity for joy, for pleasure, for the sheer wonder of being alive?

This isn't about bypassing or dismissing the real challenges we face. It's about something much more fundamental: building more inner spaciousness and stability, so that when difficulties do arise, you feel more resourced within. When you practice opening to awe and wonder, you're literally expanding your capacity to meet life - all of it.

Pause for a moment, and ask yourself: when did you last feel fully present? 

Perhaps it was being in nature, with a beloved person or animal, or in a moment when something took your breath away. When did you last feel that sense of aliveness, of expansiveness in your body?

Awakening Your Natural Blueprint

Awakening more of this is a daily practice. It's a skill, like any other, that needs to be cultivated. And honestly, it's especially important now because everything around us is trying to get us to contract, to shrink, to stay small and scared.

But this capacity for awe and wonder? It's your birthright. It's already within you - it's your natural blueprint. It's just been dampened down over the years with the weight of society, with adulting, with focusing so much on healing the hurt and pain.

The good news is, these somatic practices are so simple, yet so effective for long term nervous system health when done regularly .When you practice expanding into awe, you're not just feeling good in the moment. You're literally rewiring your nervous system to hold more spaciousness, more possibility. You're teaching your body that it's safe to be open, to be big, to take up space. And this changes everything about how you move through your days.

Three simple somatic practices for embodying awe

External Orienting

External orienting is simply taking in more of your surroundings, and doing this with a real sense of wonder and awe. It’s a natural nervous system soother, and the more often we take time to notice and really attune to our environment, we move through the world with more ease and stability. It’s so simple and so powerful.

As you slowly gaze around your environment, notice  how your body responds when you do this too. Is there a smile? A sigh? A softening? Some little movement? When you find something that delights you, don't just glance and move on. Stay with it. Notice it even more. Slow down and let yourself soak it up.

This can be as simple as a brief break between tasks—gazing at the horizon, really looking at a tree, watching how light moves across a wall. The key is to slow down and soak in the pleasure of it into your cellular memory, letting that sense of "ah, yes" spread through your whole body.

Internal Orienting

Now, bring that same quality of awe and wonder to your own inner landscape. Treat yourself with the same reverence you'd give your favorite view.

I often think about Mount Kailash in India. I used to sit and gaze at this mountain every day when I stayed in an ashram in the Himalayas, the view was breathtaking. Now, I bring that same quality of attention inward. I scan myself and notice where the spaciousness lives, where I can feel my own inner mountain, my own vastness.

When you find it—even just a hint of it—let that area take up more space. You might make sound, you might make movement, but keep it slow. Let yourself expand from the inside out. This is how you start to embody more of that natural sense of wonder that's always been there.

Dwelling: Stay with it

With both of these practices, the real magic is in the dwelling. Give yourself more time than you think you need. Let yourself settle and integrate. Really let your nervous system drink it in.

Dwelling here for longer brings online in your body more of the parasympathetic nervous system, the ‘rest and digest’, calm and connected state. When you practice dwelling in these moments of awe and spaciousness, you're teaching your body that this is safe, that this is available, that you can return here again and again.

And the more you practice, the more this sense of expanse becomes your default. Instead of defaulting to being contracted and vigilant, you start to move through your days with more openness, more curiosity, more aliveness.

Go deeper with me: Online Somatic Circle

I'd love to explore this more deeply with you in my upcoming somatic circle on Sunday, March 2nd: Awakening Embodied Awe. Come join me, and let's practice embracing more presence, more pleasure, more awe and wonder within and around us.