Social Media as Portal into Somatic Self-Inquiry
For a while now, I’ve been experimenting with my – ahem - complicated relationship with social media as a way to enter into somatic inquiry. Recently, my somatic therapy teacher included this practice in our syllabus, so I’m being called to shine a light on it here.
Somatic healing, for those unfamiliar with it, is relating specifically to the body, and is extremely effective for trauma-informed work. In this way, it’s distinct from traditional talk therapy, that generally seeks resolution for PTSD from an intellectual vantage point. In my experience, as someone who has dealt with childhood and adult Complex PTSD (CPTSD) issues, which have impacted my nervous and immune systems as well as my psyche to a pretty debilitating extent, somatic therapy has been a game-changer. It has allowed for meaning-making through relating to myself in a deeply embodied way: a mythologizing of my pathologies that grounds the intellectual a-ha moments into the body, so that it can take root and affect change in an actualized way.
This practice of entering into dynamic relationship with all parts of ourselves through the body’s ancient, indigenous mythic wisdom, which like the Earth’s, unfolds in cycles and seasons – antithesis to the patriarchal aggression of fixing ourselves in order to fit into some externally imposed set of societal and economic standards obsessed with relentless productivity – is innately feminine or yin. This is not to be understood in a gendered way; rather, it’s a principle of polarity that exists in all of us, regardless of our preferred gender.
It is Earth-based, body-based, sensation-based. It is, as another brilliant teacher of mine puts it, “energy without the information” – which is to say, sensation without the mental-labeling of “good” or “bad”. Instead, in the somatic paradigm, you make space for all manner of sensations to arise by learning to expand the nervous system’s capacity, and then allow for the emergent energies to reveal their meanings to you. In this way, we slowly unlearn the dominant narrative of enslaving and oppressing our innate biodiversity, and move into receptive relationship with the wholeness of ourselves.
We also allow the body and their sensations to be in full possession and power of their own meanings -instead of colonizing them with the forces that our psyches themselves have been colonized with. We give the innate wisdom of the body its voice and dignity back, which is the reclaiming of our own dignity, the reclaiming of our own meaning-making. In this way, the decolonized body is able to communicate and be in reciprocal, co-creative relationship with us.
So then – social media.
Conceptually and practically, I find social media to be a pretty dystopian phenomenon. Undoubtedly, it has its many benefits, some of which have been literally revolutionary. But fundamentally, to me, it feels like a high school popularity contest on steroids. Any system that rigidly assigns value by the number of likes and followers one gains has me ruminating on its essentially regressive nature. But as we’ll see, this is also paradoxically where the medicine is- if approached with integrity, which is to say, holistically, with wholeness.
By now, pretty much all of us have heard about the countless studies done on the correlations between mental health issues and social media, as well as its amplified impact on addiction and nervous system disorders. On top of this, there are studies demonstrating that empathy receptors shut down when we’re interacting with each other through screens all the time (oh hello, trolling + the fascism of cancel culture).
And then there’s the demeaning of every single real life experience being viewed through the lens of a social media blast. This is now made even easier through the immediacy of “stories” – where literally everything can be instantly put out there. I’m aware that I sound like a grumpy Luddite – so I’ll speak just for myself when I say that this robs us of the rich and often expansively uncomfortable experience of being with life ‘irl’, as they say.
Approaching every experience with the transactional side-eye of social media currency has become pretty standard practice – to the point where we’re posting stories about being present – in nature, whatever, while we’re having that experience. I mean…at least spend some time being with your life, process your experience and then create something beautiful to post as a homage to it instead of using it.
There’s so much more to be said, but I’ll stop my grumpy Luddite rant there.
Given my take on all this, it’s a wonder that I interact with social media at all.
But like I said, it does have its benefits. I enjoy and am inspired by the content of the many deeply empowered and brave people I follow, which also occasionally give rise to aligned reciprocal connections being made.
And for people like me who have made the scary, often isolating leap of following their soul’s call and stepping out of socially sanctioned meanings and lifestyles, and who are nurturing, creating and offering our soul-gifts out to the world, social media is a wonderful way to connect with others who would resonate with and benefit from our work, and in turn find the courage and wisdom to weave their own innate gifts of authentic meaning-making magic.
Algorithms notwithstanding of course…
Also, I have no desire to completely isolate myself and cut myself off from the world, in all its dystopian messiness. I’m simply avoiding and pathologizing discomfort – instead of relating to it intentionally. What I do desire is to engage with the mad, mad world, in this case, via whatever preferred social media platform, in a fully embodied way, with my own boundaries, and on my own terms.
I desire to engage with social media as one would with poison as medicine - in the tantric, feminine, left-hand Poison Path – also known as the lightning path: in therapeutic doses, with presence and intention, so that it may become medicine, an opening into being with and feeling the manifold sensations it elicits – instead of hiding from or avoiding them.
This is where somatic inquiry comes in.
This can apply to any media you regularly consume- most especially the news. And make no mistake, you are consuming media; so how are you processing and metabolizing it? What meanings are you allowing it make within you, your body, mind and nervous system? Whose meanings are those? Did you consciously choose them?
Here’s my general rhythm with social media. This may work for you, or you can use it as a guide to find your own.
(Instagram is the only platform I engage with relatively regularly – and this is what I’ve been using to conduct my somatic inquiry. For my sanity and nervous system, not to mention my time, one social media platform is plenty for me.)
>> When I’m not using it, I'm logged out of Instagram. This creates a much-needed pause in the compulsive checking of it that so very many of us do as a way to auto-regulate our nervous systems. This is unconscious, addictive behavior ends up causing us to disassociate from our bodies and our present moment experience. Having to log in each time by default invokes a pause and the asking of "do I really want to check Instagram right now?"
>> I take regular time off Instagram – what's become known these days as a social media fast. This could be a few days, a week, or upto a month, maybe more. I allow my body to guide me in this: I drop in and wait for an answer.
If you have an addictive, using relationship with social media, at first this will be alarming to that part of you. As with any addictions, you will have a withdrawal period. Find something else to fill up that space of grabbing your phone and using social media: journal, dance, go for a walk, do yoga – move that energy.
Or if that’s not possible in the moment, be with the part of yourself that's craving it, like a child craving candy. Even if for a few minutes – set a timer on your phone if you like– and notice the part of your body where this energy arises, put your hand there, gently. Feel the sensation, and make space for it to arise and communicate with you – no fixing, no judgment. Just being with this part of yourself that needs your attention. The key thing here is to relate to this activated sensation with presence, and give it the space to be, without judgment. Don’t hand it the candy so you can silence and disassociate from it.
>> Whenever I do engage with Instagram, I give myself a set time during my day dedicated to that – never more than 30 minutes. Before logging on, I check in with myself for a few minutes, feel into my body, and wait to see if I have the necessary space and capacity to for it. If I don’t, I’ll ask my body what she needs – food or water perhaps – or maybe she’s just not into it right now. I give her what she needs and log into Instagram later on. And afterwards, I spend at least ten minutes sitting with all of the sensations that arise, allowing them to move, giving them the space to move, and perhaps moving my body in some way if I’m called to. Often the sensations are full of meaning and revelations, so I have my journal handy to document what they'd like me to know. Then I go hang out with my dog, or go outside and be with a beloved tree. Indoor plants are also wonderful to spend quality time with to ground you back into your body, as well as eating a nourishing meal with your fully embodied attention.
>> When you see something beautiful in nature, or prepare and eat a beautiful meal, or have any experience or thought that’s sensational and intense – notice when your mind immediately goes toward making it a social media post or story. This again is disassociation. A numbing out of life.
Life, and beauty especially, carry an intense charge. When our nervous systems have been conditioned into constriction through trauma, as well as through the relentless barrage of fear and threat that we receive through media in general, this becomes our normalized state; perversely, our safe place. It is downright scary and unfamiliar to allow ourselves to just be with the expansive, opening, pleasurable receptivity that beauty evokes.
Be with it. Drop into it, through your attention and your breath. Notice how that experience makes you feel in your body, and intentionally make space around that sensation, so that you can allow yourself to be in dynamic relationship with your Self, and with the energy of Life moving through you. Allow that experience to unfold and reveal itself, through your body, so you can connect with the meaning that it’s weaving through you.
Yes, this will be challenging at first.
Leaning into that is leaning into your soul, and the world soul, the Anima Mundi, from where you learn the language of your unfettered intuition.
Afterwards, if you want to, craft something full of space-infused authenticity to post as homage to that experience – and remain mindful of your intention behind that. If it’s to gain approval and likes then you are colonizing your relationship to that experience. And if there is a quality of people-pleasing and approval seeking, notice and let any judgment of that dissolve – that too is a trauma response, one connected to the sensation of threat if we evoke disapproval and rejection. Putting the self-judgment to one side, invite in self-compassion.
Notice how we keep the light and shadow of our truest essence in captivity through approval seeking; and how the very real possibility of being ignored, rejected, disliked feel in your body. Most likely there will be constriction, or uncomfortable heat or numbing, or something else entirely – make space for that, by allowing the sensation to be, and relating to that part of yourself, probably a very young – and also very old - part. You don’t need to fix or coddle or make it all better. Instead, allow through expanding, so that it – and you - have the space to move into dignity and resilience.
The aim is not to emerge from this experience with everything all tied up neatly in a bow, with all uncomfortable and messy feelings smoothed out. The aim to use this experience as an opportunity to relate to your wild and beautiful Self as you are in this moment.
Along with my fellow students at the alchemical school + community I belong to, I’m about to move into a month-long container of daily, originally crafted social media posting, to harness and work with the dynamic energies of Leo season, and to use the sensational experiences that this will evoke as portal into deep somatic self-inquiry and transmutation. In keeping with the medicine ceremony experience, I have lots of juicy nausea and dread around it. And also curiosity about what will be revealed, discovered, experienced and integrated – as long as I enter into it with active attention and making space for all that arises.
If you're interested in exploring more about inner decolonization through somatic work, and learning to co-create your life as an ever unfolding mythic experience full of mystery, meaning and synchroncity, get in touch.
Your nervous system is the energy that directs the wand of your mind, which directs the manifest experience of your external reality. If you are constricted and closed off, life usually mirrors this, lovingly pointing us towards growth and wholeness. Tending to our bodies and nervous systems patiently, deliberately, and allowing them to expand their capacity is the alchemy that allows us to co-create wonder, and receive all of the many faces of our experience with curiosity, resilience, dignity...and joy.
And as always, with this work of reclaiming yourself, the more you engage in it, the more the Universe colludes with you, and the more the Earth moves towards reclaiming herself.