Welcome beautiful soul! I’m so sorry for the pain and trauma you’ve experienced in your life that brought you here, but so happy you’re taking the steps to get healed. Darkness, trials, and trauma are parts of life we can’t escape, but YOU are in control of how you navigate them, and more importantly, who you become on the other side of them.

What is Faith-Based Somatic Healing?

Faith-based somatic healing is the body-based piece of the holistic approach to healing which integrates the body, soul (mind, will, emotions), and spirit. Trauma is a somatic experience meaning it’s experienced, stored, and re-lived in and through your body in the form of sensations, behaviors, and feelings.

The solution to a dysregulated nervous system lies in the truth that: you’re a bottom-up being. Your body is in the driver’s seat, not your brain, so you cannot talk yourself into calmness. Over 80% of the messages flowing through you are from body to brain.

When your survival brain is activated, your thinking/cognitive brain goes offline, and your survival operating system takes over. When you experience a break in emotional, psychological, or physical safety, your nervous system comes to your defense through fight-flight or freeze.

This beautiful self-protective function known as your “survival brain” was designed by our intelligent Creator to keep you from danger, but when we fail to find internal or external safety following the painful experience, a dysregulated nervous system takes over.

Healing requires that you not only tell but also show your nervous system that you are safe. Somatic practices are one powerful way to show your nervous system you’re safe using the body’s own language of sensation.

Through faith-based somatic practices, you can learn to trust God and the amazing body He’s given you while regulating your nervous system and experiencing your body’s God-wired healing power through faith in Him.

What is Embodiment?

There is no unified definition of embodiment within somatic psychology, but Ann Saffi Biasetti describes the practice well by saying, “Embodiment can be simply defined as living life informed through the sense experience of the body.” Dr. Arielle Schwartz explains “Embodiment is cultivated through reflective awareness of sensations in the present moment. Embodiment is an integration of three sensory feedback systems—exteroception, proprioception, and interoception.”

Exteroception is like it sounds, sensory awareness of stimuli outside of the body. Interoception is the awareness of what’s going on inside of the body—sensations like heart rate, respiration, hunger, fullness, temperature, pain, and emotions. Proprioception is your body’s ability to sense movement, action, and location—also known as kinesthesia, it’s your body’s ability to move without thinking about your next step.

The trifecta of body perception is your felt sense of self and it’s an integral part of feeling your experiences through bodily sensations. Through interoception, aka self-awareness, you can connect with your inner experience and process what’s going on within you. A somatic approach to healing cultivates the mind-body connection, tapping into all its wisdom and amazing God-wired ability to heal!

5 Elements of Faith-Based Somatic Healing

1. You have been fearfully and wonderfully made with healing power wired into every part of you! Faith-based somatic healing is centered around belief in the God of the Bible as your intelligent Creator and faith in His amazing healing power that’s wired into every part of you. It operates on the knowledge that God designed the body to hold valuable wisdom through its remarkable ability to store and process experiences, memories, and emotions.

2. The body has a language of its own. Faith-based somatic healing recognizes the body-soul connection, understanding that your physical sensations, emotions, and thoughts are interconnected. Cultivating the skill of interoception allows you to listen to your body's messages which come in the form of sensations, images, memories, gestures, and movements. This supports nervous system regulation and trauma release.

3. The body stores trauma. Faith-based somatic healing recognizes that trauma is stored in both the mind and the physical body. Your body holds God’s unique instructions for healing and restoring your systems to wholeness. Unresolved trauma manifests in many physical symptoms including chronic pain, anxiety, depression, and muscle tension. The goal of faith-based somatic healing is to release stored trauma, regulate the nervous system, and create a safe internal environment for healing.

4. Breath is a powerful life force from God. Genesis 2:7 tells us, “Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” Every inhale and exhale are the breath of life from God! We cannot live without breath—we cannot live without God. You were created to be fully reliant upon God and His breath of life, no wonder breathwork is one of the most powerful somatic healing tools in nervous system regulation.

5. Healing happens in the here and now. Faith-based somatic healing emphasizes the importance of being present. Isaiah 43:18-19 tells us to, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” Past traumas may have deeply impacted you, but it’s God’s heart and will to heal you in the here and now!

Enter your email below to access a guided simple faith-based somatic breath practice to help build the skill of interoception and connect with your body and God!

Check out this post, The Essential Faith-Based Somatic Healing Practice to Support Nervous System Health, to learn more about nervous system regulation through somatic practices.

For a bonus faith-based somatic healing practice I call “Practice the Power of Praise”, check out this post, 3 Life-Changing Tips for Faith-Based Holistic Trauma Healing.

For more information on trauma’s impact on the nervous system and simple daily ways to support your nervous system’s health check out this post, 7 Soul Hacks to Support Nervous System Regulation.

Click the butterfly to learn more about the Dark Sky Flutterby 3-Phase Faith-Based Holistic Healing & Transformation Journey!

"The breath of the Almighty gives me life!" Job 33:4

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