An Easy 10-Step Somatic Spiritual Exercise to Process Triggers

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Hey there,

If you’ve ever dabbled in the basics of personal development you have probably seen the term “healing” come up at some point. But healing emotionally is different from a wound that scabs over and then softens with time. It’s less visual, so how can you tell if you are actually healing? What does that look like? Are there signs or milestones that you might feel? Is it a physical shift or more of a headspace?

These are all fantastic questions and as a spiritual healer focused on somatic therapy and trauma-informed practices myself, this is exactly the kind of work I guide my clients through every day, whether it’s with my 1-on-1 sessions Or through my online programs (link to both of those)

In this blog post, I’m going to show you 7 things I’ve noticed from working with my clients on their own healing journeys as well as myself. Some of these changes are physical, others are emotional or even spiritual, but it’s growth all the way)

I’ll share my 7 signs and many resources at the bottom of the post, so make sure to read all the way through. 

An Easy 8-Step Somatic Spiritual Exercise to Process Triggers 

TRAUMA HEALING SERIES

I have so many tips to share on the subject that it would have been riddikulus to put it all in one article! (Harry Potter reference…anyone?!)

There are many misconceptions about Spiritual Healing which is why I've dedicated so many posts & videos to this topic. Enjoy!

Work with Adrenna - explore my spiritual healing services & online courses

How to support yourself when you are experiencing a trigger or stressful event, and are needing skills for relief:

When you're healing from anxiety, or trauma or are experiencing emotional triggers, it can be difficult to feel like your body is supporting you. Rothschild  writes in her book, The Body Remembers,

"It is through sensory storage and messaging that the body communicates. It holds many keys that help in identifying, accessing, and resolving traumatic experiences" (Rothschild, 2000).

According to Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, a somatic, body-focused therapy, everything we experience and all the sensations felt on and in the body are forms of communication needing to be expressed. Sensorimotor Psychotherapy and Somatic Spiritual Therapy have a lot in common: According to Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, a somatic, body-focused therapy, everything we experience and all the sensations felt on and in the body are forms of communication that need to be expressed. 

The biggest difference between the two is that there are spiritual considerations that are truly necessary to complete the healing process such as ancestral healing, soul retrievals, in-utero experiences, past life healing, cord clearing, and energetic hygiene—that somatic experiencing can not.

However, an important element in healing and getting stronger is inviting your body to help you, to be a resource. Somatic spiritual healing also bridges the gap between internal resources to external resources. As Mary Shutan, spiritual teacher, suggests that learning to engage with your ancestors is the first step into making a spiritual connection. A lot of us struggle to feel properly nurtured and supported. Connecting with our ancestors can be a powerful way to bring healing into this area by showing that we do not have to bear the weight of life alone - there is support out in the world! By calling on healed or capable ancestors, you open yourself up for meaningful connection which may help mend deep wounds around nurturing issues. It's amazing how much our family members beyond time are able and willing to come through once invited firmly yet politely!

Mary Shutan writes in her book, The Shamanic Workbook 1, 

“Our ancestors are the first spirits that we should have contact with. They have lived and died and know our daily reality well, and are deeply concerned with you as an individual as well as the continuation of your ancestral lineage. The other reason to work with our ancestors is to have a trusted ally in our process moving forward. Imagine asking an elder if a spirit coming to you is something or something you should be working with if your career or spiritual path is on the right track. We are so profoundly spiritually orphaned that we do not recognize that our ancestors are continually surrounding us, deeply invested in us, and are only too willing to be a support in our lives….that is, if we are willing to listen.”

Back to how to work with triggers through a somatic spiritual lens—

Think of triggers like Google Translate-

it helps us decode the foreign language between your body and mind.

Where Somatic Experiencing Fails the (Spiritual) Minority…

Somatic Experiencing offers a 6-step somatic exercise to help you process the experience and experience relief.  Practicing this may also help you identify the stimuli that contributed to the change in "homeostasis" so that you can have awareness for the future.

While this is helpful, I have found that a lot of my clients who have needed spiritual care in their trauma recovery do not have the true healing they desire. The symptoms lessen, and they feel better, but deep inside, they know that there is a larger pattern that needs to be addressed: spiritual considerations. Sometimes, somatic experiencing addresses the root of the issue, but what happens when things don’t get better?

Somatic Experiencing therapy is great for helping people who have gone through trauma. But it does not look at the spiritual needs of a person. It helps people understand how their bodies react and find new responses to their trauma. Somatic Spiritual Healing is another way to help with trauma that focuses on finding a connection with something spiritual to heal. It includes trust and provides a safe space for exploring spirituality and how it relates to trauma.

 A 10-step somatic spiritual exercise to process through a trigger:

(aka how to process through a trigger using somatic experiencing and spirituality)

1. Pause. 

Stop moving for a moment. Feel your feet onto the ground, the palms of your hand. Inhale and exhale. Notice what you feel on, in, and around your body. Speed of breath, heart rate, and body temperature.

2. Find a safe space. 

Grab a blanket, hide under the covers or go step outside underneath that tree in your backyard. Taking sips of water can also be helpful. In your toolkit, utilize the resource of a felt experience: a moment you felt most calm, safe, and most like your “self”. For me, my safe space is the oceans of Hawaii. I remember everything about the way the water brushed through my hair, or the sherbet sunset painted across the sky…not to mention the naked fire dancers on the shore.

3. Notice what you’re feeling. 

Without knowing what’s going on, it is really hard to work through anything. Take a few moments to notice what you’re feeling. Can you name the emotions as they arise, such as “I feel angry.” “I am hurting.” Even if we don’t know what we are feeling, simply acknowledging this to ourselves and saying, “I don’t know what I’m feeling” or “I don’t know what to do” can be very helpful in moving past a frozen triggered state.

4. Notice where you are feeling it. 

Once you know what you’re feeling, even if it’s still unidentifiable and unknown, you can still work with that feeling and begin to work with it somatically. Ask your body to show you or to highlight where this feeling is located or where it might be stored. 

5. Tune in. 

What color is it? Is there a shape? What does this area have to say? I find asking “What would you need to feel safe is very helpful.” This means we approach our feelings as we would a person and begin a conversation to discover their needs, desires, and ways we can support them. Offer what it may need (knowing that this may take several tries and attempts to fully reconcile what’s going on)

6. Ground.

Now that your energetic body has shifted and changed from this awareness and acknowledgment, it’s now time to shift your focus to grounding your energetic body. Let me be clear this isn’t just visualizing roots or walking barefoot and assuming you’re good to go. There is the intention to ground, and then instead of relying on the visual process of extending roots or following the Instagram accounts where they talk about earthing and its’ benefits. Yes, all of those are helpful, but grounding your energetic body is a separate intention-a separate piece of the puzzle if you will. 

To learn more about the importance of grounding and why it is my number one tool for any empath, psychic, or sensitive, make sure you head over to this blog post or check out my youtube series. 

Grounding isn’t always easy (and for some reason we think grounding should be easy or natural…well, unfortunately, not the case!) If you’re having trouble grounding, you aren’t alone (and there’s probably a good reason), try this orientation practice to orient you to your body through a somatic spiritual lens.

 How to orient you to your body to increase your somatic, mind-body awareness.:

• Take a few moments to breathe slowly and deeply, and pay attention to the sensations in your body as you do this.

• Notice your external environment with all five senses.

• Allow yourself to enter into the present moment - release any tension or worries that may be present and reconnect with reality.

• Ground yourself– whether you can ground through your root chakra, your feet, the water, or barefoot in the sand-give permission for your body to ground and connect to the Earth and its energy.

• Reflect on how stress and triggers arise within your body - really notice where these physical sensations are and if they have any visual qualities

• When ready, visualize soft light flowing through each part of your body to create a sense of wholeness and healing within yourself.

• As you close out this exercise, thank your body and heart for all the ways they support you daily!

7. Center.

Centering is an additional tool that I consider to be a part of our energetic-spiritual hygiene (I use these terms interchangeably) that is a sturdy reinforcement of our energetic container. After grounding our body, we then acknowledge that a part of our energetic body may still be outside of us and needs to pulled in. 

You can do this kinesthetically (with your hands) by using your hands to feel around for your aura (typically 3-6 inches away from you). With the intention of centering your energy, slowly draw the hands together, consolidating and pulling your energy into the midline. The exercise is complete when the palms touch and you notice a subtle (or palpable shift)-try to drop attachment here, but basically, you will feel fuller or just “more there”

How to Come Back into Your Body After Disassociating: Trauma Healing Series

8. Access your toolkit and cultivate resources

Some of our psychological tools (like somatic experiencing) and spiritual tools may overlap, like a Venn diagram, however, it is important to understand that there is a difference between your spiritual toolkit and a somatic experiencing toolkit.  With spiritual healing, we acknowledge a broader toolkit such as The Body Deva, working with the body’s consciousness for further exploration and growth on our spiritual path.

We also bring awareness that we may be undergoing a spiritual awakening or a spiritual intitation and as challenging as these times are, there is a reason we are needing to address our wounds and heal our triggers. We are being called to something greater than ourselves but to step up to that calling, we have to be able to take care of ourselves and heal the wounds that bind us and keep us disconnected. Other resources may be calling upon your ancestors or other spiritual forces that you have developed a respectful, animistic relationship with. 

Don’t underestimate the resources available right outside your door-the sun is an excellent healer (and not just for Vitamin D), bodies of water allow a space for reflection and fluidity, the tree in your neighborhood park holds so much wisdom and wants to develop a relationship with you and catch up like an old friend. If you find yourself lacking in resources, I would first encourage you to explore if this is true-or is it that you have not asked for help within your resources (aka literally asking your ancestors/guides for help!)

If you find that this is true that you need to cultivate more resources, that’s actually a great place humbly acknowledge to begin. While I find any book written by Mary Shutan a pivotal resource to anyone on the spiritual path, I would suggest The Shamanic Workbook 1 to explore deeper relationships with herbs, and ancestors, and cultivate trust within yourself through discernment.

Taking This Further…

9. Ask your body where it held that experience and what it would need to feel safe.

Now that we’ve been able to complete steps #1-8, we can now approach the body (if we choose) to find out where it is holding that experience that is causing the trigger and what it would need to feel safe. If this seems daunting to you at this time, no worries. Go back to step #8 and hang out there. Your body knows when it’s ready to explore topics and experiences…allow it to tell you instead of forcing the conversation. (If you ever talked to a teenager, you know that simply does not work).

10. Depending on the situation, you may need to revisit the body and continue addressing what it would need to feel safe/be healed.

If you find that after some time and genuine compassionate effort, there is still resistance or a blockage, it’s recommended that you reach out to a spiritual healer who specializes in somatic therapy to help you explore the spiritual consideration of the somatic experience.

As you go about your day, I encourage you to tune in to your body on a regular basis. Don’t forget about your energetic body-ground + center as many times as you need to throughout the day.

   It is important to note that this exercise is not in place of spiritual healing, rather it is a skill you can practice on your own adjunctive to effective spiritual healing work. If you are working with a somatic spiritual healer and notice something new while doing this exercise, jot it down and address it during your next session for deeper and continued work. If you are not in therapy or working with a trained spiritual practitioner with a specialty in trauma recovery, and realize that a lot has come up for you, I encourage you to begin your healing today.

Somatic spiritual healing can help you release the tension, trauma, and somatic stress carried on your body.

If you have been experiencing tension, anxiety, or trauma symptoms that express themselves in the body, due to something from the past, or specific to something that’s come up, I encourage you to reach out to a somatic spiritual healer today.

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Free Resources & Further Reading

• Easy and Gentle Trauma Informed Yoga Class

• 12 minute Yoga Nidra Meditation 

• Gentle Stretch Trauma Informed Yoga Class

• 9 minute Meditation for Mental Balance

• Reparenting Your Inner Child-pre-recorded workshop
  Grounding Meditation (client favorite!)

Managing Psychic Abilities , Mary Shutan 

When the Body Says No, Gabor Mate

Overcoming Trauma through Yoga , David Emerson