What Does Your Body Need You To Know?

By Evie Wright

Here I was, deep in the forest, boots laced, winter puffer zipped, laptop balanced on a log, about to guide my first online somatic ecotherapy session (which is a fancy way of saying I help guide people into greater connection with themselves and others through nature). 

In a few minutes I'd be guiding a Wild Council. I’d signed up to teach this segment amongst my fellow students because it felt the most foreign to me. There was no sequence to lean on like there is when I teach yoga. Nor is there an agenda I could follow like there is when I facilitate. Wild Council rests on three simple invitations: speak from the heart, get to the heart of the matter, and listen with the ears of the heart. 

My nervous system was not sold on that as a structure. It felt like someone had pressed the internal alarm. 

As my turn drew closer, I noticed my throat constricting, a warmth developing on my cheeks and my limbs start to bounce with anxiety. My nervous system’s protection system had turned on and was alerting me that this was "not safe enough". 

"Trust the ceremony?" one part of me scoffed.  

"3 hearts, what sort of agenda is that?!” another part challenged.  

The old instinct kicked in: control the whole thing. Perform it flawlessly. Pretend you've done this a hundred times before. 

Here I was, about to guide people back into relationship with their bodies, but I was sitting here arguing with mine.   

Screw it. Okay body, I’m listening. What do you need me to know? 

I listened. 

I noticed the wind moving through the trees, the breath in my lungs, my boots resting amongst moss and lichen. I remembered I wasn't separate from this forest but in relationship with it. Slowly, like a warm hug, this listening felt soothing.  

When I opened the council, it unfolded the way first councils do. I lost the thread, forgot a few important bits, took the scenic route back to where I'd meant to be, and let everyone see it was my first rodeo. But because I'd taken the time to notice what my body needed, I wasn't leading from fear and stress. I was leading from a curious and grounded place. 

It wasn't until afterwards that I realized my body had guided me through the very process Chelle and I reflect on in this week's Aha episode, inspired by the work of therapist, author and secure attachment researcher Sue Marriott: 

• See: Notice when your nervous system has shifted into protection. Your feelings aren't a problem to fix; they're valuable information about what your body needs right now. 

• Soothe: Offer your body what it needs to feel safe enough again. Because your body has to be soothed before your thinking can follow. 

• Settle: As your nervous system shifts from protection to connection, your thinking brain comes back online. Perspective returns, and you can respond instead of react. 

If your nervous system recognised itself anywhere in this, I think you'll get a lot from listening.