“What is unfelt cannot evolve and change.” - Ann Weiser Cornell

When you do somatic work you start tracking how you’re feeling inside. The trick is that sometimes you don’t like what you find.

How often do you try to change the feeling you don’t like by trying to convince yourself that you should feel something else? How successful is that?

In essence you’re having a hard time finding acceptance to a part of your experience.

And because you don’t know what to do with the part that you don’t like, you’re exiling it, deciding it’s not worth paying attention to.

You ignore it.

You do that probably because the adults around you growing up were struggling with showing you that all parts of your experience are accepted and welcome.

On the other hand you also probably know that you need to be patient and accepting of how you’re feeling in order for this process to work.

So what do you do if you can’t find any acceptance in you?

Because this is critical, right? You can’t change anything if acceptance isn’t there first..

You want to recognize the existence and legitimacy of your original feeling, whether it’s anger, sadness or fear. But that won’t be possible until you recognize the part of you that isn’t accepting and acknowledging your original feeling.

This is the true meaning of radical acceptance.

It’s the understanding that our existence has different parts.

AND, there’s also a wholesome “I” representing true presence that can see these parts and give them the attention they’re seeking.

Change is only possible once we allow ourselves to be with every feeling, not just the comfortable ones.

Noticing how these different parts of us manifest in the body is an essential component in my work as a somatic therapist.

It has a tremendous effect on my clients who wish to heal their wounded parts and find self-acceptance.