When I joined re-origin, I focused on rewiring my brain and altering habitual thought patterns that were holding me back from acceptance and wellness. The techniques I learned were vastly helpful and transformative, but I didn’t realize that something might still be missing that would enhance my healing.
Understanding Nociplastic Pain and the Role of the Brain
As someone who tends to live primarily in my thinking mind, I think I needed a shift that would come if I also learned to dwell in my body more fully. I was initially approaching healing from a top-down, or brain-powered philosophy, which is how I generally approach life overall. This made good sense in some ways because many of the physical sensations I experience are neurologic or brain-based. For example, my chronic migraines are “nociplastic” pain, or pain caused or amplified by the brain and pathways in my nervous system that are highly practiced, like worn dirt roads with deep grooves created by endless traffic.
Because nociplastic pain and my other symptoms are often receptive to brain retraining, I threw myself into creating new neural pathways that would shift my nervous system away from those heavily used ruts. I saw real, positive results. I felt less reactive to pain and other physical sensations, and being less reactive made the sensations—even when they still existed—feel less intense.
A Missing Piece: Getting Out of My Head and Into My Body
Another profoundly positive shift came for me when I was in a re-origin Momentum Group and the coach spoke to us about adding some somatic practices to the top-down techniques we were learning in the re-origin program.
At the time, I didn’t exactly have a working definition of somatic practices (or sometimes called, somatic exercises). I have since learned that the word somatic comes from the Greek word “sōma” (σῶμα), which means “living body” or “the body as experienced from within.” re-origin coach Natalie Rivans and Integrative Somatic Practitioner, defined somatic practices for me as “the study and practice of body awareness and internal perception, emphasizing the connection between the mind, body, and nervous system.” One of the key principles of somatic work is that the body holds difficult experiences like past trauma and chronic stress, and that these held experiences often manifest in the body through muscle tension, pain, and nervous system dysregulation.
re-origin has increased my ability to self-regulate, and this has been incredibly empowering. I went from feeling very little control to feeling like I had the power to do a great deal to calm my nervous system. I was curious to see how adding some somatic work might help get me out of my head and into my body. This felt really foreign to me at first because I think I was so used to trying to disconnect from my physical sensations and not feel them. Somatics encompasses a wide body of practices ranging from body work, somatic psychotherapy, to breathwork and meditation. I decided to explore resources that were available to me at no cost.
Yoga Nidra: My First Step into Somatic Practice
I began to do guided, online yoga nidra (or yogic sleep) sessions on a daily basis. Yoga nidra is a type of meditation that can be traced as far back as 1000 B.C. A yoga nidra session begins by connecting to the breath and setting a “sankalpa” (सङ्कल्प in Sanskrit). Sankalpa refers to a heartfelt intention or resolution, a statement of intent that is mentally repeated to cultivate positive change and connect with one’s deepest desires. My sankalpas are positive statements in the present tense, such as “I am whole,” “I am safe,” or “I am resting in a state of calm.” When I mentally repeat such statements three times, it grounds me in my body and creates a sense of purpose and ease. Then the yoga nidra teacher would guide me through a body scan, a practice used in yoga nidra and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), to connect people to their bodies and sensations without judgment, fear, or the sense of needing to change anything.
It took me some time to fully relax into a body scan because my previous habit was to try to block out uncomfortable physical sensations. Now, after about six months of practicing yoga nidra almost daily, I find that I absolutely love and cherish the time I spend each day getting in touch with my body in this fashion.
You can try it here:
Somatic Tracking and a New Relationship to Pain
Yoga nidra isn’t the only somatic practice I have tried of late. I also find that I really appreciate somatic tracking. In this type of practice, you are similarly guided to connect with your body and your sensations, to really feel into them with curiosity and allow them to exist just as they are. I have noticed that when I practice somatic tracking at the beginning of a migraine coming on, it can really help me to feel like I don’t need to fight with my pain. It might sound unconventional, but I have even started welcoming pain by saying, “Hello, my darling, thank you for coming to help me notice that I need to slow down right now.”
Healing from Both Sides: When Brain Meets Body
The bottom-up somatic practices I am using feel like an amazing complement to the more top-down conscious thinking practices I have learned in re-origin. I feel like I am now working at healing from multiple directions, and the two types of strategies seem to amplify one another. With the addition of bottom-up somatics, I feel like my body and my mind are coming into a greater sense of harmony.
Somatic Practices from re-origin: Support at Your Fingertips
In addition to its core brain retraining tools, re-origin offers a robust library of free, guided somatic practices designed to support members at every stage of their healing journey. These follow-along resources make it easy to incorporate body-based techniques into daily life, especially for those new to somatics or looking for structured guidance.
The available practices include:
-
Body scans to increase awareness of physical sensations in a safe, grounded way
-
Visualizations that promote nervous system regulation and emotional balance
-
Gentle somatic exercises to help release stored tension and reconnect with the body
-
Breathwork sessions that support state-shifting and internal calm
These resources are offered as a part of the re-origin program + community, and for free on re-origin’s YouTube channel, making them widely accessible. Together, these somatic practices complement the program’s top-down brain retraining techniques, empowering individuals to work with both brain and body to support lasting nervous system regulation and healing.
