What Is Somatic Awareness? Learning to Listen to the Body Through the Felt Sense

Have you ever had a feeling that you couldn't quite explain?

Maybe you've walked into a room and immediately felt uncomfortable, even though you couldn't identify anything particularly wrong. Perhaps you've felt a heaviness in your chest before a difficult conversation, or noticed your stomach tighten when thinking about something stressful.

You might recognize that something is happening within you, but struggle to find the words to describe it.

I think these experiences are a wonderful place to begin exploring somatic awareness.

We're often taught to understand ourselves through our thoughts. We analyze our emotions, try to make sense of our experiences, and look for explanations for why we feel the way we do. But what happens when we begin paying attention to the physical experience of those thoughts and emotions?

What if, instead of immediately asking ourselves why we're feeling something, we simply became curious about what we're experiencing?

This is the foundation of somatic awareness.

What Does Somatic Awareness Mean?

The word somatic comes from the Greek word soma, meaning body. In the context of somatic practices, we're interested in the body as we experience it from within.

Somatic awareness is the practice of noticing and becoming curious about our physical experiences. This might include muscle tension, breathing, temperature, movement, posture, or the sensations that accompany different emotional states.

For example, think about the last time you felt nervous.

Maybe you noticed your heart beating a little faster, your hands becoming sweaty, or your stomach feeling unsettled. These are physical sensations that can accompany the experience of nervousness.

Now think about a time when you felt comfortable and connected to someone you love. Perhaps your shoulders softened, your breathing slowed, or you experienced a sense of warmth.

These sensations are part of how we experience the world through our bodies.

In neuroscience, one concept related to somatic awareness is interoception, which refers to how the nervous system senses, interprets, and integrates information about the body's internal state (Khalsa et al., 2018).

Interoception contributes to our awareness of experiences such as hunger, thirst, breathing, and other internal sensations. Somatic awareness is a broader concept that can also include how we experience movement, posture, touch, and our relationship with the environment.

But here's something I think is particularly important: becoming aware of a sensation doesn't necessarily mean we understand why it's happening.

A tight chest might accompany anxiety, physical exertion, or any number of other experiences. Our sensations provide information, but they don't always give us a complete explanation.

This is why I encourage curiosity rather than immediately assigning meaning to everything we feel.

Understanding the Felt Sense

One of my favorite concepts in somatic education is something called the felt sense.

The term was developed by philosopher and psychotherapist Eugene Gendlin through his work with Focusing, a process of attending to our bodily experience.

Gendlin described the felt sense as a bodily awareness of a situation or experience that may not yet be clearly understood or expressed in words.

Think about a time when someone asked how you were feeling and your response was something like, "I don't know. Something just feels off."

You might not have been able to identify a specific emotion or explain what was bothering you, but there was still a recognizable experience happening within you.

That vague, difficult-to-describe quality is part of what Gendlin was exploring.

The felt sense is more than simply identifying an isolated physical sensation. It's an overall bodily impression of something you're experiencing.

Maybe thinking about an upcoming responsibility brings a sense of heaviness. Perhaps remembering a meaningful experience creates a feeling of openness or warmth.

Sometimes we can describe these experiences clearly. Other times, the words don't seem to fit.

And that's okay.

We don't have to understand every sensation to become curious about it.

Gendlin's work encourages us to give these experiences space rather than immediately trying to explain or change them.

Peter Levine and the Role of the Felt Sense

Dr. Peter Levine, the developer of Somatic Experiencing, has also emphasized the importance of bodily awareness in understanding our responses to stress and trauma.

In his book Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma, Levine explores how our bodies respond to overwhelming experiences and presents an approach that encourages people to become aware of physical sensations rather than focusing exclusively on the stories surrounding those experiences (Levine, 1997).

One of the ideas I appreciate about Levine's work is the invitation to become curious about what is happening in the body without immediately demanding that something change.

In Somatic Experiencing, attention may be directed toward sensations such as tension, temperature, movement impulses, or changes in breathing. Practitioners may also help people notice sensations associated with comfort, support, or stability.

Rather than encouraging someone to immediately confront the most uncomfortable experience they can find, the approach often emphasizes moving gradually and working within what feels manageable.

This is particularly important because paying attention to the body isn't always comfortable.

For someone living with chronic pain, trauma-related symptoms, or nervous system overwhelm, turning attention inward can sometimes intensify distress.

Levine's framework offers one way of thinking about how bodily awareness might be approached gradually. However, it's important to distinguish the concepts used in Somatic Experiencing from established findings in neuroscience. Not every proposed mechanism of trauma recovery has been scientifically confirmed, and body awareness alone is not a guaranteed treatment for trauma.

Still, I think the broader invitation is valuable: We can learn to approach our physical experiences with curiosity, patience, and respect for our own limits.

Learning to Observe Without Immediately Trying to Change

I think one of the most challenging parts of somatic awareness is learning to observe without immediately trying to fix something.

We're so accustomed to approaching discomfort as a problem that needs a solution.

If our shoulders feel tight, we want to stretch them. If we're anxious, we want to calm down. If we're experiencing pain, we want to find a way to make it stop.

And there's absolutely nothing wrong with wanting relief.

But sometimes, in our urgency to change what we're experiencing, we skip over the opportunity to understand what we're actually noticing.

Imagine you're sitting at your desk and suddenly realize your jaw is clenched.

You might immediately try to relax it, which could be helpful. But what if you took a moment to become curious first?

What does the tension actually feel like? Is it constant, or does it change? Are you noticing anything else in your body? What happens when you simply acknowledge that the tension is there?

You don't need to come up with an explanation.

Maybe you're stressed. Maybe you've been concentrating. Maybe the tension is related to something entirely different.

The point isn't to diagnose the sensation. It's to begin recognizing your experience.

This is the foundation of the first pillar of the Myosomatic Method: Observe.

[Internal link: Myosomatic Method → TMI Method page, if published]

Before we begin exploring regulation or change, we practice noticing what's happening.

Not because observation automatically fixes discomfort, but because awareness gives us more information about our experience and how we might choose to respond.

Somatic Awareness, Chronic Pain, and Nervous System Overwhelm

I think somatic awareness becomes especially interesting when we consider our relationship with chronic pain.

When our bodies are consistently uncomfortable, we can begin to develop a complicated relationship with physical sensations.

Sometimes we become hyperaware of every little change, constantly monitoring our bodies for signs that something might be wrong. Other times, we try to disconnect from our sensations altogether because paying attention feels exhausting.

Both responses are understandable.

Research on body awareness suggests that the way we direct attention toward physical sensations matters. Awareness can sometimes be helpful, but repeatedly monitoring symptoms with fear or judgment may also contribute to distress (Mehling et al., 2009).

This is why I don't think somatic awareness should be about constantly scanning our bodies for problems.

Instead, we can practice becoming curious about our experiences without requiring ourselves to focus on discomfort.

Maybe you notice that your lower back is hurting, but your hands feel comfortable. Perhaps your shoulders are tense, but you can also recognize the support of the chair beneath you.

Both sensations can exist at the same time.

For someone experiencing nervous system overwhelm, it may be more comfortable to begin with external awareness rather than focusing directly on internal sensations.

You might notice the sounds in the room, the colors around you, or the feeling of your feet against the floor.

What Does Being Grounded Mean?

These experiences can help us orient to the present moment without requiring us to immediately explore sensations that feel overwhelming.

And sometimes, choosing not to focus on the body is the most supportive decision we can make.

Somatic awareness should be an invitation, not another demand we place on ourselves.

Exploring Your Own Felt Sense

I want to offer a simple exercise inspired by the broader principles of Focusing and somatic awareness.

You don't need to close your eyes, change your breathing, or sit in any particular position.

Begin by taking a moment to notice your surroundings. Look around the room and recognize where you are. Notice the surfaces supporting your body and anything in your environment that feels comfortable or neutral.

Now, if it feels manageable, think about something relatively ordinary in your life. Maybe it's an upcoming appointment, a conversation you're looking forward to, or something you've been meaning to accomplish.

As you think about it, become curious about whether there's an overall feeling associated with that experience.

Does it feel heavy? Light? Tight? Open? Maybe there's a sensation you can't quite describe.

You don't have to force anything to appear.

If you notice something, see if you can spend a few moments becoming familiar with it.

You might ask yourself, "What does this feel like?" or "Is there a word that seems to describe this experience?"

If nothing comes to mind, that's okay, too.

And if the experience becomes uncomfortable, you can return your attention to the room around you or simply stop the exercise.

The purpose isn't to uncover a hidden meaning or force an emotional breakthrough.

It's simply to practice becoming curious about your experience.

You might discover that certain situations have recognizable physical qualities. You might notice that sensations change as your attention shifts. Or perhaps you'll find that some experiences are difficult to put into words.

All of these observations are valid.

Building a Relationship With Your Body

One of the things I appreciate most about somatic awareness is that it encourages us to develop a different relationship with our bodies.

Rather than seeing the body exclusively as something we need to control, correct, or fix, we can begin approaching it as something worth listening to.

That doesn't mean every sensation carries a hidden message. It doesn't mean our bodies always know exactly what we need, or that we should ignore medical information in favor of intuition.

It simply means recognizing that our physical experiences are part of our lives and deserve our attention when that attention is helpful.

At The Myosomatic Institute, our philosophy is to work with the body, not against it.

And I believe that begins with observation.

We can become curious about our sensations without judging them. We can recognize discomfort without immediately demanding that it disappear. We can explore our experiences while respecting the limits of what feels manageable.

Most importantly, we can begin learning what it feels like to be present with ourselves.

You don't have to understand everything your body is experiencing. You don't have to be perfectly regulated, completely relaxed, or free from discomfort.

You can simply begin by noticing.

What am I experiencing right here, right now?

Sometimes that's enough of a place to start.

If you'd like to explore how somatic awareness connects with compassion, I invite you to read [Internal link: Feel Your Love: Learning to Offer Yourself Compassion → published TMI article]. It explores how we can recognize the compassion we already experience for others and begin offering some of that same kindness to ourselves.

References

Gendlin, E. T. (1978). Focusing. Everest House.

Khalsa, S. S., Adolphs, R., Cameron, O. G., Critchley, H. D., Davenport, P. W., Feinstein, J. S., Feusner, J. D., Garfinkel, S. N., Lane, R. D., Mehling, W. E., Meuret, A. E., Nemeroff, C. B., Oppenheimer, S., Petzschner, F. H., Pollatos, O., Rhudy, J. L., Schramm, L. P., Simmons, W. K., Stein, M. B., ... Zucker, N. (2018). Interoception and mental health: A roadmap. Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, 3(6), 501–513. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpsc.2017.12.004

Levine, P. A. (1997). Waking the tiger: Healing trauma. North Atlantic Books.

Mehling, W. E., Gopisetty, V., Daubenmier, J., Price, C. J., Hecht, F. M., & Stewart, A. (2009). Body awareness: Construct and self-report measures. PLOS ONE, 4(5), e5614. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0005614