Where to start when you don’t have a mental anchor?
It’s time to explore somatogenic connections along with psychosomatic realities. In our day and age, both are fairly explored and practiced, so we can use them to our advantage with full confidence.
I am no guru, so I can only speak about my own experiences and how getting in touch with my body helped me crawl my way out of a tough mental situation. Before I go any further, I’m planning on a whole series of videos, made with clideo for your viewing pleasure, but for now, as I’m just starting my journey, let’s focus on the text.
Somatogenic Theory In a Broader Sense
Strictly speaking, somatogenic theory claims that mental distress and illness are caused by physiological factors. In other words. Followers of this theory believed brain abnormalities, genetic inheritance, or any bodily illness, for that matter, can cause mental distress, and it’s a medical condition of the body, rather than being a psychogenic condition (i.e., caused by mental state).
I’m not going this far. All I claim is that when everything feels chaotic, when the world about us is crumbling, and our usual coping mechanisms fail for any reason, we can ground ourselves in what we know. Our body, keeping it healthy and clean without fixating. I’ll try to explain my point further.
Difficult Times = Small Measures
Consistency is what often helps us to get out of tough situations. The action is often embarrassingly small, that’s ok. But it’s that exact action that we can depend on day in and day out. Let’s not take clinical conditions, like depression, which requires serious intervention. Let’s examine a lighter version, which we could call general apathy.
There was a period in my life, when I lost the taste for everything that used to make me happy before. Just to set the record straight, it was not depression, as concluded by a specialist, so I won’t even go there.
I just felt empty. The job I was applying for at the time and wanted very much did not accept me after several rounds of tedious interviews. My boyfriend broke up with me over some unresolved issues with his ex (that’s when I realized I was a rebound, btw), and with him went my usual social circle. My current job at the time did not give me anything over income (which, admittedly, is enough i guess).
Repetition And Consistency
I was feeling lost in life and alone, without an anchor that I could depend on. So I started building a new anchor. From scratch.
Nothing felt right, so I stopped looking for ‘right’ and started focusing on consistency only. The first week, all I did is brush my hair with intention. Literally. I got up at the same time to go to work, but now I added the intentional brushing. Looked at myself with care, noticed the shine of my hair, smiled to myself in the mirror. I was intentionally brushing slowly to notice the length and how my arm had to reach back at times. I noticed how I massaged the skin with the prush, and it felt nice. It was a meditation of sorts. Just concentrating on the action. Nothing else. Plus, I have curly hair, so it takes about 15 minutes just to get them to behave.
The next week, I did some shoulder exercises during my lunch break. Not much, just 5 minutes at the wall to relieve the pressure after sitting down at my desk the whole time. While doing them, I focused on how good the shoulders felt and how the tension started going away. Did this for a couple of weeks, my shoulders thanked me, and so did my mind.
Some time after that, I decided to do yoga in the mornings. Busy schedule doesn’t leave much to the imagination. It’s not like I can take an hour. I realized that all I can do with any sort of consistency is 5 minutes. Small, isn’t it? I thought so. What good is 5 minutes?
Physically? Maybe none. It’s better than zero, but not much of an exercise, and I still feel that way. But it wasn’t about the exercise, but rather the control over my actions. I was willing to go embarrassingly low for the sake of consistency, so that’s what I did. 5 minutes a day. When I was stable enough with 5, I moved on to 10, and never went up, btw. Small.
Small, very small actions that we agree to uphold with consistency affect our overall mood, affect our well-being, and psychological stability over time. Did 10 minutes of daily hair-brushing do much for me? Not really, since I brushed my hair anyway. But the intention is what counts. I was able to focus on something that was very practical and think about it, forgetting about all sorts of problems. Works like a charm. Like meditation. Like serenity.
Conclusion
I’m in a better spot now. Mentally. Did I get a new job? No, that’s still in progress. Applying left right and center, no feedback. Overwhelmingly. And it still feels painful. Also, no new boyfriend, and I’m lonely a lot, because I do want a relationship (no judgment, queens! Just spitting the truth). Not a lot of friends, either, at the moment.
What’s there to boast? A new yoga class I signed up for. Getting to know the ladies there, and having so many talks with them. Once a week. That’s not much.
But I have some peace now. The situation hasn’t changed much. But I feel calmer and in control most of the time. I am actually proud of myself for getting here. Not much of a journey to the outside eye, I admit it. But it was a big deal for me. Because I created the anchor I longed for through small, insignificant, but CONSISTENT actions.
Try it out, it might help you too.
Written by Iva Djordjevic