What Is Somatic Yoga? Moving From the Inside Out

There is a moment in a yoga class when the room goes quiet in a different way. Nobody is holding a pose or chasing a stretch. People are simply feeling the weight of their hips on the mat, the slow release of a shoulder they did not know was holding tension. That moment can be linked to a name, and it is one you may have been hearing a lot lately, somatics.

What does “somatic” actually mean?

The word comes from the Greek soma, meaning the living body. In the 1970s the philosopher and movement educator Thomas Hanna began using “somatics” to describe the body as you experience it from the inside, rather than the body as it looks from the outside.

That is the whole shift in a sentence. A mirror, a teacher or a photograph shows you the outside view: the shape you are making. Somatics asks a different question; What does this feel like from the inside?

Somatic movement is any practice built around that inner view. It tends to be slow, gentle and curious. The aim is not to get into the extreme expression of a pose, but to notice what happens on the way there, and to let the nervous system relearn and release patterns of tension it has been holding for years, often without you realising.

How is somatic yoga different from “normal” yoga?

Much of the yoga taught today is shape-led. You are shown a pose, given alignment cues and encouraged to go a little deeper each time. There is real value in that, but it can quietly turn practice into performance, especially if you are comparing yourself to the person on the next mat or the picture in your head of how a pose “should” look.

Somatic yoga turns the attention around. Movements are smaller and slower. You pause often. You might repeat the same simple movement several times, noticing how it changes. Rather than pushing into a stretch, you explore where the movement feels easy and where it catches, and you let the body lead.

It is not a separate style so much as a way of paying attention, and it can be brought into almost any practice.

Why is everyone talking about it now?

Somatic practices have grown hugely in popularity over the last few years, and I do not think that is an accident. Many of us are living with nervous systems that rarely switch off. We spend long days in our heads and on screens, and we have learned to override signals of tiredness, tension and stress.

More and more people are realising that you cannot think your way out of a body that feels unsafe or stuck. You have to feel your way out. Somatic movement offers a gentle, accessible way to do that, and it does not ask you to be flexible, fit or experienced.

How somatics shapes the way I teach

I am not a somatic therapist, and I do not teach a branded somatic method. But somatic thinking runs quietly through everything I do.

It is why every class begins with arriving in the body rather than rushing into movement. It is why I invite you to notice before I ask you to change anything. It is why I offer choices rather than commands, and why the question in my classes is always “how does this feel?” rather than “does this look right?”

It also sits naturally alongside the chakra framework I teach. The chakras give us a map of where we tend to hold things in the body. Somatic awareness is how we actually listen to what is there.

Dynamic Bridge: A simple somatic practice to try

Lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor. Take a few breaths and simply notice where your body is touching the ground.

On an inhale, very slowly arch your lower back a little, so it lifts away from the floor. Move at about half the speed you think you need. On the exhale, slowly let it lower and gently press your lower back towards the mat. Then pause and do nothing at all for a breath or two.

Repeat this five or six times. Each time, notice something new: where the movement starts, where it feels smooth, where it feels shaky, what your breath is doing. When you finish, lie still and compare how your back feels now with how it felt at the start.

That is it. No stretching, no effort to “get it right.” Just movement, attention and rest. Go gently, and stop if anything feels painful.

A note on somatic therapy

You may also come across somatic therapy, such as Somatic Experiencing, which is a form of talking and body-based therapy for trauma. That is a different thing, carried out by trained therapists. Somatic movement and somatic yoga are not therapy, although many people find them deeply supportive alongside it.

Where to begin

If this way of moving speaks to you, the free chakra energy quiz is a lovely place to start noticing where your body is asking for attention. If you would like to explore it with personal guidance, one-to-one yoga sessions give us time to slow right down together.

And if you are a yoga teacher who wants to bring more of this sensation-led, nervous-system-aware approach into your own classes, my teacher training is opening soon. You can register your interest now.