Having a Challenging Day? Read This.

Carla Watson
15 hours ago
4 min read

Having a Challenging Day? How Pausing to Feel Your Body Can Change Everything

We all have days that feel heavier than expected. Days when your mind spirals, your breath gets shallow, and everything feels just a little too loud. On those days, there is a simple but powerful practice that can gently bring you back home to yourself:

Pause.

Close your eyes.

Take a deep breath.

Ask yourself:

“Where do I notice these feelings in my body?”

This small invitation one breath, one moment is more than a mindfulness cue. It’s a somatic doorway into emotional regulation, nervous system balance, and deep inner clarity.

In this article, we’ll explore the science behind somatic awareness, why connecting with your inner sensations can ease challenging days, and how somatic bodywork therapy can help you integrate this practice into your daily life.

Why Pausing to Notice Sensations Helps Us Through Difficult Moments

1. Interoception: The Foundation of Emotional Regulation

Interoception refers to your ability to sense internal physical signals: your heartbeat, your breath, your tension patterns, the flutter in your stomach, the lump in your throat.

Research shows that strong interoceptive awareness is directly linked to improved emotional regulation and reduced anxiety. One study found that just one week of interoceptive training significantly decreased state anxiety levels and improved participants’ ability to notice and respond to internal cues.

When you pause and check in with your body, you…

step out of mental overwhelm,
return to the present moment, and
begin regulating your emotions from the inside out.

This makes somatic awareness not just soothing, but scientifically grounded.

2. Somatic Reappraisal: Changing Your Relationship With Emotion

Somatic therapy uses gentle, focused attention on bodily sensation to help you understand and transform emotional patterns.

A recent study described somatic reappraisal as a process where sustained attention to sensations leads to new insights and emotional meaning. This allows the nervous system to reorganize old patterns rather than react on autopilot.

Instead of “I feel anxious,” the experience becomes:

“I feel buzzing in my belly.”
“There’s tightness in my chest.”
“There’s heaviness behind my eyes.”

When sensations become clearer, emotions become more manageable. You move from overwhelm into understanding and eventually, into choice.

3. Nervous System Regulation Through Embodied Awareness

Somatic therapies like Somatic Experiencing® focus on helping the body complete self-protective responses that were interrupted by stress or trauma, the “fight, flight, or freeze” impulses.

Research shows that somatic work helps people discharge stored activation, returning the body to balance. This is essential for:

stress recovery,
anxiety reduction,
trauma healing,
burnout prevention.

By pausing to feel your sensations, you give your nervous system the information it needs to return to equilibrium.

4. The Brain–Body Connection Is Deeply Linked to Wellbeing

Studies in psychosomatic medicine show that emotional awareness and bodily awareness share neural pathways in the insula, amygdala, and cingulate cortex areas essential for handling stress.

When you improve your somatic awareness:

your emotional resilience grows,
your stress response becomes more adaptive,
your inner world feels more navigable and grounded.

This is why somatic practices can be life-changing even with just a few minutes a day.

Somatic Practices You Can Try Today

Here are simple, accessible somatic exercises to help you navigate stressful days:

1. The 30-Second Pause

Put one hand on your chest or belly.
Close your eyes.
Breathe slowly.
Ask: “What is my body trying to tell me right now?”

2. Gentle Body Mapping

Notice where emotions live in your body.

Draw or visualise a simple outline of your body and mark:

heaviness
tightness
buzzing
heat
numbness

This builds a personal “somatic vocabulary.”

3. Pendulation

This technique invites your attention to move between:

an activated area (tight chest, tense jaw), and
a neutral or pleasant area (soft belly, relaxed shoulders).

It retrains your nervous system toward balance.

4. Micro-Movements

Slowly rotate your shoulders.

Sway your body.

Allow your spine to ripple.

Small movements can discharge tension and reconnect you to your physical self.

5. Somatic Journaling

After a pause, write down:

What you felt
Where you felt it
What shifted
What stayed the same

Over time, this creates a profound map of your emotional somatic landscape.

How Somatic Bodywork Therapy Supports You More Deeply

While self-practice is powerful, working with a trained somatic therapist offers:

1. A Safe, Trauma-Informed Container

You don’t have to navigate your inner sensations alone.

A trained practitioner helps you move gently and safely, especially if you have trauma or chronic stress patterns.

2. Guided Interoceptive Practices

In 1:1 sessions, you’ll learn how to sense your body with precision:

subtle shifts in breath
micro-movements
nervous system cues
emotional signals
tension, collapse, holding patterns

This awareness grows session by session.

3. Nervous System Regulation Tools

You’ll learn:

grounding techniques,
breathwork for regulation,
somatic movement,
titration (small steps into sensation),
resourcing for emotional safety.

These tools support you long after the session ends.

4. Embodied Empowerment

Somatic therapy isn’t about fixing you — it’s about helping you hear yourself more clearly.

Your body becomes ally, guide, compass.

You move through life with more softness, more clarity, and more choice.

Work With Me 1:1 — Wherever You Are in the World

I offer remote somatic therapy and mind–body coaching sessions for women navigating stress, anxiety, fear, emotional overwhelm, disconnection, or transitions.

Together, we explore: