M5 : Lesson 3.3: Orienting Exercise #4: Somatic Tracking For Pain & Symptom Reprocessing
This somatic tracking/ internal orienting practice is not just for pain, but you can do this for any type of symptom reprocessing.
Guided audio is attached below. The script is in your workbook.
Research backing the pain reprocessing approach found here: https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/retraining-brain-treat-chronic-pain
Transcript
Somatic lesson 3.3. Orienting practice number 4, somatic tracking or chronic pain reprocessing. One skill that I think is important to develop for those who deal with chronic pain is the ability to lean into the felt experience of pain in a way where you’re able to meet it intimately and not resist it. This is being hot widespread by chronic pain specialists, and it’s often referred to as somatic tracking. Somatic tracking is a form of pain reprocessing therapy that is very effective for management and reversal of chronic pain.
Somatic tracking is the opposite of distraction or redirection and might feel counterintuitive for some of you to do. By learning how to internally orient to the sensations of pain with a perception of safety in your mind, you will shift your interreceptive abilities over time. This is an advanced practice. I would recommend adding only after you’ve spent several weeks implementing other regulation practices and orienting practices if you’re afraid of your pain. Now, if you’re not afraid of pain, you can go right into this.
This is about you discovering more of you, that there’s more of you than just your pain. This practice can change the experience of pain and even reverse it completely. The other important thing is that this is best done when you truly understand that your pain is not due to a current structural damage and that rather it’s likely being created in your brain. I recommend you do this when you realize that you have a set point tolerance for pain that’s pretty low. And you have an overreactive pain signal that’s coming from your brain and your body.
So do this when you already have awareness of the basics of chronic pain. Because what you’re doing is you’re interacting with the pain or discomfort from a new cognitive and emotional and behavioral place. And if you’re still feeling like you’re really afraid of your pain, it can be hard to do this exercise. The other thing you can do is if this is scary for you is to have someone else do this with you and have someone else read this script to you a few times so that you can answer these the script and describe your experience to someone else. That might feel a little safer than experiencing the pain alone by yourself.
There’s also a lot of guided somatic tracking extra sizes on the Internet, so you could Google those and listen to those as well. Now, the goal of this exercise is to help your brain reprocess what the pain means and to move the threat threshold into a greater capacity to experience discomfort. Let’s move into some basic guidelines for somatic tracking. First, the point of this practice is to become very present with your pain as a curious observer. Begin by being willing to explore the inner landscape of the body.
Let yourself know that you want to befriend any areas of pain or resistance. And perform this for 1 to 5 minutes. So somatic tracking is kind of like watching the pain dance. Or watching it put on a show without any resistance, noticing all the details of the dance, like you’re watching a beautiful ballerina. The danger is your brain’s opinion of what the sensations mean.
So the practice specifically focuses on repatterning your perception, and your meaning of the pain. Your job is to assign a neutral meaning while noticing every detail to reprocess the information in your brain. That’s why this is called pain reprocessing. With this practice, I’m basically gonna ask you how focused and non resistant can you be with your somatic experience in your body. First, we’ll find and describe an area of pain.
Describing it in precise detail while closing our eyes and breathing calmly. Be as descriptive as you can, giving it a color, texture, and weight. I’m gonna guide you through all of this in a moment. So let me just finish the description first before we get into it. 2nd, as we breathe into it, we’re gonna watch our sensations, paying very close to the sensations.
Again, observing it with any meaning or resistance. Remembering that pain is just your brain’s opinion of what’s going on in your body. Continuing to breathe and just noticing sensations, letting them increase, decrease, move, or change. The last part is about letting the brain reprocess the pain. As we spend time relaxed, and connecting to the felt sense of pain while consciously choosing to reinterpret the experience as a non threat.
You’ll give your brain permission to reorganize its experience of pain. So let’s go through a guided practice together. Step 1. Find and describe. Find an area of pain that has your most attention.
And in your mind, describe the pain and be very precise and in detail. Closing your eyes, breathing calmly while you do this. Be as descriptive of your pain as you can. What kind of characteristics does it have? Describe it as if or a piece of art with unique colors or a magical dance.
Some descriptors might be tight or sharp or burning or throbbing or dull. Or full. It’s taking a moment to describe. And then moving on into step 2, we just breathing into it and now just watching the sensations. Remain very relaxed.
I’m curious. Like, you’re orienting to this. You’re not alert or vigilant. Just relaxed. No meaning.
No fear. Just curious. It doesn’t matter what happens to the sensations you’re feeling If they increase or decrease, it’s safe regardless of what happens right now. Remember, it’s just pain. It’s just your brain’s opinion.
Pain is just an opinion. It’s a signal from your brain. Can you just focusing on being aware and your breath? Let go of any story that comes up. Just remain an absolute witnessing right now.
Let the pain do whatever it wants. Let the sensations move around and just follow them like your exploring the body alongside the pain, noticing it, watching it. Think of it like a child that has all sorts of stories and expressions that you’re watching, like you’re its parent, and sending messages of acceptance and allowance of its expression even if this child pain is having a tantrum. You’re with the child, letting them know that they can fully share how they feel that the sensations be allowed to share in their entirety. And what do you notice is happening as you allow it to share?
In step 3, we’re just letting the brain reprocess this pain as you watch it. As you watch it with certainty that you are indeed okay. And just watching, what are the various sensations your brain is generating? Thinking of your brain as a conductor of an orchestra, the brain is conducting a variety of music in the form of sensations through your body. So spend time connected to the pain, to the sensations and have a conscious reinterpretation of this experience that you don’t need it to change.
You don’t need it to go away. You give your brain permission to reorganize its own experience of the pain. Your brain is learning that nothing dangerous has happened as you watch it with your curious self. This can take some practice. You’re just allowing anything to happen here.
Not trying to get the pain to go away. You’re just reprocessing the neural networks in your brain. And then just continue to follow the pain. And if needed after this practice, maybe follow it up with an ABC brain retraining practice to elevate your mood after the session is complete. And that concludes the practice.
I recommend looking into resources like John Sarno, Howard Shubner, Dan Buglio, Alan Gordon, Nicole Sachs, Danny Fagan, Those are all great resources to learn more about how to be with your pain. Next up is lesson for somatic movement.