(10 hours) #38 SOMATIC TRACKING EXERCISE - Stress & Pain Relief (Jason Newland)

Hello and welcome to jasonnewland.com. My name is Jason Newland. This is Stress and Pain Relief Podcast. I almost forgot the name of the title.

Please only listen when you can safely close your eyes. I do quite a few different podcasts. I've got the Let Me Bore You To Sleep, which is a daily ramble on about nothing.

I do the Relax and Sleep Hypnosis Daily, Deep Sleep Whisper Hypnosis, which is pretty much daily at the moment. Jason's Bedtime Storytime and Boring Objects, which is kind of a relaxing turn your brain off podcast. I just talk about a boring, I just talk, it's not so much the objects are boring, I just talk boringly about them using my super exciting voice.

So today, I actually, this is kind of a request. I'll tell you who it's from. Let me just check.

This is from Francie. Okay. I had a message and I'll read it out.

It says, Thank you, Jason, for helping me fall asleep every night. Like you, I suffer chronic pain that steals my attention and affects my quality of life. So I've talked about my lower back pain in the past.

And it's getting no better. It's deterioration of the lower back. So it's more a manageable situation, if that makes sense.

One of the coping strategies I use is called somatic tracking. Would you consider doing a recording using this approach to pain management? Thanks. So Francie, Francie or Francie, I am going to do that right now.

Now, I didn't know what somatic tracking was. I didn't I didn't recognize the term. So I read through it.

And she gave me a link to a website, which is bch.org. And if you if you put bch.org in your search engine, and then you know, Google or whatever, and then put in somatic tracking exercise, which will be the title of this recording, you'll see what I've read. Now, this is something that I've done many times before. And I guess I wouldn't, I wouldn't have I wouldn't have called it somatic.

I don't know why it's called somatic tracking. Well, I do. It's tracking the physical sensation.

But I learned this really in meditation. And yeah, both hypnosis and meditation, there's a crossover where you can focus on your body, focus on your experience in the moment, which is mindfulness, a mindfulness exercise. And that can that's also something that can be used in hypnosis.

So having studied both of those things, lived with regular meditation for years, and also having been involved in hypnosis since 1998. I kind of put together my own version, I guess, and very many different versions of the same thing, I suppose. So I have done this before, but I'm going to do it.

And kind of stick. I'm going to use some of the information that's in front of me. And I don't normally do this.

I normally just talk from you hear that my stomach's just gone gurgle, gurgled. I normally just do the recording. Adlib it if you want to call it that just based sometimes I have an idea of what I want to talk about.

Other times, I'll just see what comes up. So the idea behind this is the somatic tracking can be used, you track a physical feeling. So it can be used ideal for this podcast, because it can be used for stress, anxiety, nausea, dizziness, or chronic pain.

So it can be used for both pain and for stress, and anxiety, etc. So what it says here is, it's your brain's alarm system. Which is true, that's what it is.

And when you exercise mindfully, you're teaching your brain that the pain or distress or stress is not dangerous to you, that you're safe and in control of the situation. Again, not my words, the words that I'm reading off. I'm not going to read the whole thing off because otherwise you might as well just read it yourself.

But what I found very interesting is something that I've said, but reading it, I've said this stuff before, but reading it, and almost cements it, it's like I was re-educated myself for stuff that I learned many years ago. Because I used to study chronic pain, I had loads of books on it. I didn't study in university, but it was like a passion of mine from a long time ago.

I wanted to help people with chronic pain using any technique that worked. I didn't care if it works, use it. That was my mentality.

So I wouldn't just use hypnosis, I would use EFT, I would use visualization, I would use anything. I mean, I studied reflexology for the sole purpose of helping people with chronic pain. And I did two courses, trained twice with that.

I studied aromatherapy. I studied full body massage. So I've sort of trained and studied these few, these different ways to help to reduce stress and to reduce chronic pain.

And I think that the most surprising thing to me really is how passionate I'm still, I still am about helping people with chronic pain and how little I actually do to help people with chronic pain, like directly focusing on that subject. But indirectly, everything I do can help people with chronic pain, reducing the chronic pain days. All the sleep recordings, the relaxation recordings, they're all in my mind, can be useful to help reduce not just the stress levels, but the pain levels as well.

So that you could have more physical comfort and a more peace of mind, a calmer mind. So although I'm not explicit with what I'm talking about in a sense of my passion for helping people with chronic pain, I incorporate what I do to be available for people to help for those situations that have any kind of physical discomfort to reduce it. So I hope that makes sense.

Maybe saying that I should perhaps do a podcast. I do have a podcast just for pain relief recordings, but I don't have a regular podcast that I, apart from this one, where I even mention chronic pain. This is the only one I mention it generally.

The rest are based on, you know, relaxation, or me boring people to sleep or relax, you know, sleeping, relaxing, anxiety reduction and stuff. So the main thing that I've got from reading this information here, by the way, what I was saying there was me, it wasn't, I wasn't reading it off the screen. The website doesn't know about me.

Not yet. So something that they said, and it really resonated with me. And I already know this, but it, it almost like, oh, oh yeah, reminded me of something that I already know is the idea that of actually getting in touch with how you feel, which is what we're going to do.

We're going to get in touch with how you physically feel. And this is a very quick technique, by the way, this is something that you can do in a couple of minutes. If you've only got a minute, you could do it in a minute.

It's a body scan, which we call it in meditation, a body scan, where you just go through your body, maybe starting at the top of your head, your forehead, your eyes, jaw, neck, shoulders, arms, hands, fingers, chest, stomach, back, hips, groin, buttocks, legs, and then feet and toes. And just going through those parts, just noticing how you're feeling. You can do it for half an hour, you can do it for 30 seconds.

Noticing how you're feeling in those parts, and any kinds of discomfort do, they're very obvious, anyway. But I find it, isn't it ironic, well not ironic, but it's kind of interesting that we don't notice the parts that feel really good. The parts of us that feel really relaxed.

And maybe that's part, maybe that's, you know, just being a human being, naturally focusing on the negatives instead of the positives. Focusing on what we don't like, rather than what we do like. Focusing on what we don't want, rather than what we do want.

And that might be just societal, you know, but I'm just thinking maybe it's just a human thing. So we can work with that, realizing that maybe that's our standard way of being, and then focus maybe on some of the nice feelings. So when you do the body scan, when you actually go through your body, or the somatic tracking, you can actually focus on your body to start with, get an idea of how you're feeling.

You can notice not just those parts that may be feeling uncomfortable. You can also notice those parts that feel maybe just neutral, maybe slightly uncomfortable, maybe actually relaxed. Perhaps noticing parts that feel very relaxed.

So this is kind of my take on this, because it opens up your mind, opens up your body, opens up your thinking. And it gets you more in touch with the reality of how you're feeling, because there's more going on, more sensations going on, than any kind of discomfort. You know, I've got my lower back pain, which sometimes it's really problematic.

Sometimes it's stiff, you know, it kind of, if I relax, it gets to the point where it's just stiff. It's not, it's not painful, but it's stiff. Other times it's completely relaxed.

And sometimes there's a kind of an itchiness, a bit itchy in that area. That's when I know it's moving towards relaxation, because the muscles are, I guess, coming apart. They're relaxing, they're no longer tense.

So my mind has stopped caring about my lower back. I'm not worrying about it, not thinking about it. It's just not getting that negative energy that maybe my lower back was getting before, from me.

And it just relaxes. So with the somatic tracking, the main thing to remember, it says it here, and I'll say it as well from memory, from what I read, is to actually ask yourself, am I okay? Are you okay? Because you've got this physical discomfort. Maybe it's tightness in your muscles, you know, anxiety, stress, tension, maybe it's physical, chronic physical pain.

Is it life-threatening? Now, if it is, or if you think it is, then do something about that. You know, get down to the hospital, call an ambulance, whatever. So if you really feel that it's life-threatening, then you do get help straight away.

But when you observe, when you actually observe how you're feeling, and you realize that it's not life-threatening, it's really uncomfortable, and it's distressing, and it may be absolutely, horrifically awful. Let's be honest, let's not beat around the bush. Extreme anxiety, extreme chronic pain is horrible.

If, you know, when it's at its peak, it's horrible. But it can't hurt you. It can't actually hurt you.

It's not fatal. Chronic pain is not fatal. It's awful, but it's not fatal.

And extreme stress, again, it can be absolutely disgusting way to feel. It's just horrible when it's most extreme. But it's not fatal.

Which is the question which asks here, am I in danger? So you have this physical sensation, am I in danger? Now, if the answer to that is yes, again, seek medical attention. Because even if it turns out that you're not in medical, you don't need the medical attention, you weren't in danger, at least you have done the right thing. I ended up going to the accident emergency ward at least twice with pains in the chest, which I thought, well, I thought the worst, went got seen, had lots of tests, middle aged man, so they didn't they didn't ignore it.

And turned out, it was a panic attack. As soon as I knew two things that came out of that really, and was there was questioning, did I do the right thing? Well, on reflection, yes. Because I didn't know, I'm not a medical expert, medical, medical expert, I can't see inside my body.

I don't have the medical equipment to do my own ECG or whatever they do, take my own blood pressure, I can't I haven't got that equipment to do that with. But once they told me, it was a panic attack. I knew that it wasn't, I wasn't in danger.

And once I knew that I wasn't in danger, the anxiety levels dropped tremendously quickly dropped. Admittedly, I was shook up by it. I was shook up by the experience.

But it was a different type of thing. It was I guess the same as I would have been shook up if I'd have gone into hospital after an accident. Having the treatment waiting in the in the reception with other patients.

And then coming out feeling feeling a little bit like a fraud, or a lot like a fraud. That's how I felt. But I wasn't.

That's why I'd say to people, you know, do what you have to do, do what you feel is right. Because we're not medical, we're not medical experts. I'm 50.

Blimey, I'm 51 now, I think. 51. If I get a pain in my chest, and it's persistent, I will go to the hospital.

I won't sit and think, oh, it's anxiety. Because let's face it, you know, if I get pain in chest, that's probably going to trigger anxiety anyway. So I won't know what what started what.

And that has happened in the past. So I guess I'm just saying, look after yourself. But at the same time, you know, for the sake of this somatic tracking exercise.

An important thing is, are you in danger? Now the answer to that question, most of the time 99.9.9.9% of the time will be no. The chronic pain can't cause you can't do anything to you, other than it's a physical sensation, which is at times highly unpleasant. Anxiety can't do anything to you.

But it is highly unpleasant. Yet both chronic pain and anxiety can affect functioning. You know, that's the reality of it.

You know, if you try and have a, I've tried to have conversations with people when I'm in the middle of a panic attack in the past, I couldn't do it. I couldn't function, couldn't focus. I felt like I was like shaking really badly.

And they couldn't see any difference in me. There was no physical shaking. That's how I felt inside.

Like I was tremoring. So I guess the main reason why I do these podcasts is to gradually, over time, very softly, when you listen to the podcast, you listen to the recordings. Those times when chronic pain or stress is at its worst, start to reduce in numbers.

It happens less. And that level of at its worst starts to gradually reduce. Now when you listen to me, in the moment, the levels of stress and any kind of physical discomfort can actually just reduce on their own, just by listening to my voice.

And that might just be because I got a really, really boring voice. There's also the distraction element, you're listening to me, you're not thinking about other stuff that may have been contributing towards your stress levels. And although we're talking about that part of your body that may have stress or some kind of physical discomfort, we're not feeding it.

We're not feeding that energy. We're not feeding that negative energy. We're giving the opportunity for positive relaxation to spread through your body.

As you let go, you can actually enjoy feeling more comfortable. And going back to this somatic tracking, basically what you do is you focus on the area. You just focus on it.

You just observe it. You don't do anything, but just observe it. Which is what I'm going to do with my lower back now.

So if you follow me, what I'm doing, focusing on your own part of your body, a part which is physically, got some kind of physical discomfort, whether it's chronic pain or stress, tension. As long as you know the reason for it, and you know that you're not in danger, so it's safe for you to just observe it. And just watch it.

I know in a sense, so I can't watch it. How can I watch my lower back? Well, I kind of do visualize my lower back a little bit, but I feel with my senses, physically sensing those feelings in my lower back. It might sound strange, but I also almost feel like I can see inside my lower back, the muscles, the area.

And in a way, I guess the reality is, if you have a continual physical issue, you get to know that part of your body very, very well. Really well, because you spend a lot of time with that part of your body in your mind. With attention, you're giving that part of your body, possibly more attention than the rest of your body at times.

But this is a different kind of attention. While we're focusing on this part of the body that you're focusing on now, we're not doing it with anger. We're not doing it with frustration.

We're letting all of that go. There's no emotions involved. No emotions needed for this.

This is a very factual, logical, observational situation where you are just observing that part of your body, noticing how it feels, but also noticing how those feelings change. Because sometimes we'll say to ourselves and even other people, I always feel like this. It always feels this way.

Which is, it's not a lie. It's untrue. But it's not a lie.

We're not saying it as a lie, because most people that say that actually believe it. But the fact is, it does change. No feeling stays the same.

No emotional feeling, no physical feeling ever stays the same for long. Now, some of those changes may not be that different from the last feeling you had. So I'm laughing, but sometimes you need to observe it to really notice the intricate differences.

But as you observe, you start to realize that there are times when it really changes. And because you weren't noticing that before, you therefore weren't aware of it. So as you focus, like I'm focusing on my lower back now, the feelings changed a huge amount just by focusing.

It's turned from, it just feels different. I can feel it, but it's going more into that zone of being maybe tense, but not really painful. But at the same time, by observing it from outside, it might sound strange, but it's almost like it's not a part of you.

You're observing it. You're an observer, like you're watching it on a cinema screen or a television screen. It's there and you can maybe feel pity or compassion or be concerned, but it's almost separate from you when you observe.

But at the same time, it's not because it's mindfulness. You realize it is part of you. Yeah, it starts to change.

And the main thing here is just to observe it. Observe and notice the changes in that particular feeling. Just be aware of it.

Notice it. And you're not trying to change it. You're really not.

Of course, there's going to be a part of you that wants it to reduce and to become more relaxed. I mean, yes, we can't kid ourselves that that's not going to be in your mind to a degree, because otherwise, why would you be listening if you didn't want the stress relief or a physical discomfort to reduce? That's, you know, so you can feel more comfortable, calmer, looser and much more relaxed.

But in the moment when you're just observing, that stuff's not going in your mind.

It's not even entering your mind because you listen to my voice, but then you're focusing on that one part of your body, observing how the physical sensations are continuously changing. And in some cases, that feeling may actually move to a different part of the body. In the case of stress or tension, or in the case of emotional discomfort, which can be felt in the body as well.

Emotional discomfort very often will start to move because when you give it the focus, when you listen to me, actually, it's almost as if this thing was stuck, maybe stuck down a hole or a well or had its leg caught under a tree. And what we've done, what you've done is you've freed that feeling to then just express itself how it wants to. And quite often what it really wants is just to be free, wants to be able to do what it wants, wants your attention, it's got your attention.

It wants you to be safe and it wants that part of the body to be safe, to be healthy and to be looked after, which is what you're doing. So all the boxes are being ticked, you're satisfying that part of your body. And once it's getting what it needs, it doesn't need to be crying for your help, for your attention, for your assistance.

It's like the receptionist of a hotel, someone keep pressing the bell to get the receptionist to come out from the back. But eventually, it doesn't need to press that bell, does no longer need your attention because you've satisfied all of its needs. And remembering that it's just a sensation, it's just a sensation, it's just a feeling.

And as I say that, I get this sense and it's, I don't know why, of distance. It's almost like the feeling, having been released, it's spreading out. But as it spreads out and moves away, the strength of it, of the feeling reduces multiple times so that it's almost invisible, almost has no feeling at all, no physical sensations at all.

So that you feel more relaxed, more, more relaxed and calm. And you can just continue to focus on that feeling. If there's any feeling left, just notice it moving around.

If it moves around, notice it changing. My lower back is now gone into that kind of itchy stage where it's relaxed and the muscles are gently separating as it continues to relax. It's very peaceful.

So continue to focus for as long as you want. And I'll leave you alone to do that in peace. Thank you for listening.

Bye.