Somatic Journaling: A Step-By-Step Guide
Somatic Journaling: Take Your Journaling Deeper
Journaling is the go-to tool for millions of people when they want to untangle their thoughts, understand their feelings, and bring more clarity and insight into their everyday lives.
However, conventional journaling often focuses too much on our thoughts, leaving us trapped in the echo chamber of our minds, recycling familiar feelings, entrenched viewpoints, and outdated narratives.
Enter somatic journaling—a transformative approach that invites us to listen to our inner sensations so we can forge a deeper connection with our authentic selves and deep inner knowing.
By tuning into our bodily cues and sensations, we unearth profound insights into our true emotions and gain invaluable perspective on the roots of our issues.
We also often get access to information and knowings that have been living just below the surface of our thoughts, offering us a deeper and more holistic understanding of ourselves, our lives, and our motivations.
Tap Into The Wisdom of Your Body
Our bodies are wise beyond measure and carry the echoes of our past experiences in every cell.
As we cultivate greater somatic awareness, we tune into the subtle whispers of sensation that reverberate through our physical being. In the realm of journaling, our bodies serve as guides, leading us toward the wounds and deep inner wisdom that yearn to be acknowledged and understood.
In our culture, we tend to view everything in relationship to our thoughts, but our emotions and experiences don’t just happen in our heads; they ripple through every fiber of our being. Somatic journaling honors that truth and offers a more holistic path to self-understanding and healing.
Today, I'm thrilled to provide you with step-by-step guidance on a powerful somatic journaling process. You can use it to deepen your connection with and attunement to your body, empowering you to elevate your journaling practice to new heights.
About this Somatic Journaling Process
This somatic journaling process is based on the incredible emotional processing technique called Regenerating Images in Memory® or RIM. RIM is one of my favorite processing tools because it takes us below the surface of our conscious minds to understand the roots of our feelings and issues that live in our bodies subconsciously.
I’m a Certified RIM facilitator and I use this type of journaling all the time in my personal life and find it profoundly helpful.
Usually, RIM is guided verbally, and done with your eyes closed (and there isn’t any writing involved), but I’ve extrapolated RIM into a journaling format for this body-centered journaling process because it’s so effective when used in this way.
Note: If you want to try a more typical RIM experience, you can try these traditional RIM exercises:
Episode 005 - How to Heal Your Emotional Triggers (At the Roots)
Episode 008 - Guidance From Your Future Self Meditation
Find all Regenerating Images in Memory® episodes here
Listen to Somatic Journaling: A Step-By-Step Guide now!
Episode timing:
00:00 - Take your journaling deeper with somatic journaling
03:12 - About this somatic journaling process
05:31 - Step 1 - Connect with your body
09:37 - Step 2 - Feel your feelings in your body
13:41 - Step 3 - Diving deeper + journal prompts
18:40 - Step 4 - Whole self integration + journal prompts
22:52 - Conclusion
Somatic Journal Prompts
(Note: these won’t make much sense unless you’ve listened to the exercise and done Step 2. They’re just here for reference and future use.)
Journal Prompts for Step 3:
Becoming the part that you deeply noticed and sensed in Step 2, journal as that part:
"What it's like to be me is..."
"What's really happening for me deep down is..."
"What I'm struggling with most right now is..."
"What I believe about myself is..."
"What I really want or need is..."
"How it feels to acknowledge all of this is..."
Free write to express anything else that wants to be expressed as this part.
Journal Prompts for Step 4:
Anchoring into your whole self, look back over what was just expressed from that part of you in Step 3. Now, journaling as your whole self, complete these sentences:
"What I heard or received from you is..."
"How it feels to hear that and receive that from you is..."
"What I'm realizing now is..."
"How it feels to realize that is..."
"What feels different to me now is..."
"What looks different to me now is..."
Free write to express anything else that wants to be expressed as your whole self!
READY TO GO DEEPER ON YOUR EMBODIED HEALING JOURNEY?
Enroll in my free mini-course: The Feel it to Heal it Mini-Course
In 5 powerful mini-lessons you’ll:
Connect with your body and emotions in a deep and supportive way.
Learn exactly what it means to “feel it to heal it” (as well as experience 4 body-centered exercises to do just that).
Gain insight into your emotional patterns and knee-jerk reactions to life.
Learn a powerful mind-body technique to soothe your distressing emotions so you can increase your comfort with your emotions.
Use your deepening body awareness as a tool for healing and authentic living.
What was that Somatic Journaling Process like for you?
What did you realize or experience? How was it different from other journaling you’ve done?
Do you have any questions about somatic journaling?
Please let me know in the comments!
➡️ If you liked this episode, I would love it if you would subscribe, rate, and review this podcast!
And please join me every Friday on this beautiful journey out of your head, and into your more embodied and authentic self.
Thank you so much for journaling with me!
About me
Hey, I’m Karena!
I’m a trauma informed emotional healing coach here to help you quickly identify and heal the subconscious blocks, old emotional wounds and self-sabotaging core beliefs that are holding you back!
Want to go deeper? Sign up for the Feel it to Heal it Mini-Course now!
Learn a body-centered approach to deep healing + wake up to the wisdom within!