What is Somatics?

A few weeks ago, during a grief-informed yoga class, a participant shared that for the first time since her loss, she felt like she could breathe all the way down into her belly. Her body had softened enough to give her a moment of relief. That’s the heart of somatics: working with the body to create space for growth, even in the midst of pain.

Somatics is the practice of engaging the body to support emotional, mental, and spiritual well-being. It recognizes that our experiences, especially those of grief and trauma, don’t just live in our minds. They live in our muscles, our breath, our posture, and even in how we move through the world. Somatic practices help us release what’s been held in the body, restore a sense of safety, and reconnect with the present moment.

Somatics is not about “getting over” grief, it’s about working with it in a way that honors our whole being. By engaging the body, we help the nervous system regulate, expand our capacity to be with difficult emotions, and create space for moments of relief, connection, and meaning.

At The LIGHT Movement, we weave somatic tools into everything we do. Three of the frameworks we use often are:

1. Pendulation of Contraction and Expansion

Grief can pull us into a state of contraction—tight muscles, shallow breathing, a sense of heaviness. Pendulation is the practice of moving between contraction and expansion, allowing the body to flow between moments of intensity and moments of relief.
Examples: Taking a deep stretch after sitting in stillness, noticing the expansion of our chest and belly as we inhale and the contraction as we exhale, or swimming.

2. Bilateral Movement

When we move both sides of the body in rhythm, it can help integrate emotions, calm the mind, and support the brain’s natural processing systems.
Examples: Walking, running, swimming, gardening, cooking (chopping and stirring), or even dancing to a favorite song.

3. Vagus Nerve Stimulation

The vagus nerve plays a key role in regulating our stress response and helping us feel safe and connected. By gently stimulating it, we can support relaxation and emotional balance.
Examples: Humming, singing, chanting, gentle yoga twists, slow breathing, splashing cool water on the face, or lying down with one hand on the heart and one on the belly.

Somatic tools aren’t “one-size-fits-all”, they are invitations to find what works for your body in your grief.

The LIGHT Movement

 LIGHT Movement—Love In Grief Held Together—was founded to help people work with grief and grow through it. Our mission is to remind people they are not alone and to teach evidence-based, somatic tools that support mind-body integration, meaning-making, and purpose after loss.

We do this through:

• SAGE Events (Somatics and Grief Embodied): multi-day retreats, trainings, and yoga teacher certifications
• Workshops and presentations at national conferences such as the American Psychological Association, National Alliance for Children’s Grief, TAPS, National Association of Professional Chaplains, and more
• Community programs and donation-based grief-informed yoga

We also love offering workshops for organizations, schools, conferences, and community groups—bringing somatic tools for grief directly to the people who need them most.

You can explore all of our offerings here: https://lightmvmt.com/offerings/

At LIGHT, we believe that grief deserves a place in the body; not to be pushed away, but to be felt, honored, and moved through in ways that help us carry it with more ease.