It’s Almost Impossible to Think Your Way Into Change. Here’s Why

It’s almost impossible to think your way into change because your body holds patterns from the past.

These patterns are physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and energetic in nature and influence your personality and behavior.

When we want to change something in our lives, it starts with changing ourselves. We have to go within.

The reason most people have a hard time changing their behavior is because they try to make change through their mind alone. They don’t involve their bodies in the process. And thus, they don’t access the deeper patterns in their bodies that are driving their behavior in the first place.

These patterns in the body are often unconscious to us. We might feel like something is off but we can’t identify why. For some people, these patterns arise as a compensation for unprocessed emotions, trauma, or challenging early childhood experiences.

Sometimes through this work, people learn the origins of their patterns and sometimes they don’t. Ultimately, knowing doesn’t impact our ability to heal and change.

Somatics for Professional & Personal Growth

The beauty of working with the body through craniosacral therapy or somatic coaching is you’re able to unwind patterns without needing to talk about them.

You don’t have to identify what caused the pattern in the first place or rehash past experiences that are oftentimes uncomfortable to talk about.

For example, a client named Olivia (name changed to protect her privacy) started and runs a successful business. She’s a visionary, a creative, and from the outside, everything looked perfect.

But Olivia struggled with putting her needs ahead of her business, she wasn’t able to delegate to her team because nobody was as knowledgeable as her about the brand, and she was exhausted. Her health and personal life suffered.

Olivia had tried for years to make changes to how she ran her businesses because she knew this pace wasn’t sustainable. She felt stuck and knew she needed help. She’d met with businesses advisors and had seen a talk therapist for years but nothing got to her underlying issues.

Olivia had heard about somatic coaching and even though she wasn’t sure what it’d entail, she reached out.

Through coaching, Olivia learned about these patterns in her body. Among other things, she recognized a pattern that contributed to her feeling financially insecure even when her bank account said otherwise. This fear of running out of money impacted her tendency to work constantly and control all aspects of the business, without letting her team assume greater responsibility.

In order to shift this pattern of insecurity and the resulting impact on her leadership, Olivia was invited in coaching to notice what sensations arose in her body when thinking about her fears around money.

In sitting with and feeling these sensations, her fear began to shift. We did additional techniques, grounded in her somatic experience, so Olivia further accept and unwind this fear.

Through this process, Olivia didn’t have to share why she had a fear of running out of money, a hard time relinquishing control of certain aspects of her business, and an inability to trust that everything would work out. She just had to bring mindfulness to her body in the present moment.

Her body served as a portal through which she could shift the deeper patterns that were keeping her stuck. Once Olivia worked through and healed the underlying fear, her leadership naturally shifted too.

Somatics to Embody Leadership

In working with Olivia, there wouldn’t have been nearly as much change had we ignored her body, as is the case with most coaching and therapy. Oftentimes we can’t access the deeper issues through talking and our conscious awareness alone.

Somatics connects us to depths of our inner experience, to the foundation of ourselves. And when change happens at this level, it transforms how we move through life and leadership.

If you’re curious to learn more about why somatics matters, reach out with any questions. You’re also welcome to schedule a free 30 minute consult to learn more about how online somatic coaching can support your personal and leadership development.