The Place to Start
The Somatic Enneagram is the relaxation of the automatic reactivity elicited through a perceived, limited reality, which is based on the need to survive, and, as was originally experienced in the past. We can choose our placement of attention, and in that, learn to extend presence and abide with the reality as it actually is. A well-developed inner observer is a prerequisite.
Through the completion of the descent from the mental to the emotional and then to the physical/instinctual impressions, we are able to find the root of the original split through the lens of perception in the Body center. We will be able to access where our contracted, conditioned nature is located and then learn how to allow it to return to the free-flowing life force, through a “felt sense” lens of perception. We will be able to observe and understand how we are caught in a state of self-forgetting and are asleep to the unconditioned reality. The process of awakening and self-remembering, in nine different ways, is a three-centered process of descending through the three different lenses of perception: Mental, Emotional and Physical.
The Somatic or Physical center is the most difficult to access, based on its automatic, subcortical, highly conditioned survival strategies. Turning our attention inward is the first turn towards the awakening of the felt-sense and is what will build capacity for grounded presence in the present moment. The present moment is the only moment we can truly experience and through sustained present-moment awareness, we can witness transformation and the integration of our conditioned, relative nature into the unconditioned, essential nature.