Somatic Exercises For Nervous System Regulation By LearnWell Books and Rose Kilian
Have you ever wished you could spend less on your medical bills, or perhaps you simply want to start taking your health more seriously? In the book Somatic Exercises for Nervous System Regulation, both hopes and desires are addressed by the author Rose Kilian under the publication LearnWell Books, making the claim that the concepts the book contains give you the tools you need—specifically, “35 Beginner–Intermediate Techniques to Reduce Anxiety & Tone Your Vagus Nerve.” She claims that this can be accomplished in under “10 Minutes a Day,” giving you a pathway toward a healthier you and the ability to put recovery and health into your own hands.
Artistry and Craft
The book is very approachable, with a font that’s larger than average and an unintimidating page count. At first, this can make the book seem unprofessional and maybe even a bit gimmicky, but looking past the presentation challenges of the book’s font, its content delivers what it claims to. The book starts off reading like a memoir, giving the reader something to relate to by sharing a bit about the author’s own health struggles and challenges, and how somatic practices have helped her on her journey. This introduction automatically grips the reader’s attention before diving into both an explanation of what somatic exercises are, as well as who they are for and how they can potentially help you.
The book gives practical steps and about 35 somatic practices and exercises for a wide range of areas, giving the reader variety for their own particular health goals and areas to target, with detailed descriptions, easy-to-follow steps, and 89 helpful illustrations to guide the reader. When working through the book, I was pleased to notice the diverse number of exercises and skills the author introduces, with the caveat of one questionable section. The author includes a wide range of exercises from different practices that support somatic health. Not only does the author provide clear descriptions of the exercises, but she also gives pointers on how to make them more accommodating.
Overall, this is a great book to introduce the practice of somatics.★★★★
Themes and Messages
It’s difficult to figure out messages and/or themes for a non-fiction book about exercise, so I’ve decided to share a part of somatics I found intriguing through an essay format. If you are interested in a deeper dive into what somatic exercises are, feel free to click here.
The author does a great job explaining many things lightly, but never really touches upon the history of the somatic practice. As seen in the book, the exercises cover a lot of ground, from something your physiotherapist might tell you to do to what a yogi might suggest. Overall, somatics draws on practices from diverse areas of thoughtful movement and refuses to frame them or put them in a box labelled either physical exercise or spiritual movement. As a Christian, this made somatics a very interesting experience, as I ran across scientific-sounding “trauma exercises” as well as exercises that made me do a double-take. Nevertheless, I wish this book touched upon the origins of the somatic practice more than it did, though it is still helpful as an introduction. ★★★.5
Final Thoughts
In order to properly rate this book, I figured that I should put it into practice. Each day, for a little over a month now, I have been doing a select number of exercises from the book to test whether it truly works or not. I have found some positive improvements. Namely, the breathing exercises and after-trauma exercises have helped me regulate stress better, and I’ve experienced longer stretches of improved emotional regulation.
Overall, I’d recommend this book to anyone who would benefit from practices that force them to slow down throughout the day, as well as anyone who struggles with chronic symptoms, both mental and physical. This book is great in that it touches on a wide variety of practices, but, as discussed, doesn’t really go in-depth into any of them. I found this book to be really strong in terms of the variety of exercises it offers, and I feel it would be a good guide for people looking to move in a healthier direction. Overall, I would rate this book four stars for its approachability and variety.
If you’d like to explore more of
Rose Kilian’s work,
click here to visit her
LinkedIn profile.
That's all folks! If you enjoyed the review, feel free to share and or leave a comment below. If you practice scomatics, do you think there's a more accurate definition that captures what scomatics is? I'd love to hear your perspective. ❤❤❤
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