37. Somatic Journaling with Jennifer Arnspiger
Anger. Disgust. Shame. Envy. These are the kinds of shadow emotions that today’s guest loves to explore through the embodied practice of somatic journaling. As she shares in the episode, “so many sensitive people grow up feeling faulty somehow, or like they’re broken” when in fact, the opposite is true. This is the kind of journaling practice that helps you write your way back to worthiness, peel back layers of buried feelings, and release them from your body so you can relate to the stories you’ve told yourself about them in new ways. At its core, somatic journaling is a practice that helps cultivate self-trust, self-love, and breaks the cycle of self-abandonment that exists when we deny ourselves the truth of our experience.
“Somatic writing isn’t supposed to be polished. It’s supposed to come out the way it’s living in your body.”
Highlights
How a lifelong love affair with words (and ending a narcissistic relationship) led Jennifer to discover the power of somatic journaling
The connection between high sensitivity and somatic journaling
The difference between somatic writing (that comes from behind your belly button) versus cerebral writing (that comes from the brain)
Suggestions for titrating between different types of writing styles when working with trauma, and recommendations for getting the most out of the experience
Why you never need to be afraid of what you’ll find when you start journaling
Metaphors involving lobsters, swimming pools, and onions
How somatic journaling helps unravel our shame stories and cultivates self-trust
4 prompts to get you started with somatic journaling today
Guest Bio
Jennifer Arnspiger is the author of the memoir Dark Pretty, short story collection Pretty Piece of Flesh and @highlysensitivehealing, the thriving Instagram community for the intense and sensitive. She specializes in helping deeply sensitive women resolve old trauma stories so they can find their peace and their power. A somatic journaling coach, shadow worker and writer, she is the creator of Body Story, a self-paced shadow journaling program that helps sensitive women liberate repressed emotions and resolve old trauma energy so they can finally feel peace inside their skin. She dreams of living in Carmel-by-the-Sea.
