Somatics: The Modern Yogas

Effortlessness and Efficiency

The field is called Somatics, or what I sometimes call the ‘Modern Yogas.’ Somatics encompasses a wide variety of methods, but the common element is the view that the mind and body, though perhaps differentiated, are inseparable aspects of a whole. One other aspect of the somatics field, as I see it, is that one can affect change in the person directly through the body. One pioneer in this field whose work I’ve studied extensively is Moshe Feldenkrais. He, as I, saw the great importance of marking the difference between training and education. As well, his method offers a means by which one may learn how. How to, for example, understand the evolution of a posture: the movement of yoga, how one begins, enters into, dwells within, and moves through and out of these wonderful forms we call yoga.

Informing the Form

The inclusion of Somatics is an important aspect of Evolutionary Yoga™, for it provides the means of understanding the evolution of the yoga postures. Through various explorations of form, one gains an experiential understanding of the postures and how they develop from small to large, from one form to another. In other words, Somatics is a process of informing the form. Like ancient yoga, these modern yogas are here to help increase our awareness, and to perhaps ultimately liberate us, not from, but through our physical selves.