Striving, Somatics, and a Commitment

My year of anti-striving.

Two days ago I finished a twelve week long somatics workshop focused on body liberation. I showed up to every session, despite my own resistance and although I moved into a new place and started a new job in the span of the class. We met online, via Zoom, which was strange given the physical nature of somatics, but it worked.

Through the twelve weeks I practiced exercises like hand on chest, an exercise with two or three people, where two participants exchange a question such as what would your life be like without diet culture. The asker reaches their hand out, and the answerer, when they feel the connection of the hand, places their own hand on their chest before answering the question.

At first these interactions were clunky, but as the weeks progressed our exchanges became profound. We began to trust each other and release the need for approval; the need to seem smart or elegant in our understandings of ourselves.

I found that, when I was in my body (something that I have only rece…