Body Memory

We think about memory as language, thoughts or images located in the brain. Memory is also located in the senses, the skin, the muscles and the nervous system. Our whole body remembers.

What is meant by a body memory? If you consider procedural memory such as riding a bike this is body memory. There is a fabulous video about a man who attempts to reverse this body memory I've put the link below.

When we use procedural memory as in the example of riding a bike we do not have to think about the next action or have a verbal cue. Riding a bike, using a knife and fork, brushing our teeth are not the only procedures our body learns. We learn how to sit down, walk, stand in a certain way, open a door and walk into a room. We learn these movements at a very early age, the body remembers whether walking into a room felt safe or something to be cautious about. Our muscles will relax or tense depending on the memory they initially made when walking into a room or about to say something.

There is also automatic body memory such as breathing. Breathing is part of our autonomic nervous system and in infants it becomes regulated by the primary caregiver. The pattern in which you now breath is from a body memory that predates language and thought, whether you find your breathes regular and easy or fast and shallow, maybe you notice you hold your breath or you find taking a deep breath difficult. This is your body remembering.

Your body remembers all kinds of things that are not in your conscious awareness, smells, foods, habits, a tone of voice or a microsecond expression on a person's face. If those experiences were neutral or positive your body may be relaxed but if those experiences in your development felt unsafe you may feel tense or exhausted at the end of the day. A body memory causes a body response, that response maybe laughter or tension in the jaw, neck, a twitch in the eye, a droop of the head.

In Somatic approaches we explore body memory so you can begin to notice, tune in and connect to your story by integrating your body memory to your experience and honour that instinctual survival strategy you were born with.