Why somatic exercises do not automatically regulate your nervous system

You tried the exercise from the Reel. Shaking, humming, moving your eyes in circles. Afterwards, you were not calmer. You somehow felt beside yourself. So you think you are doing it wrong. I love this work. Still, I need to say something hardly anyone says.

Calling an exercise “somatic” does not mean it is good for your nervous system in this moment. Doing a somatic exercise and genuinely supporting your system are two different things. The difference determines whether you feel better or worse afterwards.

What somatic exercises actually are

Somatic means through the body, not through the mind. Classical approaches begin with thought. Somatic work begins where stress actually sits: in the body. Through movement, breath, voice and the release of tension. The idea is both simple and deep. Accumulated stress is released where it is held. Not where we think about it.

This is why the work can be so powerful. It bypasses the part of you that rationalises everything and speaks directly to the system holding the tension. That is also why it is not something to follow blindly from a set of instructions.

Why the same exercise can help or harm

Your nervous system is not in the same state every moment. Sometimes you are wired and activated. Sometimes empty and shut down. An exercise that brings you down can be wonderful when you are overactivated. The same exercise can feel wrong when your system is already in shutdown. In that moment, it may need the opposite: something that gently activates you again.

This is why a YouTube exercise that works wonders for a friend may do nothing for you. It may even make you more unsettled. Not because the exercise is bad. Because it does not fit your state in that moment. This is not a footnote. It is the whole point.

Sequencing: the part almost nobody sells with the exercise

One word sits at the centre of my work. It is almost always missing from the trend: sequencing. It sounds technical. It means something deeply human. Read your nervous system. Recognise what it needs now instead of calming it by default. Change at the right pace, in the right sequence and in a dose your system can process.

Without that sequence, even the gentlest exercise can overwhelm your system. This point matters to me. It is not about how gentle a method is. It is whether someone knows how to sequence it. Well-intentioned work can still miss the mark if the dose is wrong.

How to know when something does not fit

Your body gives feedback if you listen. If an exercise repeatedly unsettles you, makes you restless or leaves you completely numb, that does not mean you need to “practise it more”. It means the exercise and your current state do not fit. Your system is not saying this to frustrate you. It is protecting you.

This is where thinking only in exercises ends and the real work begins. Not “which exercise should I do?” but “what does my system need right now and in which sequence can it receive it?”

Where my work begins

My method is grounded in the Polyvagal Theory of Stephen Porges and Deb Dana as well as Somatic Stress Release by Dr Scott Lyons. I work with data and look at the whole picture. My work is non-diagnostic. Where needed, I work with external professionals or refer clients to doctors, laboratories or therapists.

Somatic exercises are a wonderful tool. A tool is only as good as the understanding of when and how to use it. If sequencing made you curious, I will write more about it here soon.

This text reflects my perspective and my work. It is not medical or therapeutic advice and does not replace medical or psychotherapeutic treatment. I do not diagnose. Where needed, I refer clients to qualified professionals.