A child is born with almost a fully active body, life energy or Prana, open consciousness, and connection to nature. Around the age of two to four, the sense of ‘I’ emerges in the child, creating self-awareness. Self-awareness brings the delights of life, but also the fear of death. The child takes shelter in the family and is provided with psychological protection through the imposition of religion, traditions, customs, myths, science, and culture. ‘I’, with the trappings of education and culture, becomes an identity. Through this identity, a child becomes rooted in their culture. Being rooted in culture is essential, given that a rootless child (one without identity) would struggle to find their place in the world and could suffer from emotional and mental health problems
A child born with an active body, and life energy, eventually grow into an adult who is at best only peripherally aware of the life energy coursing through their body. A person is disconnected from nature. The consciousness of the child, which used to be open, is now veiled by the conditioned cultural mind. The person is not fully alive and lives a mundane life, devoid of passion and creativity. An adult compensates for their blocked life energy and dullness of life by attempting to acquire wealth, power, fame, and knowledge, or by excessive indulging in entertainment, and sex, and succumbing to various addictions. In other words, a person becomes an avid consumer, and all consumption without exception comes from earth’s resources leading to the destruction of nature.
It is possible, however, to completely reconnect to this energy by returning to the body, and thus have a full experience of one’s life energy. As the life energy is freed, it will cause a radical revolution that will make us ‘alive and full’ and reconnects us to nature. This process is called Somatofulness.
The term Somatofulness was coined by Jivasu. It is derived from the Greek word soma meaning “body”. In the Sanskrit language, soma means “the elixir of life”. Somatofulness is the process of discovering full life in the body.
In Somatofulness, we connect to the body and its life energy to:
- Healing trauma and attaining complete emotional and mental health.
- Experiencing the fullness of life or Puranta
- Living in synergy with nature.
It is the state of Deha Moksha or the liberation of the body.
Physics and neurobiology showed that our bodies and the nature around us are formed by the same elements of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, iron, sulfur, and phosphorus. According to Ayurveda, our body-mind and the rest of nature are made up of the same five elements of earth, water, fire, air, and space. From both points of view, our bodies are an extension of nature and are interdependent with each other. To reconnect to nature, not only we must develop intimacy with her but also cultivate Somatoful practices. These practices include Somatic awareness during the daily activities of life, Somatic poses and movements, Somatic breathing, and Somatic meditations.
How do Somatoful practices work?
By Somatic awareness and practices, we become conscious of life energy or Prana in the body. They unblock life energy and make it flow through various parts of the body, including the brain. When the force of Prana reaches a critical threshold, it starts breaking the patterns of the mind, which block the energy in the body and brain, freeing them from the conditioned past and trauma. The body and brain start to function fully and get reconnected to nature. We attain full emotional and mental health.
The body is freed by reclaiming its energy field called peri personal space in neurobiology. A person is healed and experiences fulfillment. Eventually, the life energy’s force breaks the body’s boundaries and merges into the universal prana. We become part of nature and life again. It is the union – the Yoga of nature. It is like returning to our childhood when we were connected to nature spontaneously. In childhood, the connection was not conscious but now we experience a relationship with nature in full consciousness. In Somatofulness we become children again and play. The universe becomes Leela or the play of energy and consciousness.
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