Orientation: A Gentle Somatic Practice to Feel Safer in Your Body
If you’ve ever felt like being in your body is… a lot - you’re not alone.
For many people I work with - people living with chronic stress, burnout, chronic illness, trauma histories, or the relentless exhaustion of being “in their head” all the time - sensations can feel overwhelming, intense, or even unsafe.
So when I tell clients that the first step toward feeling more embodied is sometimes to get out of the body…
…it sounds like a riddle. But it’s true. Before we can feel in our bodies, we often need to feel safe enough to be there.
And sometimes, the way back in begins by looking out.
Why Focusing Inside Isn’t Always Helpful (or Safe)
Many people assume somatic work means diving straight into sensations & feeling - feel your breath, notice your tension, explore your emotions.
But if your nervous system is already in a heightened state - racing heart, tight chest, spiralling thoughts, numbness, shutdown - turning inward can be too much. If you’ve lived through trauma, chronic illness, or prolonged stress, your body may not feel like a comfortable place to land.
Going inside may activate more distress.
This is one of the core insights of Organic Intelligence® - forcing attention inward can overwhelm the system and actually increase dysregulation. Which is why the first step toward embodiment is often:
Not going inward… but outward.
Orientation: A Gentle Bridge Back to Safety
Orientation is one of the simplest, most powerful somatic practices - and one of the safest starting points.
Orientation means using your senses to connect with what’s around you:
the colours in the room
the way the light falls
the texture of the chair
the sounds in the distance
the space between objects
This isn’t mindfulness, grounding, or a technique you “do right.” It’s biological.
Every animal orients.
Plants follow sunlight.
Birds map the sky.
Humans (when not overwhelmed) scan our environment to understand where we are.
Your nervous system needs that information in order to feel safe enough to settle. When you look outward, something inside begins to soften - sometimes instantly.
The Science Bit (In Human Language)
Your brain is constantly predicting whether you’re safe and anticipates and adjusts how to use the bodies energy according to what’s happening in the environment. This process is called allostasis - your system gathers information from both inside and outside your body to decide what to do next:
fight
flee
freeze
collapse
or settle
When you’re overwhelmed, your system often defaults to scanning inside (heart rate, tightness, pain, fear), which creates a feedback loop of “something is wrong.” But when you orient outward, you give your system new data:
Neutral or pleasant sensory input → safety signal → calmer physiology. This isn’t “thinking your way out of anxiety.” It’s not bypassing. It’s biology. And over time, this builds a new baseline - a body that feels steadier, safer, and more like home.
Try It: A Gentle Orientation Practice
Orientation Practice (5 minutes)
A short guided audio to help your system gently settle by connecting with your environment.
Why This Matters If You’re Burnt Out, Anxious, or Overwhelmed
So many of my clients tell me:
“My body feels like a threat.”
“I can’t get out of my head.”
“Being in my body feels too intense.”
“Everything inside feels too loud.”
“I’ve tried all the things — breathwork makes it worse, grounding makes me dissociate.”
Orientation meets you where you are.
It doesn’t demand internal focus. It doesn’t force activation. It doesn’t intensify the symptoms you already live with. It simply offers your system what it’s craving: a way to feel present without feeling flooded.
From this doorway - this re-establishing of safety through your senses - your system can begin to reorganise on its own.
This is where Organic Intelligence shines: we don’t force the system into healing; we support it to remember its own rhythm.
Orientation as a Love Letter to Your Biology
Considering Orientation as a foundational practice invites us to remember something profound:
Your body wants to work with you.
Your biology wants to settle.
Your system is already doing everything it can to help you survive.
Orientation is a way of saying: “Let’s do this together.”
It reconnects you with the ebb and flow of the natural world - the colours, the textures, the movement, the quiet. It reminds you that:
safety can be simple
beauty is regulating
attunement doesn’t require effort
small is powerful
healing is relational
And as your system receives this steady, digestible information, it builds coherence little by little - like coral forming its reef. Not rushed. Not forced. Just slowly becoming solid ground.
If You’re Struggling: There Is a Way Back
Wherever you are today - overwhelmed, shut down, anxious, exhausted, or simply longing for a different relationship with your body - please know this:
Change is possible. And it doesn’t begin with intensity. It begins with gentleness. Small, consistent, digestible moments of safety.
A gaze that softens.
A sound that soothes.
Light through a window.
One slow exhale you didn’t have to earn.
This is how your system remembers home.
If You Want to Explore This More Deeply
Orientation is one doorway into the Organic Intelligence approach - a gentle, non-pathologising way of supporting the nervous system to reorganise and settle. If you’d like to explore this work with support, you can learn more about my Organic Intelligence sessions here.
And if you found this practice helpful, or noticed anything shift, I’d truly love to hear. Your system’s small wins matter - they’re how healing begins.
Want to Read More About This Work?
If this way of approaching your body feels relieving or different from what you’ve tried before, you might enjoy my four-part series on Organic Intelligence® - a gentle framework for understanding how the nervous system heals.
You can explore the series here: