We often say we’re “at a loss for words.” But what if the body was never at a loss? What if the body has been speaking all along — in tight shoulders, a lump in the throat, or restless nights?
Psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk famously wrote, “The body keeps the score.” What he meant is that stress, trauma, and even unexpressed creativity can live on in the nervous system long after the moment has passed. Muscles tighten, breath shortens, posture contracts. These aren’t just physical quirks — they’re stories the body is holding when words can’t carry the weight.
Why the Body Stores Stress and Expression
When we experience strong emotion, the brain doesn’t just file it neatly into language. Instead, the limbic system (emotional brain) and the autonomic nervous system respond first. The body reacts before the thinking mind catches up. That’s why you might blush before you can say “I’m embarrassed,” or feel your throat tighten before you think “I’m afraid.”
Sometimes those reactions complete and move through us. But other times — especially during overwhelming stress or trauma — the body’s response gets interrupted. We freeze. We swallow the words. The nervous system never quite finishes the story.
Somatic therapists call this “incomplete self-protection responses.” The energy of expression gets stuck. Over time, those unfinished responses can feel like tension patterns, shutdown, or creative numbness.
Somatic Pathways to Release Stress
Here’s the hopeful part: the same body that holds these unfinished stories also holds the key to releasing them.
Interoception: Listening to the Body
Learning to notice sensations (warmth, heaviness, tingling) builds awareness of what’s being held. Research links strong interoceptive awareness to improved emotional regulation and resilience.
Resourcing: Creating Safety in the Nervous System
Somatic therapy uses “resourcing” — recalling safe, pleasant sensations or memories — to create stability before engaging with more difficult material. This steadiness allows the nervous system to release without overwhelm.
Pandiculation: Resetting Muscle Tension
That natural yawn-stretch you feel in the morning? That’s pandiculation — the body’s built-in reset for muscle tension. Somatic movement uses this principle intentionally to release chronic contraction and restore fluidity.
Vocalization & Rhythm: Sound as Release
Humming, sighing, chanting, or even drumming stimulate the vagus nerve and regulate heart rate variability. In yogic tradition, these practices have long been seen as ways to shift energy; modern science now shows their measurable impact on the nervous system.
Why Words Alone Aren’t Enough
Talk therapy can be deeply healing, but even van der Kolk notes that words sometimes can’t reach where trauma lives. “Trauma victims,” he writes, “cannot recover until they become familiar with and befriend the sensations in their bodies.”
That doesn’t mean giving up language. It means pairing words with embodied practices so the story can be completed — not just narrated, but felt through.
Bridging Ancient Wisdom and Evidence
Yoga’s tools for expression — mantra (sound), mudra (gesture), asana (movement) — were never meant to be just physical exercises. They were ways of moving energy and emotion. When you chant, bow, or stretch, you’re not only working the body; you’re expressing and transforming.
Science now backs this up: studies on dance movement therapy, yoga for trauma, and somatic experiencing show improvements in mood, anxiety, and PTSD symptoms. Even brief practices like humming or shaking have been shown to activate calming parasympathetic pathways.
It’s as if ancient tradition intuited what neuroscience is only beginning to measure: expression lives in the body, not just the mind.
Everyday Practices for Stress Release
So what does this mean for you, here and now? It means you don’t need the perfect words. You don’t need to be an artist. Expression can look like:
- Shaking your hands for thirty seconds to release tension.
- Humming softly before bed to settle your breath.
- Stretching in a way that feels like a yawn for the whole body.
- Scribbling a swirl of color on a page when words won’t come.
These aren’t “extras.” They’re acts of communication — your body completing stories it’s been carrying.
The Bigger Picture: Reclaiming Expression
When expression returns, something shifts. You feel lighter. Your breath deepens. Your shoulders soften. And, maybe most importantly, your sense of self begins to re-emerge. The body that once felt burdened now feels like an ally.
The moment someone hums, shakes, stretches, or creates, their body tells the story their words could not. That’s when expression flows back in, and with it, a fuller sense of being alive.
References
van der Kolk, B. (2014). The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. Viking / Penguin Random House. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/313183/the-body-keeps-the-score-by-bessel-van-der-kolk-md/
Trivedi, B., et al. (Year). Humming (Simple Bhramari Pranayama) as a Stress Buster Cureus Journal of Medical Science https://www.cureus.com/articles/142227-humming-simple-bhramari-pranayama-as-a-stress-buster-a-holter-based-study-to-analyze-heart-rate-variability-hrv-parameters-during-bhramari-physical-activity-emotional-stress-and-sleep#!/
Pinna, T., & Edwards, D. J. (2020). A systematic review of associations between interoception, vagal tone, and emotional regulation: Potential applications for mental health, well-being, psychological flexibility, and chronic conditions. Frontiers in Psychology. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7419655/
Richter, F. et al. (2021). Behavioral and neurophysiological signatures of interoceptive enhancements following vagus nerve stimulation. Human Brain Mapping https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7927286/
Porges, S. W. (2017). Polyvagal Theory: A science of safety. (Foundational theory on autonomic states and safety) — see summary in sources: Positive Psychology, etc. https://positivepsychology.com/polyvagal-theory/
