Restoring the Artist, Part 3: Letting the Body Speak

Somatic intelligence, emotional allowance, and the power of presence

By now, you’ve probably started to recognize that burnout isn’t just about being tired.

It’s about being disconnected — from your body, your emotional truth, and your internal rhythm.

And if you’ve been taught to live in your head — to analyze, to figure it out, to push through — then reconnecting with your body might feel foreign, even intimidating.

But here’s the truth:

Your body already knows what’s happening.

You just haven’t been taught how to listen.

Why Thinking Doesn’t Heal Burnout

Many musicians (especially high-functioning ones) are incredibly good at cognitive management:

“I shouldn’t feel this way.”

“I should be grateful.”

“This isn’t a big deal.”

We talk ourselves out of our feelings in an attempt to stay in control.

But this creates a kind of emotional traffic jam. The more we suppress or override the body’s signals, the louder they get — until they show up as anxiety, fatigue, or numbness.

This is why talking about burnout won’t heal it.

Feeling it — somatically, safely, slowly — will.

Your Emotions Live in the Body

Emotions aren’t just thoughts. They are felt experiences — physical, energetic, often symbolic.

That tightening in your chest?

That lump in your throat before a performance?

That heaviness that won’t go away?

Those are emotional signals asking to be felt — not fixed.

This is the core of somatic coaching, and it’s the heart of my work with musicians:

Listening to what the body is saying.

Letting it tell the story that words often miss.

Try This: The “Allowing Emotions” Practice

One of the simplest and most powerful tools I teach is a guided process of allowing emotions — rooted in somatic psychology and inspired by Eugene Gendlin’s Focusing.

Here’s a brief version you can try on your own:

1. Name the emotion

   
   

   (“I feel anxious / sad / resentful — and that’s okay.”)

   
   

2. Bring curiosity to the sensation

   
   

   Where do you feel it in your body? What’s its shape, size, temperature, movement?

   
   

3. Allow it to be there

   
   

   Say: “I allow you to be here.”

   
   

4. Ask the emotion what it needs

   
   

   What do you want me to know? What are you protecting me from?

   
   

5. Thank it for its positive intention

   
   

   Then notice what shifts.

   
   

This practice doesn’t force a breakthrough.

It creates the conditions for one to naturally emerge.

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Ready to go deeper?

 Download “From Chaos to Clarity” — a full somatic process to help you meet emotional overwhelm with gentleness and wisdom, not resistance.

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Listening Is the First Intervention

You don’t have to analyze your way out of burnout.

You don’t need to “get over it.”

You just need to come home to your body — the only place real healing happens.

Next Up: In Part 4, we’ll explore the next edge:

What happens when you meet resistance?

The part that avoids, rebels, shuts down, or says, “This isn’t working.”

Because sometimes, the thing that blocks your healing… is trying to protect you, too.

Stay tuned.