SSTIBAM.

SPIRIT

Spirit is whatever each of us experiences as larger than the self: a sense of presence, connection, mystery, or meaning that moves through life. Some may call it the divine, God, the sacred, nature, consciousness, ancestors, the universe, or simply stillness or awe. Others may not use any spiritual language at all, and that is welcome here. Spirit is often found through stillness, which informs activity, awareness, and arriving in the present moment.

When practicing, you might notice:

• Is there a sense of presence, stillness, or connection right now?

• What, if anything, feels larger than me in this moment?

• How does my body respond when I turn toward it?

SENSING

The felt experience of the body from the inside. Sensation is the raw, physical information we receive before we name it as an emotion or a thought. For example, "tightness in my chest" is a sensation, while "I feel anxious" is an affect.

Sensation is described in neutral terms, without needing to call it good or bad. Sensations can be felt as warmth or coolness, tingling, pulsing, pressure, tightness, softness, heaviness, lightness, spaciousness, flowing, buzzing, or numbness.

Sensation includes four kinds of internal sensing, listed here from most conscious to least conscious:

• Kinesthetic: muscle tension patterns, movement, and impulses to move

• Proprioceptive: awareness of our position in space

• Vestibular: acceleration, deceleration, and balance

• Visceral: sensations from the viscera (gut, heart, and lungs) and blood vessels

When practicing, you might notice:

• Where in my body do I feel something most clearly right now?

• How would I describe it: size, temperature, texture, movement?

• Is it staying the same, or is it shifting?

• Is there anywhere that feels neutral, steady, or at ease?

THOUGHT

Thoughts are the basic building blocks of our reality. The way we think shapes what we believe, how we see ourselves and the world, and how we move through our lives. Thoughts are the running commentary of the mind: self-talk, judgments, predictions, "shoulds," and memories narrated in words. We notice them as they pass, without needing to call them good or bad, true or false.

Thoughts often show up in the body too. A belief like "I'm not safe" or "I have to hold it together" may come with a held breath, a braced jaw, or a collapsed chest.

Over time, repeated thoughts can become stories and narratives about ourselves and our world, and these may be reflected in posture and holding patterns. When practicing, you might notice:

• What am I telling myself right now?

• Is this thought about the past, the future, or this moment?

• Does it feel like a fact, or like one story among others?

• What happens in my body as I think it?

• Is there a place in my body that feels steady or at ease while the thought is here?

Thoughts are one channel among many. Rather than pushing thoughts away or getting lost in them, we bring gentle awareness to the thinking process and weave it together with the other channels of SSTIBAM:

• What sensations arise as I think this?

• Is there an image, an emotion, or a gesture that goes with it?

A somatic practice that has no relationship with thinking divides the body from the mind. By including thoughts, we let mind and body inform one another. Beliefs are not one of the SSTIBAM categories, but they are something we may explore together in our work, especially when a repeated thought seems to be shaping how we feel, move, or see ourselves.

IMAGE

Image includes both the impressions we take in from outside and the images that arise within.

Outer impressions: sight, taste, smell, hearing, and touch (tactile sense).

Inner vision: memory, shape, color, and the pictures that appear in the mind's eye or in the body, such as seeing a flower in the chest. Inner images can also arrive through the other senses, like a remembered sound, scent, or texture. Some people see very little and instead sense, hear, or simply know. All of these are welcome.

Active imagination: a receptive, waking state in which inner images are invited to appear, move, and unfold on their own, rather than being directed or analyzed. We approach them with curiosity and let them speak in their own language, often through symbol, metaphor, or story.

We can stay with an image and let it develop before reaching for what it means. When practicing, you might notice:

• What do I see, hear, smell, taste, or touch right now?

• Is there an image, color, shape, sound, or memory present in my mind's eye or body?

• If I stay with it, does it shift, move, or reveal something new?

• Where do I feel this image in my body?

BEHAVIOR

Behavior is what the body is doing, whether we choose it or not. It includes:

• Voluntary gestures

• Emotional and facial expressions

• Posture: the platform from which intrinsic movement is initiated, typically referring to the spine

• Autonomic signals: the cardiovascular and respiratory systems. Pulse rate, for example, can be felt at the carotid artery

• Visceral behavior: digestive shifts you can "observe" through changing sounds in the gut, burping, passing gas, or feeling hunger

• Archetypal behaviors: involuntary gestures or postural shifts that convey a universal meaning, like prayer hands

When we look at Behavior in relation to a specific event, we are often asking a question: what didn't get to happen? Perhaps there was an impulse to move, turn away, reach out, push, run, or cry out that was interrupted or never completed. Noticing the beginnings of these movements, such as a tightening in the arm, a turn of the head, or a held breath, can show us where the body is still waiting to finish. When the body is given the time and safety to complete what it started, the experience can move toward its natural conclusion.

When practicing, you might notice:

• What is my body doing right now: posture, gestures, breath, expression?

• Is there a small movement or impulse that wants to happen?

• If this movement could finish, what would it be?

• Can I let it be as small as it needs to be, or simply imagine it?

AFFECT

Affect is the emotional tone of an experience. It includes the categorical emotions, such as fear, anger, sadness, joy, and disgust, as well as the contours of feeling. Contours are the nuanced, sensation-based (felt sense) feelings of attraction and avoidance, of "goodness" and "badness," that guide us through the day. They are often subtle and arrive before we have a name for them. Affect is the emotion we name.

Sensation is the physical experience beneath it. For example, "I feel anxious" is an affect, while "tightness in my chest" is a sensation.

All emotions are welcome here, and we notice them without needing to call them right or wrong. The "Wheel of Feels" can be a helpful reference for finding words for what you feel: here.

When practicing, you might notice:

• What emotion, if any, is present right now?

• Is there a pull toward something or a pull away from it?

• Does this feel more pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral?

• Where do I feel this in my body?

• Is there more than one feeling here at the same time?

MEANING

Meaning is the label, or story, we attach to the totality of an experience, drawn from the combined elements of Spirit, Sensation, Thoughts, Image, Behavior, and Affect. Thoughts are the moment-to-moment commentary. Meaning is the conclusion we draw about the experience as a whole. Meaning can include trauma-based fixed beliefs, such as "it was my fault" or "I can't trust anyone." We can stay open to forming new meaning, even from moments of discomfort, and to letting the meaning shift as the body's experience shifts.

Meaning-making also comes from exploring revealed symbols and mythologies, including those that emerge through active imagination.

A note on timing: Meaning can be incredibly helpful, and it can also pull us away from the direct experience of what is unfolding in the body. When we move into meaning-making too quickly, we may leave behind the sensations, images, and impulses through which healing is happening. Allow the body's process to lead. Let meaning arrive when the experience has had time to move, rather than reaching for it first.

• When practicing, you might notice:

• What sense am I making of this experience?

• Does this meaning feel settled, or is it still forming?

• What happens in my body when I say it?

• Is there room for another meaning to be possible, or for no meaning yet?

I have added Spirit and Thoughts to SIBAM, which originated with Peter Levine and his brilliant Somatic Experiencing model.

RESOURCES

Levine, P. (2015). Trauma & Memory: Brain and Body in a Search for the Living Past. North Atlantic Books. Berkeley, CA. ISBN: 978-1-58394-994-8

Levine, P. (1997). Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma. North Atlantic Books. Berkeley, CA. ISBN: 155643233X

Chodorow, J. (1997). Jung on Active Imagination. Princeton University Press. Princeton, NJ.

Johnson, R. A. (1986). Inner Work: Using Dreams and Active Imagination for Personal Growth. HarperOne. San Francisco, CA.