Our nervous system holds onto patterns

I'm struck by the deep crossover between Buddhism and what I’m learning through somatic therapy.

Buddhism teaches that attachment creates suffering—clinging to how things should be, to people, to the trajectory of our lives. Somatic therapy reveals this on a physiological level. Our nervous system holds onto patterns, bracing against what it fears to lose.

But in somatic work, we create a space where the body can let go. And in that release, we find freedom.

This isn’t something we can think our way into. It requires a different path—one beyond language and intellect. A path of sensation, safety, and attunement.

And when we start walking it, we realize: we don’t have to hold on. We can express, we can feel, we can become instruments through which emotions and energy move—rather than vessels in which they get stuck.

That is a beautiful place to be.