Grounding

Somatic Exercises: 5 Gentle Ways to Notice Your Body

By Cheng Xu · Updated October 29, 2026 · 5 min read

AI-assisted draft, checked against linked sources · Not clinically reviewed · Editorial standards

Somatic exercises are practices that bring attention to body sensations, often through gentle movement or touch. To try one, sit with support, notice your feet, and slowly open and close your hands. Keep the movement small and comfortable. You can stop whenever you want; there is no particular feeling you need to produce.

How to try a somatic exercise

1. Choose a supported position. Sit in a chair with your feet supported, or use your usual comfortable resting position. Leave your eyes open if that suits you.
2. Look around first. Name one ordinary object in the room. Notice where the door or a window is, without needing to study every detail.
3. Pick one movement below. Try it briefly, perhaps for 10 to 20 seconds. These timings are suggestions for a first attempt, not tested doses.
4. Pause. Let the movement end. Notice whether you want more movement, stillness, or something outside your body to look at.
5. Choose your next step. Repeat once, change exercises, or finish. Feeling unchanged is a valid result.

You do not need to complete all five exercises. For a guided outward alternative, use the 5-4-3-2-1 grounding tool. Our grounding guide helps you choose between sensory and movement-based options.

Five gentle exercises to choose from

1. Open and close your hands

Rest your forearms on your lap or a table. Slowly uncurl your fingers, then let them fold again without making a tight fist. Try two or three times. Notice the movement rather than trying to stretch farther. If moving your fingers hurts, leave your hands resting and notice the table instead.

2. Try a small seated sway

With your feet supported, shift your weight a little to one side and back to the center. If comfortable, try the other side. Keep the movement small enough that you do not need to catch your balance. You can move only your shoulders, or skip movement and look at a steady object.

3. Offer optional self-touch

Place a hand over your opposite upper arm, or loosely fold your arms as if giving yourself a light hug. Avoid squeezing or pressing your chest. Stay for one ordinary breath, then release. Touch is optional: resting your palms on a cushion is another choice. You do not have to make self-touch feel comforting.

4. Make light contact with a wall

If standing is comfortable, face a stable wall and place your palms against it. Apply only light pressure, then let go. Keep breathing normally. There is no need to push hard or hold a strain. Skip this option with hand, wrist, shoulder, or balance concerns; resting a palm on a table is enough of an alternative.

5. Notice three contact points

Without searching inside your body, notice where your feet meet their support, where the seat supports you, and where your hands rest. Spend a moment on each. Leave any uncomfortable area out. If you want a longer inward practice, the body scan script offers a separate option.

When to use it

Try one exercise during an ordinary pause: after desk work, before starting a new task, or while deciding what would help you next. Choose a moment when you can stop easily. You can use the same movement each time rather than building a longer routine.

If movement feels distracting during anxiety, try naming objects instead. The 5-4-3-2-1 method explains that approach. If you often feel detached or unreal, the grounding guide for dissociation offers outward choices and explains the limits of self-help.

Who should be careful

Stop if you feel pain, dizzy, lightheaded, unsteady, overwhelmed, or more distressed. Return to a supported position and look around. Do not force shaking, intense stretching, large movements, or painful pressure. Skip any exercise that conflicts with your movement restrictions or advice from your clinician or physical therapist.

Body attention and touch may feel unwelcome. Keep your eyes open, choose an external object, or leave the exercise out. With trauma-related distress or frequent dissociation, seek support from a doctor or mental health professional. These optional exercises do not replace assessment or treatment and have not been individually clinically reviewed.

What the research says

“Somatic” is a broad description, not the name of one standardized exercise program. This page uses it for simple body-awareness activities. It does not teach Somatic Experiencing, a distinct practitioner-delivered approach.

A 2021 scoping review of Somatic Experiencing found preliminary positive findings but called for stronger, less biased studies. Those findings do not validate the five home exercises here. We have not identified trials establishing that this particular sequence improves anxiety, sleep, or trauma symptoms.

NIH's grounding resource describes physical and sensory ways to return attention to the present. That is practical teaching guidance, rather than a controlled test of our routine. Treat these movements as optional experiments in noticing, with no required outcome. Claims about releasing stored trauma, completing a stress cycle, or resetting your nervous system go beyond the evidence cited here.

References

• Kuhfuß M, et al. Somatic experiencing - effectiveness and key factors of a body-oriented trauma therapy: a scoping literature review. European Journal of Psychotraumatology. 2021. PubMed
• NIH Office of Intramural Training & Education. Grounding Skills. 2025. Teaching resource, not an effectiveness trial. NIH