1. Alan has completed the new Pain Recovery Program. To read or share it, use this updated link: https://www.tmswiki.org/forum/painrecovery/
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New Program Day 9: Somatic Tracking
Hi Karina
yes, you are are right. One is a deliberate, structured practice, the other is a day to day, moment by moment practice. However, I feel that the approach to them is the same, at least as far as mind-set goes. With progressive relaxation, yes, sure, you focus on the feeling of allowing the muscle to relax, but you don't force it (you can't really, or you get tense again), so that even though you are tensing and releasing, or just releasing, you are still just noticing. You do the action, but with a calm and accepting and curious attitude, you just notice sensations. An important element of progressive relaxation is that it is ok to not relax, to just feel what you feel, to experience the sensations. The somatic tracking is the same. You check in with yourself at any time, and just notice what you are experiencing in your body. A by-product of this may turn out to be muscle relaxation, but this is not the aim. Yet it is often the result of simply tuning in and noticing. The moment you put pressure on that the somatic tracking has to go somewhere, has an end in mind, is when it becomes problematic. With somatic tracking muscle relaxation is often the result simply because you tune in to what you are feeling and where in your body, and sometimes, when you pay attention to, say, your left shoulder and you notice that the sensation in your shoulder is tightness, often by just noticing this-when before it was unconscious - allows it to release. But that is not the ultimate aim, the aim is to just notice sensations and allow them to be. "Oh that's interesting, my shoulder feels tension", rather than, "OMG my shoulder is tight and that means I'm stressed and this is awful and I should relax and what can I do to relax and why am I stressed...oh god, go and pour a drink, watch TV, my shoulder is tense and this means something bad". With somatic tracking you try and remove the interpretations and meanings behind why you experience a feeling or a bodily sensation. To answer your question, you absolutely can do both practices, I do both and I think they make each other more powerful. One is more formal practice, the other is informal. I personally think that combining both is giving you the best possible outcomes. Progressive relaxation lowers your baseline day to day anxiety reactions so that you are starting from a better place. You also become more familiar with what your body and muscles feel like. Somatic tracking allows you to notice throughout the day to check in with yourself and pay attention to not just your muscles, but how you are feeling generally. The somatic part of it is where -in your body - are you feeling that feeling? This too rewires your brain to learn that whatever is happening in you is ok, that you are safe. Both ultimately re-wire the brain.

I think yes, absolutely do both, I have found doing both better than just one by itself, they complement each other. But I suffer high level anxiety to begin with. Someone who is dealing pain but is not hyper-anxious could probably do well just from somatic tracking alone. Alan may have more to say on it but I think the two are ideal together and complement each other, if you find that progressive relaxation works for you.
Hope this helps
Metta