How Do I Use Somatic Practices In My Spiritual Work? Start On The Massage Table

On the quiet magic of sending good energy, talking to your body, and being fully present when someone is healing you.

In this post:

• Why the next time you get a massage, a haircut, or a dental treatment is one of the best spiritual practice opportunities you have all week
• The difference between trying to send good energy and actually sending good energy
• A story about a tooth called Chester, and what it taught us about talking to our own bodies
• A simple, no-woo practice you can start using tomorrow
• Why the shift from top-down to bottom-up awareness changes everything

Serafina came to me with a question this week, and it is the kind of question I love most. The honest, slightly embarrassed kind that starts with I know this is going to sound silly, but...

She was lying on an osteopath's table, and while the practitioner worked on her, she quietly began to send out good energy. She hadn't read about this anywhere, it just came to her in the moment. 

And then the question arrived.

Is this real? Can the osteopath actually feel the difference when I send out good energy?

I want to answer this properly, because it is one of the most common questions people bring to me. And underneath it is something much bigger than a massage table.

Your brain is not doubting the practice. It is doubting what the rest of you already knows.

The first thing I notice when someone asks me is this real? is that they have usually already answered the question. Serafina said it herself before she even got to the end of her sentence. It feels real. I think there's something to it.

She knows the truth and you also know. The part of you that is asking the question has already answered it.

What is happening is that the logical mind, which has been quietly indoctrinated for most of your life into the story that magic is not real, is checking in to make sure it has not missed the memo. Wait. Are we really doing this? Are we sure? Give that part of you some love. It is doing its job. It is trying to keep you safe inside the worldview it was handed.

But the body has a different worldview. And the body, in these moments, is almost always right.

Yes, she can feel it. Here is how we know.

Ask any hairdresser who has been washing heads for fifteen years and they will tell you, in very ordinary language, that some clients leave them energized and some clients leave them drained. Ask a massage therapist the same thing. Ask a nurse. Ask anyone whose work involves putting their hands on other humans all day.

They are not talking in metaphors. They are describing a daily, felt, repeatable experience.

The person receiving is not usually doing it on purpose. Most of the time, people come in with whatever they came in carrying, and they offload it. The entitled, unconscious version of this is treating your hairdresser as an emotional trash can for an hour because you are paying her. The loving version is what Serafina did, which was to send out good energy.

Both are real and can be felt. The difference is intention, and whether you are taking or offering.

The fine line between trying and doing

There is one thing worth naming carefully.

There is a difference between

I should send good energy, this is a spiritual practice, I need to do this right

and

a feeling to send out good energy came to me, so I let it move.

The first one is a doing-for-the-sake-of-performing. It often tightens the body, because now there is an agenda layered on top of what is actually happening. I have to make this a healing. I have to be a good spiritual person. I have to try. The body tenses and it actually makes it harder for the healing to happen on deeper levels.

The second one is inspiration, in the old sense of the word: In-breath. Breathing in from something larger than you. And then the practice is simply to follow what arises within.

Serafina did not push anything. She noticed an inclination. She followed it. That is why it worked.

If you find yourself white-knuckling your good energy onto the massage table, pause. Come back to your breath. Let the agenda go. The practice will return to you on its own when you stop trying. And it might also not be the right time or day to do it. Sometimes we just need to lie there and receive without doing anything.

A tooth called Chester

I want to share a story from Jodi Mountain's book Pathway To The Stars.

She writes about going to the dentist to have a tooth pulled. The dentist tells her that her gums are strong, that this is going to be difficult, that it could take up to two hours, and that the tooth may not come out in one piece.

Before she goes in for the procedure, she does something most of us have never thought to do. She talks to her tooth. Not as a piece of dead matter but as a conscious and alive being. She tells it, in effect, that this is what needs to happen now, and asks it what it needs. They come to an understanding. 

Then she does something even more interesting. She asks her dentist, without explaining the full backstory, to please speak to her tooth during the procedure.

The dentist is the wonderful kind of practitioner who narrates what he is doing as he works. At some point during the procedure, he goes silent. Jodi notices the silence and wonders what is happening. Then he speaks again and says, I just spoke with your tooth.

He pulled it out in one piece. The procedure took half an hour. Roughly a quarter of the time he had projected.

I love this story because it reminds us of a possibility within our reach that we ignore and suppress, if we are even aware of it. It suggests that your body is not an object you own and manage. It is a collaboration of conscious parts, and you can actually speak to those parts. Your sore shoulder, your tense back, your tooth, your womb, your gut, and so on.

You can tell them what is happening. You can ask them what they need. You can invite them into the healing rather than enduring it on their behalf.

This is the heart of a body-based spiritual practice, and it is one of the simplest embodied spiritual practices you will ever learn.

A practice for the next time someone is working on you

The next time you get a treatment of any kind, whether it is a haircut, a massage, an osteopathic session, a dental cleaning, or anything else where another person is attending to your body, try this.

Before the appointment, take thirty seconds to speak silently to the part of your body that is receiving healing. Hello. We are going here today. This is for your care. Let me know what you need. It's as simple as that.

During the treatment, stay with the body. Let your awareness rest inside whatever is happening. Sense the hands. Sense the warmth. Sense the tension moving, or not moving.

If the impulse comes to send good energy into the room, follow it. 

If you feel able, ask the practitioner afterwards whether they noticed a difference. Some will light up and tell you exactly what they felt. Others will be confused by the question. Both answers are useful. 

Why this marks a big shift

There is a reason I am telling you this, rather than another sensing practice or another visualization.

The spiritual culture around us is very good at selling us self-focus. Manifest your best life. Attract your desires. Do it for yourself. A lot of it is useful, and I am not against any of it. But there is a piece missing in much of this messaging, and the piece is this.

We are never only doing anything for ourselves. We are woven into everything and everyone around us, all the time, whether we are aware of it or not. The osteopath, the hairdresser, the person at the next table in the cafe. You are exchanging energy with all of them constantly. The only question is whether you are doing it consciously.

A trauma-informed somatic spiritual practice teaches you how to stay porous and connected without being drained. How to offer warmth without losing yourself. How to receive care without treating the giver as a resource. How to notice, in real time, when the exchange is flowing in a way that nourishes everyone, and when it has tipped into something else.

This is spirituality.

Bottom-up, not top-down

If there is one last thing I want to leave you with, it is this.

The practices I am describing only work when they arise from the body upward, not from the mind downward. If your mind is deciding I must do this, I should be this kind of person, I need to send good energy because good spiritual people do that, and the body is not on board, the whole thing gets tight and counterproductive.

But when you are present enough in the body to notice an impulse rising, and you follow that impulse without editing it, the practice takes care of itself. 

When you are ready for more than a practice

Some of you reading this have been sensing into your body for years. You have done the reading, you have tried the practices, you have a quiet knowing that has been with you a long time. What you are missing is not more information. It is a container. A community. A teacher. Someone to walk you through the deeper layers in a structured, initiatory way.

Magic is Key is an online mystery school of effective spiritual practices combining shamanic witchcraft, somatic healing, and sacred seasonal wisdom for modern life.

Our six-month Apprenticeship is a one-on-one container for people who are ready to step into initiatory shamanic witchcraft training rooted in the WildWood tradition, trauma-informed somatic practice, and Oracle Arts. It is for those who have sensed for a long time that their real work is waiting, and who are finally ready to stop postponing it.

If you are not sure, a free Compass Call is the way in. Fifteen minutes. Not a sales call. A real conversation about where you are, what is stirring, and whether this work is for you right now. Sometimes the honest answer is not yet, and that is a good and useful answer too.

Book your free Compass Call here.

Read about the Apprenticeship here.

Frequently asked questions

How do I use somatic practices in my spiritual work? Start with what is already happening in your day. The next time you receive any kind of hands-on treatment, speak silently to the body part being treated, stay present in your body during the session instead of drifting into your phone or your thoughts, and follow any genuine impulse to send warmth or good energy into the room. This is a complete somatic spiritual practice. No equipment required.

Can the practitioner actually feel it when I send good energy? Yes. Anyone who works with their hands on other bodies all day, from massage therapists to hairdressers to nurses, will tell you they feel a clear difference between clients who are present and offering, clients who are neutral, and clients who are offloading. You do not have to believe this on faith. Ask the next practitioner who works on you whether they notice the difference. Most will say yes immediately.

What is the difference between sensing and trying to control the experience? Sensing is passive attention. You notice what is already happening in your body without trying to change it. Trying to control is active and often tightens the body, because you have layered an agenda onto the experience. A body-based spiritual practice is built from sensing, not from forcing. When an impulse rises from the body, follow it. When the mind is issuing orders downward, pause.

How do I feel safe in my body through spiritual practice? Trauma-informed somatic spirituality treats the body as the primary intelligence, not something to override. Feeling safe in the body is built gradually, through small, repeatable practices where you meet your body on its own terms. Talking to the body, listening to what it needs, receiving care consciously, and allowing the nervous system to settle into the practice are all part of this. It is slow work. It is also the work that lasts.

How do I heal burnout through spiritual practice? Burnout is, among other things, a long-running mismatch between what your body is asking for and what your mind is making it do. Somatic spiritual practice rebuilds the channel between the two. Start by noticing where in your week you are already being still, still enough for your body to get a word in edgewise. Receiving a treatment of any kind is one of those windows. Use it.

Magic is Key is a trauma-informed online school of effective spiritual practices, founded by sisters Pipaluk and Serafina. We combine shamanic witchcraft, sacred seasonal traditions, tarot, and modern somatic practices to help people reconnect with their body, heal from burnout, and live a fully embodied, magical life rooted in ancient wisdom.