It has become a recent habit of mine to notice the number of somatic idioms in our everyday language (I give a nod to my sister who has her PhD in Linguistics!) A somatic idiom is a verbal phrase used to describe an emotional experience that makes reference to a bodily sensation. For example, when we tell a friend that "I have butterflies in my stomach" we are using a somatic idiom to describe anxiety. The existence of somatic idioms are linguistic acknowledgement that our emotions are not simply cognitions, but that emotions are visceral experiences! For another example, have you ever heard someone say, "That person rubs me the wrong way!" Now, most likely, the two people have not had any actual physical contact involving massage--but in fact, there is something being said about the quality of the interaction--it causes a level of emotional or energetic discomfort akin to being physically "rubbed the wrong way."
For a long time, emotions in psychology have been often processed and treated as if they are only cognitions--we just have to change our minds/thoughts about something. However, our language betrays us! Our bodies register and hold our emotions as much (if not more than) our words! If this is so, then there needs to be a somatic component to psychological growth and healing. Hence, why I have entered into the bodywork field.
Some other somatic idioms:
"My heart is just broken over this situation."
"My stomach is doing flip-flops."
"My blood is about to boil!"
"You are such a hot-head!"
"I just have a gut feeling about this...."
"He's got cold feet about changing jobs."
"I can't stomach that!"
"I can feel it in my bones!".....etc.....
