Tag Archives: Somatic Archetypes

Announcement for 2026

Posted on October 17, 2025 | Leave a comment

Center for Inside Awareness Channel on YouTube

I sent this news out to my students today.

I wanted to share some updates with you that I may not have brought up outside of our focused integrations sessions, whether in movement, communication/relationships or spatial awareness and placements. For the past ten to 15 years years I have been integrating the interplay between these areas with a deeper focus on habitual or automatic behaviours and choices. For the past two year’s this has shifted to writing it out in an organized way. Beginning with the Learning Center Topics, starting with separating the nine life areas with an eye on behaviour and interactions. There are somatic programs in each of these nine life areas to support the topic they are categorized under. Many of you may have participated in.

In 2026, I will be launching a new system of interactive patterns in expressive communication where this separation of life areas will be a core focal point in the model. These practical and actional patterns support an authentic somatic and empathic perspective. As written by an actual somatic empath living within their interactive experiences 24/7. Trust me, somatic and empathic expression in behaviour is not based upon the outside strategies of someone trying to describe them. It is one of the influences towards developing a somatic learning system that goes beyond what is being described in current social conditioning trends.

A companion book titled ‘Somatic Archetypes’ will be available. This will be a foundation pattern to support a practical reference to core reactive responses. Practical in that they will focus on actionable somatic understanding and not have any focus on evaluative expressions or right or wrong thinking. The intention is to marry this understanding in active interactions in the moment. The shift includes somatic engagement, versus old thinking patterns of social conditioning that shifted focus away from it in organized institutionalized education.

A new understanding of social conditioning has emerged with a powerful influence to cut through a term I learned in meditation, spiritual materialism. This is a result of the practices of functional integration and mentoring in how to speak authentically and with integrity that began in 2002. Spiritual materialism is an evaluative expression for the ego self-image. In Feldenkrais, there is an understanding of an inner felt self-image that supports a new defining inner experience of it that isn’t built up through socially conditioned learned reactions that are focused on materialism through strategies. Rather, it has a focus on being present from within and sensing from the inside first before outward actions of functional movement or spoken words. This means leading through the felt senses consciously to replace leading through thinking.

Renee Lindstrom @somaticlifestyleinnovator Channel on YouTube

To support this upcoming launch, I have put my YouTube playlists in order. I have three channels. One has playlists to support the topics of the Inside Awareness Center for Integrative Somatic Learning. (Pictured above). This includes the nine life areas broken into separate playlists. ie. Feldenkrais is in the Health Center. It is joined by Communication and Eating Plans. In these playlists, you will see early attempts to engage people to shift their focus of attention. For example, the #yyj Nature Walks, which is under the playlist of knowledge. There is also the Culture of Value program for early childhood development in that playlist that demonstrates the first stages of its development. The other channel is in my name, and it is for somatic innovation. The focus was to connect to the environmental triggers that stimulate types of behaviour to educate.

Podcast

Finally, the third just started this past summer and fall, is my podcast. Currently, it is voice audios of articles I have written to lay a foundation. It will evolve and expand to include lives and interviews.

As a dominant somatic empathic learner myself, I have first-hand experience in the alienation of children and adults with these learning styles. There is very little consideration given to the value of these learning styles and in fact, they are categorized, labelled and diagnosed as conditions, with an aim to drug and eradicate the differences they display to the expectation in the tightly defined patterns of Institutionalized education. Patterns that were designed for learning concepts with ease and little variance in the organized structure. This cognitive focus included debate-style communication development that lacked empathy training. In this context, empathy training is the skill development for good listening patterns where the core inner response is an interactive, flexible, and open-minded process, versus the closed-mindedness that results from judging the context of what is being heard as right and wrong based upon personal judgment and understanding.

The programs at the Inside Awareness Center for Integrative Somatic Learning are focused on a mindfulness that balances both sets of needs of the cognitive style interpretation, and the somatic and empathic. It harnesses all components through functional integration of the physical body working in partnership with the emotional responses that generate the filter for thinking.

The intention for these YouTube platforms is to build an audience and to develop financial opportunities that will support this focus on somatic education.. Until now, I have funded it with my time and energy. I look forward to taking it to the next level. I am hoping you will consider viewing my channels, liking and subscribing to help build this lofty goal. If the content appeals to you, I hope you will share it to support getting a buzz going on these topics.

The following are the links to the YouTube channels. Please keep in mind, these are early developments that have been a learning process and for the process to grow a level of comfort and ease in being on stage. The last link is to a page on the Inside Awareness Center for Integrative Somatic learning explaining the nine life areas that are the core foundation in my perspective of functional integration, somatic dialogue and spatial awareness.

Center for Inside Awareness @ https://www.youtube.com/@somaticlifestyleinfluencer/playlists

Article of explanation @ https://wp.me/p17H3e-h6I

Renee Lindstrom – somatic lifestyle innovator @ https://www.youtube.com/@somaticlifestyleinfluencer/playlists

Renee Lindstrom – Podcast @ https://www.youtube.com/@somaticlifestyleinfluencer/playlists

Copyright 2014 – 2025 Renee Lindstrom, GCFP,

Feldenkrais® Practitioner ’07, Communication & Empathy Coach, Art of Placement

The Roots of ‘Somatic Archetypes in Goal Setting’

Posted on September 13, 2025 | Leave a comment

by Renee Lindstrom, Author of the Somatic Archetypes

_{Audio for listening, in Authors voice}

Here are some examples of the Author’s personal intentional goal-setting boards going back to ’14. Greater Victoria presented the community with free magazines and newpapers at pick up stations, whereby viewers could pick up copies each month. They were a treasure trove of topics, pictures and words to cut out for all genres for creating collages.

When this author began creating collages, the creativity was simple and lacked the in depth connection to the seeds of inspiration and skillset. Without giving up due to these lacks, they became more elaborate, skilled and creative. Unbeknownst to the Author, an organic integration occurred during this dedicated process. It translated into living actions and character, including the development of a more playful personality. It was a transforming life pattern.

This Author has what she calls a Somatic Heart expression and receptor, and it was covered by years of experiences with others who have no skill sets in recognizing this quality or in interacting with those who have this organic attribute.

Somatic Heart

Each seasonal or yearly intentional goal-setting activity reintegrated this inner connection to the warmth and playfulness of her heartfelt expressions and receptivity. It was a quiet and creative time to be thoughtful and take affirmative action for what she wanted and not for what she didn’t want. It was a subtle shift and possibly the most meaningful. This is not something she would have learned in a Tony Robbins or Jack Canfield program, as the approaches are completely different. One focuses on strategies and the external ego focus, while this is an active practice that leads into the depth of meaning in the core responses before expressing it outwardly to the world.

This approach is unique and individual and taps into core values, while there can only be one Tony Robbins and one Jack Canfield, with others duplicating them over and over. This approach presents the possibility for being authentically oneself and presenting the world with a face that shines from this alignment of self on the inside and expressed outwardly for others to connect to. This is what Tony Robbins did to become the person he is today. He is presenting as his authentic self and tapping into the needs of thousands. The problem is, it can only be done once to the levels of success he has experienced as he is the model, while this approach is an integrative learning model that each individual can integrate as a learned behaviour pattern that focuses on direction, making choices and decisions connected to an inner value system.

This pattern of goal setting begins with a target intention that is overall for a period of time. It expands into doable size chunks, breaking the goals down into logical personal steps for achieving success by taking actional value based movements forward. The difference in this approach is in the actions for checking inward to connect to one’s core values, before taking a socially conditioned assertive approach. This means the assertiveness in this approach connects to self-value and esteem that emanates a different type of assertiveness. It is assertiveness that is more naturally mindful, self-connected and trustworthy. The aggressiveness from a socially conditioned action has potential for disconnection of self and energetically presents with less trustworthiness. This seems to lead to a sales job that is followed by justification. The Somatic Heart expression of this Author then suggests that goal setting that begins with an inner self connection with a focus through trained mindfulness and focus of attention can tap into one’s inner strength and courage to have grounded ownership of their goals that are centered in core values. An individual system within one, and not the goals of someone else’s storyline.

In an earlier post titled Be the Master Creator of your 2026 experience the pattern for creating goals was introduced as is the Somatic Archetypes. These Archetypes are the perception filters that are individual for each person. Consideration of these Archetypes are missing in the earlier goals step patterns that was compared to this approach. This pattern of goal-setting begins with this consideration.

This Somatic Archetype Goal Setting program is an educational system of somatic learning:

sets an overall goal intention
breaks it down into logical and actionable steps over a period of time as an integratable pattern
taps into your Somatic Archetype for personal learning and integration of understanding of unique differences

The benefits of this Somatic Goalsetting program are:

integrative learning happens natural that creates new habits that are productive to personal lifestyle goals
action steps develop skills to increase personal courage and self-confidence naturally
introduces a core value system that is unique to the participant
creates new beneficial habits for taking self-connected and self-directed lifestyle actions

The Somatic Archetypes in Functional Movement

Posted on September 11, 2025 | Leave a comment

by Renee Lindstrom, Author of The Somatic Archetypes – the Fantastic Five

_{Listen while reading, or listen to this companion audio}

Somatic functional movement patterns, using the Feldenkrais Method of Somatic Education, guide participants through patterns designed to refocus their attention away from pre-conditioned beliefs and pre-existing understanding of movement. In other words, what they already know. The patterns encourage exploration of movement by bringing their focus to their sensory awareness from the inside with these fantastic five core senses.

This picture demonstrates interpretive dance patterns of movement. The interpretation hints at sensing movement, yet the focus of the patterns these models are making could suggest they are focused outside themselves, versus from inside connections, as in contact dance. Functional Integration, and Awareness through Movement, the Feldenkrais Way focuses on the skeletal movements in connection to the contact with gravity and its responses through the joints that are unlocked and in a posture to invite gravity to travel through the whole skeleton. In the picture above, the models are not making solid contact with the floor to connect to the force of gravity moving up through their bones. It appears to me, as a Feldenkrais Practitioner specializing in this movement pattern, that they are using their soft tissue to support their weight.

When the skeleton is making full contact with gravity through the feet in standing, the sit bones in sitting, the hands in a posture of pushing off, or crawling on hands and knees, or in a prone position on the full skeleton on the front, back or side body on a hard surface the pressure thorugh the bones creates a weightlessness in the soft tissues in the body. The more one makes contact with gravity through skeletal movements, the more ease and freedom one has in their joints, vertebrae and ribs. This increases counter-balance and functional movement abilities.

The guidance patterns in the Feldenkrais Method use felt sensory words on the actual movement of the anatomy, with a focus on the potential for using the force of gravity. It is a powerful shift from analytical thinking that takes one out of a closed mindset function into the exploration of the experience itself, through the movements in connection with the force of gravity. The focus is on the felt sense of the bones and the discoveries through them to reconnect the body’s own elusive responsive connections to the intricacies of movement that are beyond the current comprehension of social conditioning. In essence, the movement is retraining the brain to expand and use more of the available functions in movement.

Why do I write reconnect?

When babies are born, they have the capabilities to use their full range of available learning potentials to guide them to come upright and participate in society. They do so without the educational encouragement of those surrounding them. Those surrounding do encourage them, yet they lack the understanding of how the function of the brain, body, felt senses, and mental is coming online to work in harmony that enables a baby to roll over, sit up, crawl, stand, walk and run while learning to speak and think. It is beyond the comprehension of the family members, as their own process was just that, a process. It wasn’t memorized, itemized or catalogued. It was learning through the experience.

With the focus of attention in society that seems to be focused on evaluative concepts and analytical statements, there has been a separation from the somatic patterns of functional learning that each of us was born with. When an adult speaks, it is through the evaluative expression of analytical thought patterns and statements that are far removed from the actual experience of functioning through the somatic experience. When speaking from an analytical perspective, it is a small interpretation of functional learning. It is like the difference between ballet and contact dance. One dance disconnects the artist from the ground and lacks the connection to the force of gravity, and the other pushes off the ground using the force of gravity. If you observe the two styles of dance separately, one stretches their muscles and holds their joints in a way that is different than the other. The contact dance method uses organic functional movement patterns. One dance appears to have effort with an intention to be interpreted as effortless, while the other one is effortless. This would describe the difference between mentally organized movement from strategies of thinking and spontaneous movement that includes all functioning components through the somatic felt sense as the origin. Basically, one is from the outside trying to define what can happen organically from the inside out.

The early learning patterns for movement are inherent within us as we are born. They evolve around the somatic senses of the fantastic five: sight, sound, touch, taste and smell. Each of the senses stimulate the others, and they are the inspiration to get up off the floor and walk, talk and become members of society. Each child will have one or two senses that will have the strongest response and will become the filter to the environmental stimuli surrounding them. I have begun to call these senses Somatic Archetypes.

I offer movement through group classes and individuals that support these dominant Somatic Archetypes in response to the guided patterns. These are called Awareness through Movement lessons that are group classes, and the other is a personal session or consultation called a Functional Integration.

Please investigate the classes and a personal session or consult:

Classes

Sessions

Consult

Read more about the Fantastic Five Stomatic Archetypes:

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Feldenkrais® Practitioner since 2007, Communication & Empathy Coach since 2004, Art of Placement since 2001

The Original Somatic Archetypes

Posted on September 10, 2025 | Leave a comment

by Renee Lindstrom, Author of The Original Somatic Arcetypes

Companion Audio to article for listening and reading, or to listen

I introduced the concept of Somatic Archetypes in a pattern for setting goals in 2026 in a post this past week. As a somatic Practitioner, Mentor, and Educator, I have discovered these archetypes are the original ones and at the core of each individual’s perception and expression. An example is how each individual will set their goals. It will be through a different medium unless they are in a closed situation where there is only one choice.

I am suggesting that there is no one way forward for all people that is the exact same in life due to these differences. I have also discovered there is an expectation that all people are the same, or should be identical, without any intelligent conceptual understanding that there are differences among two or more people. This, my readers or listeners, is what I believe is at the core of most conflicts. This lack of understanding generates a lack of empathetic listening to others. It comes across as arrogance. Usually, arrogance is someone who engages with others with some form of false authority that has the attitude of power over which lacks the intelligence to understand that this inner mental conditioning is their sickness. It’s not entitled behaviour that gives someone a higher IQ or status. Yet, somewhere in their social development, these seeds were planted in their physiology. Usually, when generational, it is held together with ego and pride behind walls of secrecy and not wanting to be seen.

After years of engaging with individuals or groups in personal and social development sessions, I have begun to say quietly and with a strength that comes from this conditioning as a mentor, “You are not the Judge and jury. You do not have the credentials to go along with your statements.” I may switch it out and say title instead of credentials. This authoritarian way of expressing is conditioned in our Western Cultures through generational socialization skill development. It is habitual and unconscious. There can be retraining yet that needs its own form of social conditioning that requires recognition and acknowledgement. As a Somatic Practitioner, mentor and educator, I begin with learning the dominant sense a person uses to perceive. These would be through the five senses we are all born with and used to get up and walk, talk, think and generally function in our society. These are sight, sound, smell, touch and taste. These are the fantastic five core archetypes. Not labels or cute names, foundational attributes each of us needed to integrate functions. They are the forgotten ones!

These archetypes are at the core of intention and stimulate motivation. It’s an inside job in the moment that can be spontaneous due to our free will. It is the generational influences that restrict and shape our decisions. This generational behaviour that has been passed down can be transmuted into the here and now for making better and more logical choices that would be for the highest good of the individual and those surrounding them, yet this ability is rare. This suggests retraining the brain while adopting new patterns in our system that is shaping our generational experiences through social conditioning that is shaping our cultural conditioning.