Somatic Science® is a highly effective neurocognitive & nondual wisdom approach. It supports our nervous system to become regulated, relaxed and harmonized with itself & the external environment. This helps us to develop a basic capacity for self-attunement and self-regulation, which are essential for satisfying relationships with our self and others. This approach fills the void left by Science and Spirituality, which structurally ignore the great importance of Nervous System Regulation in our lives. Somatic Science® embraces both.
In most of the recent postings we explore the topic of "happiness" from several perspectives. Happiness is not objective but subjective. Our approach is centered on the experience of the neurocognitive and neurobiological experiences in our nervous system when what most of us call "happiness" is present. The absence of suffering ("happiness) is understood as the absence of the maladaptive threat response cycle (mTRC) in the absence of real-life threats.
The Simplicity of Nervous System Updating - How we Flower into Being
In the absence of the mTRC, our nervous system has a base-level of capacity for resting, digesting and engaging with the external environment via curiosity, exploration and play. These behaviors require that our organism has been updated to present-moment-now after going through checks for aliveness, safety, and curiosity or openness. This might take our system from a more threat-alerted state that activates sympathetic or parasympathetic defensive strategies to one where threat responses are fully down-regulated and we are available for relaxation, play or other safety-centered social engagement.
Metabolic energy in our body naturally flows from the heart to the head simply because the brain is located there, and it is the organ that requires proportionally the greatest amount of energy. The energy flows mostly via blood circulation and waste is removed away from the brain by the cerebrospinal fluid. Because of this, our face is included as a high priority center in the order of distribution of metabolic energy.
The experience of being "lost in thought" or "tortured by the mind" stems from the same underlying mechanism: an unresolved, maladaptive threat response (mTRC) embedded in the nervous system. Unlike a natural TRC, this is not triggered by an immediate external danger but by an internally generated disturbance—an imprint from a past moment of overwhelming stress, when effective coping resources were absent. These internal threats originate in early interactions, typically shaped by parents or close relatives.
Our nervous system constantly updates itself based on whether it perceives safety or threat. When in a threat state, the body prioritizes survival, using defensive or energy-conservation responses controlled by the sympathetic and/or parasympathetic systems. But when threat signals are gone, the system naturally shifts into a state where it can distribute metabolic energy for rest, play, and social interaction. This is not a philosophical idea—it’s a basic biological function.
Naturally, the face—where our main sensory organs are located—plays a central role in how we receive and express information.
This dynamic system isn’t static. The nervous system constantly adjusts itself based on what’s happening around us. When we feel safe, our system naturally shifts toward engagement and curiosity, rather than defense. In other words, in the absence of the mTRC our biology allows for real-time updating—our nervous system isn’t locked in one state but adapts based on what it perceives.
This means that the ability to move beyond stress, anxiety, or fear isn’t just about mindset—it’s about whether our nervous system has the chance to update itself to present-moment reality. Understanding this basic mechanism can change how we understand our emotions, behavior, and even social structures.
From a biological perspective, what we call "happiness" predominates when our nervous system isn’t trapped in a threat response. When there’s no real danger, our system can relax, engage with the world, and focus on curiosity, exploration, and social connection.
All of the primary perceptual organs are located on the face. Below is a simplified summary of how they operate with the inputs from exteroception as well as their outputs as motor expressions (behaviors).
Each sensory system (sight, sound, taste, smell, and touch) functions as both a receptive and an expressive center:
The eyes take in visual information and send it straight to the brain. They also move in specific ways to signal emotions or focus attention.
The mouth processes taste and sound while also shaping speech and expressions that are affected by our vagus nerve.
The ears detect sound, balance, and pressure changes, helping us navigate our environment.
The nose picks up smells, an input that influences perception and emotion. It also moves as part of the face to communicate basic emotions.
The face as a whole is highly sensitive to touch, temperature, and pain. Its muscles are essential for expressing emotions about we feel about ourselves. It is the core of verbal and nonverbal communication.
To deepen your understanding and well-being, please join us for our upcoming workshop in May 2025.
In the Absence of Safety - The Experience of Suffering
When we have been conditioned to deny our very existence from early childhood, we are naturally unhappy. Then the mTRC is present, our social engagement capacities are offline, and we are unable to orient to the external environment in order to enter the natural flow that evolution has provided. Our primary affliction when the mTRC is present is that we are UNABLE to substantially engage with external reality. This disability is not a result of our evolution but of our incapacity to engage our humanity with the tools that we have been given by life itself. This means that exteroception registers only cognitively in the abstract (a memory) and the link to interoceptive feedback (sensations and their cognitive components) is absent. Therefore, energy manifestations from the outside world (Reality) cannot reach us. Without this, energy cannot be metabolized, does not enter the stream of natural updating, and we are "out-of-date" to the presence of NOW.
In the absence of natural updating to safety, where our cognitive energy might "daylight" to external reality, we undergo a process of re-traumatization that takes place as muscular, behavioral and cognitive fixations. These fixations generate the sensations that most individuals would label as "unhappy", "ill", "uncomfortable" or "painful". Bodily tensions in the legs, the arms, difficulty breathing, tense shoulders and painful necks or heads are signals from our underlying biology that we are being managed by a threat response. The presence of intrusive thoughts, memories, self-judgment or comparison with others are indications that our nervous system is binding the energy of overwhelming activation by using our brain to consume or "burn off" this energy. Yet our evolutionary biology is not at fault. We have unwittingly misused our incredible survival capacity against ourselves. Through a mass process of fear-conditioning we have become subject to the tyranny of a self-preserving, highly efficient and ruthless mechanism. Yet our humanity is the price we pay.
Somatic Science® proposes that there is a way out of suffering that anyone with a functioning nervous system might experiment with. The simplicity is startling, yet we must be willing to entertain that being alive, experiencing safety and discovering how to be curious are not mere trivialities to be dispensed with after "understanding" them from a merely cognitive perspective. Cognition is our incredible human capacity, yet without the experience of the inner body and external reality, this cognitive capacity will be used by the relentless survival machinery that we have elevated to the status of our "inner god". This is what most call their "mind".
Please try this for yourself. Do not be deceived by "easy and comfortable solutions". The only ones to benefit from this are the peddlers of whatever the "next fad" might be.
I can prove these ideas to you in real time experience, but only if you join us on May 17-18. I trust to see you then, Federico
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