What are QUALIA and why do they matter in somatics?

In philosophy of mind, "qualia" are the first person qualities of your inner experience that are unique only to you: the taste of lemon in your mouth, warmth of sunlight on your skin, the quiet joy of movement in your body. Qualia can not be fully explained with words or proved externally. They can only be felt. Science calls it the "hard problem of cosciousnes". Why does experience feel like anything at all? Why does a color, a sound, or a feeling have quality that is known only to the one who perceives it?

Philosophy defines qualia as the mysterious essence of consciousness. Religions often describe them as sacred inner experience. Quantum mechanics associates them with the wavefunction collapse through the act of observation. And big-tech and corporate is on a cognitive war to hack our qualia.

Qualia are not just valid - they are the doorway to your healing, deeper connection and creativity. It is your pathway to regain authenticity and unlock your potential as a human being.

In our modern lives with ubiquitous screens, constant information overload, fast paced urban living, the realm of our sensory experience is easily lost - burried beneath stress, distraction, expectation and the pressure of performance. We drift outward. Bombarded by external narratives, we get stuck in our heads and we overconsume. We allow ourselves to disconnect from our precious sensory system. This is how we slowly isolate ourselves from our intrinsic life force and intuitive sense of meaning. Luckily more and more of us realize it and feel the longing for re-connection.

The word "Somatic" comes from the Greek word "soma", meaning ""body"". Different types of somatic movement practice were known very well to our ancestors, but forgotten on the way to our mind-based, rigidly patterned screen-centered civilization. From shamanic body practices like trance dance, breath control, shaking, through yoga, qigong, sufi whirling to Greek Paidotribeia, the ancient somatic techniques remind us of a time when the body was a source of wisdom and healing, not just a vessel for carrying our brains.

Contemporary somatic techniques derrive from indigineous traditions. They come as body-centered treatments and exercises that likewise focus on the healing connection between the body and mind through movement. Unlike talking therapies, sports or even traditional physiotherapy, somatics do not require mental effort phisical discomfort or heavy workout. Neither do they come in a form of a deep-relaxation massage. They rather invite us to feel our qualia more deeply, to listen from within - to re-trust the intelligence of our body and its inner wisdom. They are targeted to regulate our intelligent yet overwhelmed nervous system that is doing its best to orchestrate all our body functions and mental reality.

The inner dialog activated through somatic movement allows our system to detect the physical and mental patterns that do not serve us anymore. Our neurobiological network, previously blocked, now expands and starts to search for new connections on the celular subconcious level. The brain starts to rewire exploring new ways to problem-solving. This newly created inner communication flow expands our neuroplacticity helping us embrace the ever changing inner and outer circumstances and self-regulate on the fly. The regained feeling of inner spaciousness and peaceful joy allows us to overcome our biological and mental default and actively pave the new paths towards health and personal development through creativity and authentic self-expression.