Get in your flow. It may extend your life!

Jan Normanton • January 17, 2025

Spending more time in the flow state can extend our lives, by reducing stress and boosting serenity  - promoting our mental and emotional wellbeing in a joyful way!

Listen to this article

click to watch this article
If you are stressed, consider somatic massage or somatic coaching and know that your body has a whole set of inbuilt ways to help you manage your inner states.

Doing something we enjoy and love to do puts us into a state of flow, where we lose self consciousness and surrender to the moment.


We move into pure presence and put pay to our often pesky thoughts that can sway our mood and create a physiology of stress that can be detrimental to our health.


Applying attention to a meaningful and purposeful activity keeps our focus in the here and now and detracts from rumination, procrastination or catastrophisation – the main contenders for depression and anxiety.


Key is this full embodied immersion – the communion of mind and body - where our physiology shifts into the all important state of nervous system regulation – the rest and digest state which increases the hallmark of good health - resilience.



Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi (1990) is a classic and a great resource which I came late to even 15 years ago and even more relevant now than ever, still providing refreshing food for thought and practical applications to manage our increasing time poor, disconnected and stressful lives.

What It Means to Be an Embodied Therapist

By janetnormanton • January 15, 2026
Explore what it means to be an embodied therapist and why presence, not technique, is the key to truly transformative bodywork. Learn how The SOMA Massage Method™ helps therapists connect with themselves and their clients for deeper healing.
Emotional Healing Starts with Safety

Emotional Healing Starts with Safety

By janetnormanton • January 9, 2026
Discover why true emotional healing starts with feeling safe in your body. Learn how chronic stress affects your nervous system and how practices like Soma Massage can support deep, body-based healing and recovery.
The Massage That Moves More Than Muscles

The Massage That Moves More Than Muscles

By janetnormanton • December 31, 2025
Trauma and stress aren't matter in the muscles; it’s physiology imprinted in the nervous system.
Soma massage - a powerful antidote to the hurriedness of life.

What is SOMA Massage?

By Jan Normanton • December 10, 2025
SOMA Massage is a powerful antidote to the hurriedness of life. It offers a space where anxiety, stress, and overwhelm can dissolve, where you can simply be yourself, free from expectations
Understanding the Nervous System: Beyond Rest and Digest

Understanding the Nervous System: Beyond Rest and Digest

By Jan Normanton • October 26, 2025
A resilient, robust nervous system is key to healing and wellbeing, allowing you to manage life's challenges effectively while enjoying periods of deep relaxation.
Safety is the cornerstone of healing.

Safety is the Cornerstone of Healing

By Jan Normanton • September 14, 2025
Creating a safe environment is essential to reduce anxiety and stress, and encourage a sense of control and agency in clients
Does it feel like a hustle being on your healing journey?

Are you on the Hamsterwheel of Healing?

By Jan Normanton • September 11, 2025
May you remember when you’re on that hamsterwheel of healing, feeling it’s like a hustle to just slow down, breathe and drop into who you are and make peace with that and enjoy yourself!
Connection is key to a contented life

Connection is key to a contented life

By Jan Normanton • August 31, 2025
Connection to self, others, life itself offers safety and can provide the cornerstone of contentment and love. Whilst disconnection to self, others, life poses threat and so can cause the opposites – unhappiness and fear
Change can be challenging to a nervous system that seeks safety

If you find change challenging, you are not alone and there are valid reasons for this

By Jan Normanton • May 25, 2025
Leaning into a change process that feels safer, planned, paced, can offer a smoother journey into what we do want, whilst tempering and taming the fears, doubts and sense of regression that may present themselves along the way
Why consider a bottom up approach to healing rather than a top down one

Why consider a bottom up approach to healing rather than a top down approach

By Jan Normanton • May 7, 2025
Whilst talking therapies have a significant role in healing in their own right, we can end up inadvertently holding up our healing process by getting invested in talking ABOUT our issues rather than dealing directly WITH our issues via the body – the place of trauma
Show More