We are a dynamic somatic communication system that responds to change via somaplasticity. Our system learns by adapting in real time, and by storing experiences as somatic communication patterns. This accumulated embodied knowledge shapes how we navigate experience.
From basic skills to the complexity of relationships, these FEELING-based memories become our internal reference manual — continually updating as change unfolds. The system draws on this living library to evaluate what works and what doesn’t — including how we handle discomfort and uncertainty.
Change is a continual interplay of instability and stability. Discomfort signals that change has been detected and the system is rearranging in response. Discomfort itself isn’t the problem; experiencing it without sufficient stability and support is. To manage this, we form a core somatic communication pattern — the Very Important Pattern (VIP) — which encodes our relationship to discomfort. Our learning expands or contracts depending on this relationship and the stability available in that moment.
Living life LIVE means staying connected during the discomfort so that our learning forms somatic patterns that expand capacity and reinforce the VIP: “I can manage this discomfort.”
However, when instability exceeds available stability, unmet discomfort triggers FafFF protective responses — fast and familiar forms of falsesafe. These may bring short-term relief, but in reality narrow context, increase instability, and reinforce the VIP: “I can’t manage this discomfort.”
This is why our relationship to discomfort is so important — it determines whether learning stays open and expansive, or contracts in search of safety.
An efficient learning system
To navigate constant change, our behaviour, beliefs and biology rearrange via somaplasticity, as we learn LIVE, on the go.
Our system stores this learning as somatic communication patterns — FEELING-based memories. Like an internal living library of how-to’s, these patterns hold knowledge about basic skills, how to interact with others, and what worked in particular scenarios. And it’s not just what we did that is remembered — it’s how it felt, and whether it feels safe to do it again.
Learning through patterns makes the system efficient. Rather than beginning fresh with each lived experience, we draw on our prior embodied learning. As this felt information is reactivated, it is either revised and updated to integrate new learning — or repeated, reinforcing old learning.
Thus, we are a somatic, experiential, pattern-based learning system — meaning what we learn depends on the conditions present during our lived experiences.
The discomfort that drives learning
Like building blocks of knowledge, learning is interconnected and accumulates over time. We learn within the vortex of change, navigating varying degrees of stability and instability, and the uncertainty they create.
FEELINGS of discomfort are an inherent part of this process; they signal that change has been detected, learning is occurring, and the system is reorganising in response.
In early life, we rely on external sources to manage the FEELINGS of discomfort that arise as we learn and grow. Our initial default for safety is to orient externally. Having our FEELINGS validated — being seen and heard by others stabilises the system.
During a learning cycle, patterns form on two levels. As we take on new knowledge and skills, our relationship to discomfort evolves — forming our VIP (Very Important Pattern) and shaping whether it feels safe to seek support externally.
Ideally, over time, we can learn to handle our own discomfort. When we’re encouraged to pendulate between external support and internal resources, our VIP becomes: I can manage discomfort because I support myself through it.
When safety is absent or disrupted because internal or external stability is insufficient, a different VIP forms: I can’t manage discomfort. This distinction is central to Somascience — it explains why some somatic communication patterns expand growth, while others reinforce contraction.
When learning expands growth
Tilly is learning to walk. Sometimes she falls over and cries — each time she is reassured and encouraged by her parents. Her first faltering steps are celebrated and eventually become a stable and fluid gait.
Her learning becomes efficient and automated — somatic communication patterns are forming. Tilly can now walk, and the discomfort that she experienced during the learning cycle was validated and supported by her parents. At this stage in her learning, her VIP for external support is consolidating.
Over the next few years, Tilly extends her learning to include running, jumping and hopping. She loves these activities and when she falls over she’s comforted by herself as well as others. She’s learnt from her parents that support and reassurance makes learning easier.
Tilly’s learning is cumulative. Prior somatic communication patterns inform her present experience. Two patterns are active — she is building skills while expanding her capacity for discomfort. Because adequate stability is present, her learning is expansive. Her VIP now integrates external and internal support, allowing her to meet the instability of her current learning cycle.
SOMASCIENCE Somatic communication patterns forming by JamPac-Ed licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
This is somaplasticity in action. She’s enjoying the experience and remains open to further learning — she is living life LIVE.
When learning contracts into protection
Tilly is now 8 years old. She finishes last in her first Little Athletics race, and another child is making fun of her. She looks for her Dad, then remembers that he had to leave to pick up her younger brother. Tilly is overwhelmed by FEELINGS of uncertainty and discomfort— confusion, disappointment and sadness flood her system. The fact that she feels alone adds to her distress.
At this moment, the level of instability in her system is exceeding the degree of stability available. Tilly’s behaviour, beliefs and biology begin rearranging in an urgent effort to restore safety. Her system looks for a protective response that will provide a quick fix:
She pretends to have hurt her ankle, refuses any external support offered and sits out the rest of the day’s activities in silence.
By invalidating her experience and her FEELINGS, Tilly has disconnected from both external and internal support, and the discomfort is unmet. This isn’t a failure of Tilly or her Dad. This is a protective falsesafe choice or FafFF— a fast and familiar form of falsesafe.
Notice how her learning is contracting — her perception narrows and her choices centre on avoiding further discomfort. Her VIP has shifted towards “I can’t manage this discomfort.”
Tilly’s somatic communication pattern for running is also being revised into a protective stance: When I FEEL that, I do this to stay safe. The system collapses the experience into a simple association: running feels unsafe so I’m not going to do it.
SOMASCIENCE Somatic communication patterns forming from FafFF by JamPac-Ed licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
When a FafFF pattern reinforces prior learning
At the next running carnival, Tilly refuses to participate — and eventually she stops running altogether.
Across repeated encounters, somaplasticity shapes her present response. Her threat detector encodes running as unsafe, while her cause predictor projects forward — if it felt that way before, it likely will again. Past, present, and future converge somatically. Although the circumstances are different, her choices narrow and the FafFF pattern reinforces: I never want to feel that way again. More importantly, her VIP deepens the learning — avoiding discomfort is the most effective way to handle uncertainty.
As an adult, even the thought of running makes her gut clench, so she opts out every time. I don’t like running — so why do it?
Over the years, Tilly’s relationship to running has contracted around protection. As a consequence, she is no longer living life LIVE when an opportunity to run arises. Tilly’s eight-year-old quick fix response is now limiting her adult experiences.
By avoiding running, Tilly never got to re-learn that running could be safe and enjoyable. These two somatic communication patterns — her VIP and her running pattern — reinforce each other, keeping her stuck in a protective response. What becomes unsafe stays unsafe because there’s insufficient internal and/or external support available to interrupt this pattern.
This is somaplasticity in action again — only this time it’s reinforcing old contracted learning.
Why this matters
Our systems are constantly adapting through lived experience, and our relationship to discomfort shapes the somatic communication patterns that embody our learning. This includes our VIP of how we handle the discomfort that arises in a learning cycle.
Past experiences are not recalled as facts, but as FEELING based memories. Through threat detection and cause prediction, the system scans its living library of prior experience and checks— how did I feel last time this happened? And what did I do? When similar FEELINGS arise in the present, a relevant somatic communication pattern gets reactivated along with our VIP.
Somatic literacy increases our capacity to manage discomfort and allows us to notice whether our response is:
supporting learning to expand in the present moment, or
reinforcing protective behaviours, beliefs and biology that limit new experience
Applied Tip
Principles #1, #2 and #3 dovetail together. Somaplasticity is continually in action and we are constantly either reinforcing old patterns or updating our learning. How and what we learn is shaped by our relationship to discomfort.
So, when something starts to feel uncomfortable, notice what’s happening:
Are you in a FafFF to avoid the discomfort that you’re feeling?
or
Are you supporting yourself through the discomfort so you can stay living life LIVE?
Next
This post is one of five in the Conceptual Series. The Applied Blog offers follow up posts for each principle of Somascience.
Here’s the Applied Blog for Principle #3:
Here’s Principle #1 and it’s Applied Blog:
Here’s Principle #2 and it’s Applied Blog:
Here’s the intro to the Conceptual series:
Meanwhile, use the like, comment, share or restack to engage.
Well done! This may appear at first glance quite simple—but if everyone pauses to truly contemplate (and feel into) the tremendous number of learning-embodied moments we live each day—it’s complex.
As a parent—reassurance to any reader—we do not need to be present for every destabilising moment our kids experience. We do need to be able pick up on their collapse and review the event. Eg Tilly talking about it later that day or that week to make sense of big feelings. Being present as a parent crosses time dimensions and repair at a later date can restore stability and resilience.
Just adding that for any parents reading and feeling unable (or overwhelmed at the thought of being able) to provide stability 24/7 for their kids.
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Poor Tilley!! Well written, congrats. "faulty and familiar forms of false-safe" highlights our infinite potential for FafFFs