Somatic Tao

Somatic Tao Simple, effective relief for stress and trauma SOMATIC TAO is the home of BEN, Babyhood Emotional Neglect and how to heal the fall out of BEN.
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SOMATIC TAO is an integrated neuro-somatic emotionally aware therapeutic approach that helps treat mental and physical symptoms of stress, trauma and early life neglect.
____________

SOMATIC TAO understands that most modern day mental and physical "ills" are due to a lack of ability to tolerate and process emotional energies:

• rage and protest energy mobilised in answer to unmet needs;
• toxi

c shame created by unmet very early developmental needs;
• grief due to loss, rejection and abandonment;
• fear and terror due to unmet need for safety and security.
____________

Working with:

• Dr Peter Levine's Somatic Experiencing (SE) to track felt sense of the body;
• Stephen Porges' Polyvagal Theory to identify the active part of the nervous system;
• knowledge of Traumatology;
• Parts of Self Theory; and
• the Taoist Philosophy understanding of how emotions affect health

SOMATIC TAO encourages suppressed emotions and trauma energy locked in your body to process, thereby increasing your mental and physical wellness.
____________

Combining the above with knowledge of Bowlby's Attachment Theory, SOMATIC TAO works with adults suffering the impact of:

• Babyhood Emotional Neglect, (BEN);
• Adverse Babyhood Experiences, (ABEs); and
• Adverse Childhood Experiences, (ACEs)

to recover emotional resilience and capacity to live an empowered and meaningful life for yourself and in relationship with others.
____________

With over 19 years experience of working with stress, emotional distress and trauma, plus familiarity of medical terms and drug mechanisms gained from previous careers in neuroscience and the pharmaceutical industry, I am able to share a unique and comprehensive approach to health to both clients and supervisees working in the mental health field. PLEASE NOTE: Somatic Tao does NOT use Messenger. Please contact using email at [email protected]
Many thanks.

RESTORING BEN’s SENSE OF ALIVENESSRecently, we learnt how BEN, Babyhood Emotional Neglect, can create an acquired intole...
05/06/2026

RESTORING BEN’s SENSE OF ALIVENESS

Recently, we learnt how BEN, Babyhood Emotional Neglect, can create an acquired intolerance of internally mobilised emotion energy and a state of functional freeze – what Somatic Tao describes as “Yang Phobia”. Great for surviving internal movement of emotion energy perceived as threatening within the body. However, such self-protection comes at a cost:

• reduced interoceptive ability, (ability to be aware of internal sensations in our body);
• reduced exteroceptive ability, (perception of stimuli originating from outside the body via the five senses and proprioception);
• reduced sense of aliveness and vigour;
• reduced connection to one’s emotion energies;
• a tendency to adrenalise with drama and threat in order to feel vigour and vitality;
• a life that’s prone to yo-yoing between boom and bust because the nervous system has been precluded from developing its expertise to work with emotion mobilisation. Its window of resilience for yang is very small.

All causes a big intrapsychic conflict: how to begin to experience life when life is conserved by not feeling?

Well, for starters there are things we definitely don’t want to do, e.g.,

• connect to anything potentially traumatic, i.e., the trauma narrative is out of bounds;
• connect to anything dramatic or intense, as that only serves to reinforce intensity for sense of vitality; or even
• work directly with the felt sense of interoception, because remember: the threat, (yang or whatever moves and emotes inside), is perceived within the body.

So, that leaves us with one useful starting option: connecting to the felt sense of exteroception in the here and now. But even so, we need to respect the very small window of resilience of BEN’s Yang Phobic nervous system. So, we need to begin by exploring gentle forms of yang; somatically connecting to experiences such as:

• sense of gentle humour, e.g., amusing videos, conversations or other light-hearted experiences
• sense of pleasure, e.g., imagining walking in nature; or spending time with their pet; singing their favourite song
• empowering body movements, e.g., asking them to stand up rather than sit down and to track their felt sense
• sense of agency, e.g., moving closer to something or further away

Yet, all still needs to be done in a tracked and titrated manner. Too much yang too soon will act to reinforce the prediction within BEN’s nervous system that mobilisation is dangerous. Insufficient somatic attunement and titration will likely exacerbate boom and bust yo-yoing.

To conclude, BEN can organise the nervous system around the prediction that internally mobilised emotion energy is dangerous – a form of Yang Phobia. Over time this reduces emoturity and metastability, leaving the individual less able to remain embodied with activation, pleasure, excitement, agency and vitality. Life may feel flat, distant or lacking in aliveness, drawing some individuals toward threat, drama or crisis because intense activation temporarily restores a sense of vitality. However, recovery does not come through greater intensity. It comes through gradually expanding the nervous system's capacity to experience safe mobilisation. Humour, pleasure, curiosity, agency, movement, creativity and connection become opportunities to experience aliveness without overwhelming activation.

Recovery requires emoto-somatic experiences that allow mobilisation to no longer feel inherently dangerous. With careful titration the nervous system begins to learn how vitality can emerge from life itself rather than through threat.

MORE INFORMATION:

📌 BEN's LACK OF ALIVENESS
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/14de7ptomD3/

📌 BEN’s FEAR OF ALIVENESS
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BSt6kBwp8/

📌 THE EMERGENCE OF EMOTOLOGY:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1EXA9WHfDU/

📌 EMOTURITY – NERVOUS SYSTEM EMOTIONAL MATURITY
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/17xwXG7Fip/

📌 EMOTION WIRES THE NERVOUS SYSTEM:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BbHRZub7o/

📌 BEHAVIOUR IS EMOTOLOGY
https://www.facebook.com/share/1P39SDPgjp/

📌 MEET BEN – BABYHOOD EMOTIONAL NEGLECT
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1UoSjqTnxJ/

📌 EMOTION & THUS BEN DRIVES BEHAVIOUR
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/19UGvs5vNM/

📌 THE THREAT IN BEN:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BHBRhLTpY/

📌 WHEN EMOTION HAS NOWHERE TO GO
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/18U1YAKnTM/

📌 TRAUMA IS A STATE OF CONTAINMENT
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BnSCkV9YW/

📌 TRAUMA – EMOTION PREDICTED AS THREAT
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1FjLMQv1Nw/

This post is a revised and expanded version of an earlier Somatic Tao post originally posted on 21st April 2025:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/16T8UphwJX/











BEN’s FEAR OF ALIVENESSIn a previous post we learnt how BEN, Babyhood Emotional Neglect, can lead to our body’s emotions...
03/06/2026

BEN’s FEAR OF ALIVENESS

In a previous post we learnt how BEN, Babyhood Emotional Neglect, can lead to our body’s emotions and yang energies becoming threatening inside, leading further to a lack of sense of aliveness, (link below in MORE INFORMATION).

Let’s take a more in depth look at exactly how BEN affects sense of aliveness.

Aliveness is yang. It is the upward and outward movement of energy within the body. It’s about being able to pursue pleasure. It’s that feeling of being lit up inside; that desire to move towards the things that enrich and nurture life.

Like aliveness, trauma also involves mobilisation of energy within the body. When emotion energy exceeds the nervous system’s available capacity for integration and regulation, experience shifts from empowering to overwhelming. This allows:

• fear,
• grief,
• anger,
• shame,
• excitement,
• joy,
• attachment longing

to all have the potential for becoming overwhelming under the wrong conditions. The issue is not merely quantity of yang or a specific type of emotion. The issue is insufficient nervous system emoturity to support embodiment in the presence of mobilising emotion energy. Internally mobilised emotion increasingly becomes predicted as a threat to biological and psychological integrity.

When this happens, the nervous system responds by increasing activity in the dorsal vagus to contain or even immobilize the emotion energy in freeze. From a Somatic Tao perspective, this can be understood as a form of “Yang Phobia”. Either way this containment strategy comes with a trade-off – access to other forms of life-enhancing energies such as a sense of aliveness, pleasure, joy and even hope may also become reduced.

Sometimes such containment and immobilisation can be so strong that a person can feel numb, disconnected from their emotions and detached from life; even presenting with de-realization or de-personalisation. The body just becomes too unsafe to live in.

Many people can still achieve a lot in their life despite struggling to have sense of aliveness. E.g., they can be high performing and successful at work, or they can have a stable family life. On the outside they can appear to be functioning and living “normally”. But, inside they are likely experiencing life as mundane and unrewarding, struggling to find sense of meaning or purpose. Because the Yang Phobia of their nervous system impedes availability of yang for emoto-somatic feedback. Without it life is experienced in the absence of sufficient aliveness, otherwise known as living in functional freeze.

Signs of functional freeze are as follows:

• PHYSICAL, e.g., slowed or held breathing; cold extremities; body heaviness and stillness; sense of paralysis, fainting; chronic fatigue; trouble taking care of oneself.

• COGNITIVE, e.g., foggy thinking; procrastination and difficulty making decisions; lack of memory.

• EMOTIONAL, e.g., numbness and alexithymia, (difficulty feeling, identifying, understanding and expressing emotions), or a background sense of anxiety that just won’t shift; tired but wired; sense of detachment; social withdrawal or difficulty forming meaningful relationships; sense of dread or doom; sense of loneliness.

Living a life of functional freeze points to previous need to survive unresolvable sense of danger. It indicates successful endurance of repetitive, unavoidable and chronic threat. Functional freeze is the language of a nervous system that has learnt to protect life when flight and fight were rendered impotent. It is an effective way to live in a body organised around the prediction that internally mobilised emotion is dangerous.

From a Somatic Tao perspective, functional freeze can be understood as an expression of Yang Phobia.

Functional freeze is commonly observed in individuals who have a history of BEN.

MORE INFORMATION:

📌 BEN's LACK OF ALIVENESS
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/14de7ptomD3/

📌 THE EMERGENCE OF EMOTOLOGY:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1EXA9WHfDU/

📌 EMOTURITY – NERVOUS SYSTEM EMOTIONAL MATURITY
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/17xwXG7Fip/

📌 EMOTION WIRES THE NERVOUS SYSTEM:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BbHRZub7o/

📌 BEHAVIOUR IS EMOTOLOGY
https://www.facebook.com/share/1P39SDPgjp/

📌 MEET BEN – BABYHOOD EMOTIONAL NEGLECT
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1UoSjqTnxJ/

📌 EMOTION & THUS BEN DRIVES BEHAVIOUR
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/19UGvs5vNM/

📌 THE THREAT IN BEN:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BHBRhLTpY/

📌 WHEN EMOTION HAS NOWHERE TO GO
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/18U1YAKnTM/

📌 TRAUMA IS A STATE OF CONTAINMENT
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BnSCkV9YW/

📌 TRAUMA – EMOTION PREDICTED AS THREAT
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1FjLMQv1Nw/

This post is a revised and expanded version of an earlier Somatic Tao post originally posted on 17th April 2025:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1K8weujWGp/












BEN's LACK OF ALIVENESSResearch is beginning to indicate BEN – Babyhood Emotional Neglect – organises the nervous system...
02/06/2026

BEN's LACK OF ALIVENESS

Research is beginning to indicate BEN – Babyhood Emotional Neglect – organises the nervous system around the prediction that internally mobilised emotion energy is dangerous [1]. From a Somatic Tao perspective, this can be understood as a form of “Yang Phobia": an acquired intolerance of the body's own mobilising energies.

Threats on the inside are problematic and challenging for the nervous system's usual defence responses:

• from a Taoist perspective, fighting the internal threat can become a form of fighting the self – a dynamic reflected in conditions where the body appears to turn on itself, e.g., autoimmune conditions; and

• the impossibility of physical escape necessitates an energetic form of flight through dissociation, withdrawal or immobilisation.

Whilst energetic flight from the internal threat of the yang of emotions can be super successful for self-protection, it is truly detrimental to a sense of thriving. Once mobilisation itself becomes associated with danger, the survival system tends to generalise that danger prediction across many forms of mobilisation – even the yang of vitality and sense of life.

The very energies needed to feel alive become energies the nervous system has become wired to fear.

Hence, a person with a history of BEN can feel lifeless, numb, or even dead inside.
A nervous system organised around containing perceived internal threat often has reduced access to many other life-supporting forms of yang, including:

• hope;
• curiosity;
• joy;
• pleasure and enjoyment;
• sense of purpose or ambition.

Inability to feel and experience such energies leads to a sense of emptiness inside. And, because BEN happened before conscious awareness, there is little ability to understand why life feels the way it does. Or, why anyone else might be able to relate to the emptiness and deadness. After all, everyone else seems to be gaily enjoying life. So, life not only feels empty but also lonely. This can feel intolerable and may lead a person towards behaviours such as:

• retelling dramatic events and stories;
• constantly creating drama or conflict;
• engaging in risk taking and harmful activities;
• self-harming and cutting

These behaviours may function, in part, to increase physiological activation to temporarily challenge the containment patterns of a nervous system organised around threat. A way to temporarily increase adrenaline to counter feelings of numbness, emptiness or disconnection. Because adrenaline is a fantastic organiser within: it focuses the body’s senses and movement; it gives a sense of drive, purpose and agency; and it can also lead to increased engagement with other things and people. Finally, there is confirmation of existence. Finally, there is experience of feeling alive! But aliveness from nervous system hyperarousal doesn’t really provide sense of engagement or vitality in life. Plus, it is biologically costly and potentially dangerous.

So, how to recover a sense of vitality without the sense of trauma? How to unpick the nervous system conflict of preserving life by not feeling, yet needing to feel to feel alive?

MORE INFORMATION:

📌 MEET BEN – BABYHOOD EMOTIONAL NEGLECT
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1UoSjqTnxJ/

📌 THE THREAT IN BEN:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BHBRhLTpY/

📌 EMOTION WIRES THE NERVOUS SYSTEM:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BbHRZub7o/

📌 EMOTION & THUS BEN DRIVES BEHAVIOUR
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/19UGvs5vNM/

📌 BEHAVIOUR IS EMOTOLOGY
https://www.facebook.com/share/1P39SDPgjp/

📌 WHEN EMOTION HAS NOWHERE TO GO
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/18U1YAKnTM/

📌 TRAUMA IS A STATE OF CONTAINMENT
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BnSCkV9YW/

📌 TRAUMA – EMOTION PREDICTED AS THREAT
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1FjLMQv1Nw/

📌 ADRENALINE SEEKING AND THE SEARCH FOR FLOW
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/18qyt4jMZ4/

RESEARCH:

[1] Lyons-Ruth, K. (2025). Is neglect the first form of threat? Attachment & Human Development, 27(4), 511–538. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616734.2025.2518687

This post is a revised and expanded version of an earlier Somatic Tao post originally published on 15th April 2025:
https://www.facebook.com/somatictao/videos/654877444101288












31/05/2026

SOOTHING SUNDAY – Nestling in sunny spots...

A moment to settle the nervous system, and return to yourself.

Nestling in sunny spots
On the woodland floor
Little blue jewels
Of Speedwell
Proudly broadcast
Their dainty beauty.











EMOTURITY & BIOLOGICAL CAPACITYOne of the reasons the concept of emoturity matters is because it shifts the conversation...
30/05/2026

EMOTURITY & BIOLOGICAL CAPACITY

One of the reasons the concept of emoturity matters is because it shifts the conversation away from pathology, blame and psychological “content” alone – and toward biological capacity.

When early emotional experiences occur without sufficient co-regulation, attunement and embodied safety, the nervous system may not fully develop the flexibility required to remain regulated in the presence of internally mobilised emotion energy. Over time, emotion itself can begin to be experienced as threat.

From the perspective of Somatic Tao, this is not simply a “mental health” issue. It is a developmental and neurophysiological issue involving the maturation of the body’s capacity for flow, regulation, integration and adaptive shifting. Hence the importance of Dr. Aimie Apigian’s reflection.

Framing emoturity as a deficit in biological capacity rather than psychological weakness is exactly the intention of Somatic Tao’s BEN framework – a perspective that aligns closely with emerging understandings of trauma, predictive regulation and nervous system metastability.

Importantly, this also changes the therapeutic target. The goal is not simply to analyse thoughts or suppress symptoms, but to help the nervous system gradually develop increased capacity to remain embodied with emotion energy without moving into defensive prediction, containment, dissociation or overwhelm.

In this sense, emoto-somatic work is not about “fixing” a broken person. It is about helping the nervous system develop capacities it may never fully have had the opportunity to build.

MORE INFORMATION:

📌 THE THREAT IN BEN:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BHBRhLTpY/

📌 EMOTION WIRES THE NERVOUS SYSTEM:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BbHRZub7o/

📌 BEN CHANGES WIRING OF THE BRAIN:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1A2TFYgTt6/

📌 TRAUMA – EMOTION PREDICTED AS THREAT
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1FjLMQv1Nw/

📌 BEN’S EFFECT ON BIOLOGY, BEHAVIOUR & HEALTH
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/14VfivnG9Yz/

📌 EMOTURITY IS BUILT ON NEUROPLASTICITY
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1CFA4pMemf/

📌 Emotional Intelligence Is Not Emoturity:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/15HmjdyGMc/

📌 INTRODUCING BEA – BABYHOOD EMOTIONAL ATTUNEMENT:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1DHEbELSCW/

📌 IMPROVING LONG-TERM HEALTH OUTCOMES:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1GBmxvvYup/

📌 BEN LEADS TO LASTING EMOTIONAL & PHYSICAL PAIN
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1DPTnUXPaE/

📌 BEN's NEUROINFLAMMATION:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Foy23rEjq/

📌 DSM LABELS of BEN:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/17NRmtgiyo/

📌 BEN’s RISK OF ADHD
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1EAaz3vLjR/

📌 BEN’s RELATIONSHIP WITH THE DARK TRIAD:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1AQqmsutyw/











EMOTURITY – NERVOUS SYSTEM EMOTIONAL MATURITYEmoturity refers to the nervous system’s biological maturity for processing...
29/05/2026

EMOTURITY – NERVOUS SYSTEM EMOTIONAL MATURITY

Emoturity refers to the nervous system’s biological maturity for processing emotion energy within the body and brain.

High emoturity reflects a nervous system capable of remaining embodied with emotion energy whilst maintaining sufficient regulation, flexibility and adaptive flow. It indicates efficient processing and completion of emotional processes – emotology. In practical terms, high emoturity supports greater emotional regulation, resilience, relational capacity and physiological coherence.

Low emoturity, by contrast, reflects reduced nervous system capacity for working with emotion energy. The system becomes more vulnerable to overwhelm, dysregulation, defensive adaptation and reduced metastability – the loss of flexible adaptive shifting within the nervous system [1].

Like every other aspect of human development, emoturity begins developing extremely early in life. In many ways, it begins from birth itself through repeated experiences of emotional attunement, co-regulation and embodied safety. This is because the newborn nervous system is already working with core emotions of need – particularly protest/anger, fear and joy. These emotional processes do not first emerge cognitively or linguistically. They are deeply biological, autonomic and relational. Their expression is visible through universal facial expressions, autonomic responses, movement, vocalisation, breath and physiological state – even during the earliest stages of life.

Of these core emotions, protest/anger linked to unmet need is perhaps the most developmentally important. Some attachment researchers describe this state as “attach/cry for help” – the nervous system’s attempt to restore connection, regulation and safety through relationship.

When this emotional signalling is repeatedly met with sufficient attunement and co-regulation, the nervous system gradually develops increased capacity to remain with emotion without becoming overwhelmed by it – emoturity begins to develop. Emoturity then supports development of the neural pathways underlying all other physical, cognitive and emotional learning.

However, when emotional states repeatedly occur without adequate co-regulation, there is increased risk of the nervous system organising around emotion itself as a source of internal threat. Over time this can reduce flexibility and increase defensive prediction. Brain development may become compromised and capacity for emotional regulation impeded [2–9].

From the perspective of Somatic Tao, emoturity therefore profoundly influences:

• emotional regulation;
• self-awareness;
• resilience under stress;
• relational health;
• embodiment;
• physiological coherence; and
• long-term psychological and physical wellbeing.

This early period matters enormously because babyhood represents the most neuroplastically sensitive stage of human life. During these years the foundational architecture of the nervous system is rapidly developing through lived relational experience.

Brain development does not stop after babyhood. Far from it. But early life lays down many of the foundational regulatory patterns upon which later emotional, cognitive, physical and relational functioning continue to build.

In this sense, support of age-appropriate emoturity during babyhood is not merely emotionally beneficial. It is foundational to the development of the self itself and for the protection of lifelong health and wellbeing.

More information:

THE EMERGENCE OF EMOTOLOGY:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1EXA9WHfDU/

📌 EMOTION WIRES THE NERVOUS SYSTEM:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BbHRZub7o/

📌 MEET BEN – BABYHOOD EMOTIONAL NEGLECT
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1UoSjqTnxJ/

📌 THE THREAT IN BEN:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BHBRhLTpY/

📌 EMOTION & THUS BEN DRIVES BEHAVIOUR
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/19UGvs5vNM/

📌 BEHAVIOUR IS EMOTOLOGY
https://www.facebook.com/share/1P39SDPgjp/

📌 WHEN EMOTION HAS NOWHERE TO GO
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/18U1YAKnTM/

📌 TRAUMA IS A STATE OF CONTAINMENT
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BnSCkV9YW/

📌 TRAUMA – EMOTION PREDICTED AS THREAT
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1FjLMQv1Nw/

📌 EMOTURITY IS BUILT ON NEUROPLASTICITY
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1CFA4pMemf/

📌 Emotional Intelligence Is Not Emoturity:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/15HmjdyGMc/

📌 INTRODUCING BEA – BABYHOOD EMOTIONAL ATTUNEMENT:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1DHEbELSCW/

📌 IMPROVING LONG-TERM HEALTH OUTCOMES:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1GBmxvvYup/

📌 WHERE THERE IS FLOW THERE IS AGENCY
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1F2cmjg3He/

RESEARCH:

[1] Kotler S, Mannino M, Fox G and Friston K (2026) The body does not keep the score: trauma, predictive coding, and the restoration of metastability. Front. Syst. Neurosci. 20:1812957. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnsys.2026.1812957

[2] Tyborowska, A., Volman, I., Smeekens, S., Toni, I. & Roelofs, K. Testosterone during puberty shifts emotional control from pulvinar to anterior prefrontal cortex. J. Neurosci. 36, 6156–6164 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3874-15.2016

[3] Tyborowska, A., Volman, I., Niermann, H.C.M. et al. Early-life and pubertal stress differentially modulate grey matter development in human adolescents. Sci Rep 8, 9201 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-27439-5

[4] Sheth C, McGlade E, Yurgelun-Todd D. Chronic Stress in Adolescents and Its Neurobiological and Psychopathological Consequences: An RDoC Perspective. Chronic Stress (Thousand Oaks). 2017 Jan-Dec; 1:2470547017715645. https://doi.org/10.1177/2470547017715645

[5] Morena M, Patel S, Bains JS, Hill MN. Neurobiological Interactions Between Stress and the Endocannabinoid System. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2016 Jan;41(1):80-102. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4677118/

[6] Hill MN, Eiland L, Lee TTY, Hillard CJ, McEwen BS. Early life stress alters the developmental trajectory of corticolimbic endocannabinoid signaling in male rats. Neuropharmacology. 2019 Mar 1;146:154-162. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropharm.2018.11.036

[7] Gee DG, Gabard-Durnam LJ, Flannery J, Goff B, Humphreys KL, Telzer EH, Hare TA, Bookheimer SY, Tottenham N. Early developmental emergence of human amygdala-prefrontal connectivity after maternal deprivation. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013 Sep 24;110(39):15638-43. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1307893110

[8] Moriceau S, Shionoya K, Jakubs K, Sullivan RM. Early-life stress disrupts attachment learning: the role of amygdala corticosterone, locus ceruleus corticotropin releasing hormone, and olfactory bulb norepinephrine. J Neurosci. 2009 Dec 16;29(50):15745-55. https://www.jneurosci.org/content/29/50/15745

[9] Shin L. M. Rauch S. L. Pitman R. K. (2006). Amygdala, medial prefrontal cortex, and hippocampal function in PTSD. Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci.1071, 67–79. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnsys.2026.1812957

This post is a revised and expanded version of an earlier Somatic Tao post originally published on Facebook on 10th May 2025:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1AbwjmMHN5/












HOW TAOISM IDENTIFIES OUR EMOTIONSTaoism, the philosophical foundation underpinning Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), ...
27/05/2026

HOW TAOISM IDENTIFIES OUR EMOTIONS

Taoism, the philosophical foundation underpinning Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), offers a powerful framework for understanding emotion through the language of nature, movement and embodied experience.

Within Taoist reflection, emotions are not viewed as abstract psychological states alone, but as forms of embodied processes with identifiable qualities and movement patterns within the mind and body.

By correlating energies of Man with natural elements and qualities – such as expansion, contraction, heat, cold, movement or heaviness – Taoist correlations help us somatically identify the emotions shaping our internal state and behaviours.

For example:

• anger tends toward expansion, force and outward movement;
• joy toward warmth, connection and uplift;
• worry toward heaviness, repetition and stagnation;
• sadness toward constriction and containment;
• fear toward withdrawal, descent and coldness.

From the perspective of Somatic Tao and emotology, (the process of emotions in the body and brain), these correlations remain deeply relevant because emotion drives behaviour physiologically, psychologically and behaviourally.

The body expresses emotion through posture, breath, muscular tension, sensation, autonomic state, energy levels and behavioural tendencies.

In this way, Taoist emotional correlations can help us develop greater somatic awareness of the emotion energy dynamics shaping our internal experience and patterns of behaviour. They also provide insight into the emotional and neurophysiological patterns contributing to states of dis-ease within the nervous system and body.

MORE INFORMATION:

📌 THE EMERGENCE OF EMOTOLOGY
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1EXA9WHfDU/

📌 BEHAVIOUR IS EMOTOLOGY
https://www.facebook.com/share/1P39SDPgjp/

📌EMOTIONAL MATURITY & RESILIENCY:
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1C5bktgiC5/

📌 EMOTURITY AFFECTS HEALTH & LIFE:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/152MdeR72ew/

📌 EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE IS NOT EMOTURITY:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/15HmjdyGMc/

📌 MEET BEN – BABYHOOD EMOTIONAL NEGLECT
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1UoSjqTnxJ/

📌 THE THREAT IN BEN:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BHBRhLTpY/

📌 EMOTION WIRES THE NERVOUS SYSTEM:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BbHRZub7o/

📌 BEN CHANGES WIRING OF THE BRAIN:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1A2TFYgTt6/

📌 TRAUMA – EMOTION PREDICTED AS THREAT
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1FjLMQv1Nw/

A version of this post was originally posted on Facebook 22nd May 2025:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1FmXgVBePY/












BEHAVIOUR IS EMOTOLOGYOriginally published on Somatic Tao on 20th March 2025, this post is now updated and refined accor...
25/05/2026

BEHAVIOUR IS EMOTOLOGY

Originally published on Somatic Tao on 20th March 2025, this post is now updated and refined according to the ongoing development of my work on BEN, emoturity, threat prediction and metastability, (nervous system fluidity). Whilst aspects of the language and formulation have evolved since 2025, the central proposition remains unchanged.
______

Emotion drives behaviour. Not merely psychologically, but neurophysiologically.

Many infants and children today present as chronically dysregulated: overly restless, impulsive, oppositional, emotionally overwhelmed, or unable to settle into regulation and coherence. Yet much of modern behavioural management remains focused primarily on controlling what the infant or child is doing, rather than understanding what is driving the behaviour within the nervous system itself.

Behaviour does not arise in isolation from the body. Rather, behaviour reflects how emotion is being organised within the body and the nervous system. In this way, behaviour is founded in emotology – the process of emotion within the body and the nervous system.

Emotion mobilises physiology toward life-preserving action. It drives attachment seeking and approach, as well as protest, defence, withdrawal and survival adaptation. When emotion becomes difficult for the nervous system to safely process and regulate, behaviour itself begins to reflect that unresolved internal state. Inefficient or thwarted emotology becomes apparent via explicit behaviour.

From the perspective of Somatic Tao, emotology relies on development of emoturity – the developmental capacity of the nervous system to remain embodied with emotion energy whilst maintaining regulation, coherence and flow. When this capacity is insufficiently developed early in life, the nervous system increasingly adapts around managing emotion rather than processing it. Behaviours of emotional dysregulation and overwhelm then become more likely, specifically:

1. chronic mobilisation:
hyperactivity, impulsivity, oppositionality, emotional reactivity, agitation, compulsive “doing”, fight/flight physiology and sympathetic dominance;

or

2. chronic immobilisation:
shutdown, collapse, dissociation, withdrawal, freeze states and dorsal vagal dominance.

In both cases, the nervous system is attempting to regulate what has become intolerable to safely remain embodied with, either via externalised mobilisation or internalised containment. This is why many forms of later mental and physical unwellness may be better understood not simply as disorders of thought, but as long-term nervous system adaptations organised around unresolved emotion processing and chronic threat prediction.

One of the earliest threats in life may not be external danger itself, but the experience of overwhelming emotion within the body: protest of unmet need; sympathetic mobilisation; states of distress the immature nervous system cannot yet regulate alone. Without sufficient co-regulation and emotional attunement from the caregiver, emotion itself can begin to be encoded as internal threat.

At that point, the nervous system must adapt, but rather than developing increasing flexibility and tolerance for embodied emotion, the system becomes overly focused on prediction of threat. To survive, internal containment of emotion and chronic defensive regulation become the priority. Over time this can contribute to reduced brain metastability: diminished capacity to fluidly transition between adaptive physiological and emotional states. These adaptations can become increasingly reinforced within nervous system organisation, developing into a self-perpetuating cycle:

• reduced nervous system flexibility
 compromised top-down regulation
 strengthened defensive patterning
 further perpetuation of dysregulation across development.

Poor emoturity reinforces poor emoturity.

Together, these adaptations increase allostatic load and predisposition to disease later in life. Recent research increasingly supports the importance of early relational safety and co-regulation in shaping later resilience and vulnerability to anxiety and stress-related disorders [1]. Likewise, growing research around ABEs (Adverse Babyhood Experiences) [2] and ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) continues to demonstrate the profound long-term impact of early developmental adversity on both mental and physical health.

From the perspective of Somatic Tao, one of the most overlooked dimensions within this discussion is BEN – Babyhood Emotional Neglect. BEN is commonly not overt abuse but instead the chronic absence of sufficient emotional attunement, co-regulation and embodied safety during the earliest stages of nervous system development. None of these are luxuries for the infant nervous system – they are biological necessities. Before a child can self-regulate, regulation must first be experienced relationally in babyhood.

This is why the current mental health crisis may ultimately be inseparable from a deeper crisis of emotion wellness across generations. Society is suffering the consequences of widespread, generational BEN. And until emotion itself is better understood within the body and nervous system, the cycle will continue.

MORE INFORMATION:

📌 THE EMERGENCE OF EMOTOLOGY
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1EXA9WHfDU/

📌 MEET BEN – BABYHOOD EMOTIONAL NEGLECT
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1UoSjqTnxJ/

📌 THE THREAT IN BEN:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BHBRhLTpY/

📌 EMOTION WIRES THE NERVOUS SYSTEM:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BbHRZub7o/

📌 BEN CHANGES WIRING OF THE BRAIN:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1A2TFYgTt6/

📌 TRAUMA – EMOTION PREDICTED AS THREAT
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1FjLMQv1Nw/

📌 BEN’S EFFECT ON BIOLOGY, BEHAVIOUR & HEALTH
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/14VfivnG9Yz/

📌 EMOTURITY IS BUILT ON NEUROPLASTICITY
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1CFA4pMemf/

📌 Emotional Intelligence Is Not Emoturity:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/15HmjdyGMc/

📌 INTRODUCING BEA – BABYHOOD EMOTIONAL ATTUNEMENT:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1DHEbELSCW/

📌 IMPROVING LONG-TERM HEALTH OUTCOMES:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1GBmxvvYup/

📌 BEN LEADS TO LASTING EMOTIONAL & PHYSICAL PAIN
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1DPTnUXPaE/

📌 BEN's NEUROINFLAMMATION:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Foy23rEjq/

📌 DSM LABELS of BEN:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/17NRmtgiyo/

📌 BEN’s RISK OF ADHD
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1EAaz3vLjR/

📌 BEN’s RELATIONSHIP WITH THE DARK TRIAD:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1AQqmsutyw/

Original Facebook post can be found here:

EMOTION & THUS BEN DRIVES BEHAVIOUR
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/19UGvs5vNM/

RESEARCH

[1] Mike Cummings. For some, childhood adversity can promote resilience to anxiety disorders. Mar 05 2025 https://news.yale.edu/2025/03/05/some-childhood-adversity-can-promote-resilience-anxiety-disorders [2026 05 21]

[2] Veronique Mead. Information about Adverse Babyhood Experiences, ABEs: https://chronicillnesstraumastudies.com/abes-introduction/

[3] CDC. About Adverse Childhood Experiences. 02 March 2026 https://www.cdc.gov/aces/about/index.html [2026 05 21]















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