“And how does that feel in your body?”

I stare at my new therapist. She might as well be talking Chinese.

“Uhhh… normal, I suppose?”

She smiles.

“Let’s explore that.”

This was my first somatic therapy session in March 2025. And it’s been the start of a life-changing rollercoaster.

Today I want to tell you why.

My experience with Somatic Therapy

A friend recommended somatic therapy when I told him I was diving deep into self-awareness.

To say I was skeptical was an underestimate.

I spend my days in the comfort of my mind. Journaling, writing, walking, reading, and meditating. I thought I was clever because I have a knack for analysing the consequences of choices.

Oh, how wrong I was.

In modern society, we glorify the mind and demonise the body. You’re intelligent if you overclock your brain. You’re dumb if you do something ‘because it felt good’.

And it doesn’t live in your head.

It lives in your heart. In your gut.

This might sound woo-woo. I certainly thought so when I first heard it. But if you want to make better decisions, there is nothing more powerful than body awareness.

Discovering big blind spots

A month into therapy, I made a passing remark that blew open my perspective.

“The right side of my body is f**king useless.”

I said it jokingly. I had hurt my arm at the gym, but it was a familiar problem.

Some context:

This means I have developed a distaste for half my body.

It’s always ‘let me down’. It made me feel weak and crippled. And if I’m honest, terrified too. Because the pain is a reminder of a potential future where my condition returns and I can’t look after myself.

Pretty grim, right?

But I had ZERO clue about these judgments.

It blows my mind to type that.

How did I not realise? Because I had no body awareness. Instead, I would brush over these feelings with humour and perspective, taking pride in my stoicism. But there’s a fine line between reframing and repression.

Burying a problem is not the same as dealing with it.

And the problem went much deeper than physical. Because I’ve always felt there was something wrong with me. An inner weirdness that stopped me from connecting with people and enjoying life. That’s a symptom of trauma. But my therapist pointed out, if you hate half your body—you hate half yourself.

It’s no wonder I had a few issues buried under the bonnet.

Here’s the best part.

As soon as I saw this script, it began to unravel. Awareness leads to growth because it no longer makes sense to suffer. By simply shining a light on your shit, it starts to solve itself.

Kieran Drew @ItsKieranDrew I used to think self-improvement was the key to success. But the older I get, the more I realise it’s self-inquiry. Observation leads to understanding, understanding leads to change. 6:0 PM • Jun 25, 2025 1 Retweets 102 Likes Read 66 replies

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Now, Reader, you might not have a serious physical ailment. But most of our faulty wiring presents as patterns in the body. The secret to thinking clearly is feeling deeply.

Which leads us to our second point.

You can’t trust your intuition if you can’t hear it.

We make choices with the mind, but wisdom comes from the body. If you listen only to your thoughts, it’s like letting a toddler translate a message from the master.

It’s no wonder we make such stupid decisions.

I’ll give you an uncomfortable example.

Last year, I ended a 5-year relationship. It was rough. Nothing was wrong, but things weren’t right. For a long time, I couldn’t tell her I was unhappy. Months ground by—maybe even years. I would beat myself up for being a coward. But really, I was just unaware. I thought I could find the perfect solution. A way to break up without causing pain.

I spent hundreds, if not thousands, of hours thinking about this problem.

It was killing me. Seriously. I couldn’t sleep. My anxiety was sky-high. I began developing stress-related symptoms. My body was screaming at me with the truth:

You don’t solve this by thinking. You solve it by doing.

Action was the answer, but my mind was trying to protect me. Not her. Me. I wanted to avoid guilt, shame, and the pain of hurting someone else. This is utter stupidity. Delaying was the most hurtful thing I could’ve done—for both of us. After the break-up, I vowed to take self-awareness seriously. I never want to make that mistake again. I’ve been on meditation retreats, tried a heroic dose of magic mushrooms, and spend several hours a day on self-inquiry.

What I’ve learned:

Intuition has layers.

And the surface-level shit is monkey-mind noise. Most of us look at life through a lens covered in dirt and wonder why we see things poorly. Your job is not to squint harder, but to wipe away the crap.

You do this by listening to your body.

You must, like Joe Hudson puts it, ‘feel your feelings’.

Because your body knows the score. When you pay attention, you will not believe how empowered you become in your decisions. I barely overthink these days, and make big decisions 100x faster—without the fear of going wrong. This is a dramatic difference in my character.

Which leads us to our final point.

Self-trust is impossible without self-awareness

Naval Ravikant once said the only test of intelligence is getting what you want from life.

I used to think this meant your ability to move mountains. But in reality, it’s picking the right mountain to climb.

Kieran Drew @ItsKieranDrew There are no points for climbing the wrong mountain. 7:26 AM • Oct 1, 2025 2 Retweets 73 Likes Read 50 replies

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Authenticity requires you to trust your own judgement. Only you get to live your life. And your intuition knows what will serve you best. But instead, we let fear take control, and wonder why we feel so unfulfilled.

I say this first-hand.

I’ve spent most of my life trying to find safety through society’s standards. I thought if I just made more money, got more jacked, found more fame—I wouldn’t feel so scared anymore. These goals aren’t bad. But they should be the reward for your effort, not the reason. Because they will not satisfy you if you need them.

The more you chase security, the more insecure you become.

Perhaps you’ve noticed this already. It’s the feeling that something isn’t quite right, even when it should be. It’s the unease that you could do something more, something better. It’s the fear that success might be taken away from you at any moment.

Your body is trying to tell you that you are on the wrong path. Or at least, you are walking it for the wrong reason. It’s your mind that tricks you into believing the view will be better at the top. But if you hate the climb, you will hate the peak.

So what’s the solution?

Simple. Pay attention to ‘shoulds’ and ‘wants’.

‘Should’ comes from the mind. It is doubt, designed to keep you safe and small.

‘Want’ comes from the heart. It is desire. And it is an endless fuel for an exciting, fulfilling life.

But you must be brave enough to listen.

Let me give you a final example.

I have always wanted to write books, but it was never the right time. I needed to make more money, be a better writer, and get a bigger audience. So I would keep launching offers, and wonder why I felt unhappy despite ‘living my dream’.

But it wasn’t my dream.

It was, what Stephen Pressfield calls, a ‘shadow career’. Close, but not quite. Every time I felt a deep want, my mind stepped in to protect me, whispering:

• What if you fail and look stupid?
• What if you don’t make enough money?
• What if you change your direction and lose?

What if. What if. What if.

Can you imagine if your advisor spoke to you like that all day? You would fire them immediately. And yet we think our minds know best. It is a constant nagging to stay in the comfort of the crowd.

But take a look around. The crowd is miserable. Safe is just another word for slowly dying.

It’s easier to be brave when you’re in your body. It becomes impossible to ignore how terrible inauthenticity feels. Desire overrides doubt, and you do underestimate how powerful this is. You trust yourself to pick well in the present. You no longer need to try. You just do.

And there’s less fear because failure is impossible. Why? Because if something makes you feel great every day, you are already winning.

Work feels like play, and the external result is just icing on the cake.

Get in your body

The biggest trick of the mind is telling you that if you think enough, you will create the perfect life. But this is just an illusion—the ego trying to protect itself from losing control. Awareness is the answer. But you are not self-aware without somatic work. You might be a great thinker, but you are not a great feeler.

The magic happens when the two come together.

You will make faster decisions. Smarter decisions. And you’ll be more present too—which makes you magnetic. Because there is nothing seductive about being stuck in your head.

These qualities are critical as writers and entrepreneurs. But also just as a person in general. I would hate to live my life knowing I could’ve experienced everything on a deeper, clearer level.

So if I can give you one tip from my previous 6 months, it’s this:

Get in your body.

You don’t need to pay money to start this journey. You just need to pay attention.

Walk and feel the pressure on the soles of your feet. Write and enjoy the tap of your fingers on the keyboard. Breathe and let air tickle the tip of your nose. Stretch and enjoy the relief of tension. Lift and keep your mind in your muscles.

It sounds so basic. ‘Smart’ people will scoff at this solution.

I remember once I said to my therapist, “I can’t tell if this is the most stupid shit I’ve tried, or the most powerful”.

Her reply?

Both. That’s the mind talking to the body.

I still see her once a week. Each time, I am blown away by how much there is to discover. I have never evolved faster through something so simple.

I hope you might try the same.

Cheers for reading,

Kieran

P.S.

My therapist is fantastic. She works with high-performing entrepreneurs, athletes, etc. If you’re interested, I can pass on her details. But please don’t reach out if you’re not. She’s busy enough as it is, and I respect her too much to ruin her diary.

If you’re just curious, check out Chris Williamson’s interviews with Joe Hudson. I did Joe’s Master Class this summer, and it was incredible.