The Tao That Can Be Marketed Is Not the Tao
On Somatics, Yoga, Dasein, and the Loss of the Living Body
“The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao.”
(道可道，非常道 — Dào kě dào, fēi cháng dào)
— Tao Te Ching, Chapter 1
There’s a growing irony in the modern world of somatics and yoga: the more we talk about embodiment, the more disembodied the culture around these practices becomes.
Words like “somatic,” “regulation,” and “trauma-informed” now echo across podcasts, Instagram posts, and retreat flyers. Yoga, once a practice of being-with, is often performed in sleek studios with curated playlists and fast-moving sequences designed more for optimization than inquiry. And even in bodywork and therapeutic circles, we’re seeing an increasing number of practitioners who can speak fluently about the nervous system—but whose own systems may not yet know the felt sense of rest, ground, or contact.
This is not a new problem. Laozi named it over two thousand years ago: the Tao that can be named is not the Tao. The moment we try to grasp the truth of being—whether through branding, certification, or intellectual mastery—we have already left the territory of experience. We’ve entered the realm of the concept, the map, the symbol.
And the map is not the terrain.
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The Representation of Somatics Is Not Somatics
Somatics, as originally intended, is not a modality—it’s not a technique or a protocol or a performance. It’s an orientation. A way of being in relationship with the body—not as an object to be fixed, but as a living subject in continuous unfolding.
But as somatics becomes popularized, it risks becoming repackaged as content. Courses promising “trauma healing in 8 weeks,” Instagram reels about “vagal toning exercises,” and people selling somatic expertise while remaining tethered to their own dysregulated patterns.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with this spread—sharing is part of cultural evolution. But something vital is often lost: the actual experience of sensing, feeling, and presence. The thing that cannot be taught in words. The thing that doesn’t show up well on camera. The thing that requires silence, space, and relational contact.
When the representation replaces the reality, what we are left with is a simulation of somatics. The body is spoken about—but not listened to.
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Yoga Without Yield
Yoga, too, has suffered from this shift. What was once a deeply contemplative, often quiet, body-centered practice of presence is now frequently reduced to movement routines optimized for fitness, flexibility, or aesthetic appeal.
Even restorative and therapeutic yoga are sometimes practiced with subtle layers of bracing—the body performing relaxation while the nervous system stays on guard. Yield, the developmental capacity to rest intosupport without collapsing, is absent—but because the form looks right, it passes.
We cannot perform our way into presence. We can only relate our way there. And yoga, like somatics, becomes hollow when it prioritizes form over felt sense.
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Heidegger, Dasein, and the Disappearing Body
In Being and Time, Martin Heidegger introduced the term Dasein, often translated as “being-there.” Dasein is not just a person—it is the condition of being human: a being that is aware of being, and that exists in the world, not outside it.
Dasein doesn’t grasp for answers—it dwells. It is with the world, rather than standing apart from it trying to define it. In that way, Dasein resonates with the very heart of somatic practice.
But just like somatics and yoga, Dasein loses its potency when reduced to an intellectual exercise. If you can diagram it on a whiteboard but can’t feel it in your breath, your belly, your feet on the floor—it’s not Dasein anymore. It’s a concept. Another layer of distance from the world.
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Embodiment Is Not a Product
In the current wellness industry, everything is being turned into a product. Somatics. Yoga. Meditation. Even rest!! But embodiment isn’t a service to be sold. It’s a relationship to be tended. It’s messy, slow, and often uncomfortable. It’s not inherently aesthetic or optimized.
And here’s the rub: true embodiment doesn’t market well. It doesn’t promise immediate transformation or scalable results. It asks for something deeper—your attention, your humility, your time.
In a culture addicted to speed and surface, the depth of embodied experience becomes radical. Which is perhaps why so many would rather talk about embodiment than live it.
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What Now?
So what do we do, as practitioners, teachers, or even seekers?
We return.
To presence.
To not knowing.
To the ground of experience that cannot be named or performed.
We ask ourselves, daily:
- Am I speaking about the body, or listening to it?
- Am I teaching yield, or embodying it?
- Am I trying to help someone feel safe, or being someone safe to be around?
And when we forget—as we will—we begin again. With the breath. With the body. With the quiet rhythm of being that doesn’t need to be understood to be true.
Because the Tao that can be named is not the Tao.
And the somatics that can be sold is not the somatics.
Please note: The views expressed in Blog posts are that of the author alone, not ISMETA as an organization.
