Somatics for Rope Bottoms: 12 embodied inquiries for transforming your experience in rope bondage

by Natasha NawaTaNeko, Bettina Hindes (Editor)

In rope bondage, what we rope bottoms bring into play is our body, our emotions, our psyche, and souls. Our whole being in its entirety is known as the Greek word “soma.” We allow ourselves to be affected on many levels, exposed to playing with our emotions, enduring physical discomfort, and open to mental challenges. What is truly remarkable about our soma is its unlimited capacity to adapt and learn. Soma is endlessly creative, always undergoing that endless cycle of life, and change; leaving behind the familiar terrain and entering into the unknown. Rope bottoming is a somatic discipline, says Natasha NawaTaNeko. Through developing our ability to sense and regulate ourselves, we can have the experience we are yearning for. Bringing together her passion and experience as a Kinbaku model, her professional background in sexological bodywork and personal research on the topic of somatic change, Natasha developed a structure for rope bottoms to deepen their experience in ropes making it more internal, conscious and safe and to access a profound state of true surrender.

Genres: Sexuality, BDSM

170 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 16, 2020

About the author

Natasha NawaTaNeko is a Russian-born, Berlin-based experienced rope bottom. In Kinbaku, she is looking for true emotions and authenticity and sees rope bondage as a deeply intimate and erotic practice that has also a profound transformational potential. Natasha keeps exploring her own resistance and surrender in the ropes of her partner Alexander Ma ever since 2011.

Reviews

[Monika · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolute must-read for anyone interested in bottoming for rope bondage. Deep and reflective, shows the potential of rope bondage to be a transformative somatic practice and steps needed to be taken to make it such.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a must-have for both rope bottoms and riggers who want to explore the nuances of interception, Somatics, and the deeper communication and interplay between one’s body, mind, emotions, and spirit with regard to rope play, Shibari, and kinbaku.

It’s rare that guides written by submissives and bottoms (especially women) are elevated in BDSM. It’s a real issue for the scene, as those who explore those realms often have the most empowering insights and deep wisdom for other bottoms and tops alike.

This guide is brief but dense + well-organized and refers to additional resources to expand upon and explore. The language is gender-inclusive, thoughtful/concise, and emotionally intelligent, as well as trauma-informed.

Whether you are new to this beautiful discipline or a seasoned player, this book is definitely requisite reading, in my opinion!

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one will definitely make you think.

[Charlotte Marsden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Considering it’s a book about bondage, it’s the most simple and intuitive thing I’ve ever read about our mind body connection and the spiritual importance of being active in one’s surrender. Super interesting prompts and conversation starters. Suggested to me by Izzy Meyers so I can be a better rope bottom for her art!

[Hope · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing book. It is not a "how to" guide for tying rope though. It's more about the philosophies and mindfulness that can be used and encouraged with rope.

[spoon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started this a while ago and just came back to finish the last fourth. I think when I was first reading I would've given it a 3 or a 4, but now I'm debating between a 2 or a 3. A lot of minor stuff - has a lot of almost good but then weirdly bad stuff about how consent works. More major (and not unique to this book) is that it does the thing where a text is really using science as a metaphor to understand something, but frames it as science as an epistemology/knowledge (how science sees itself) to give it credence; bad. Also gets control completely wrong imo in conflating it with surrender (which in of itself is a v annoyingly straight-inflected word but *shrug*). I feel like I wouldn't have thought this when first reading it but now I can't unsee it; different times. This didn't really make an impact on me - I came back to finish it because I knew I had left it unread, but didn't remember parts I read before - and that perhaps speaks for itself. Also I just read Bean's Flogging which is so excellent and completely gets many of this things this book confuses. It's a 2. I'll give it a 3.

[NeroPerfetto · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very deep reflection on the meaning of ropes. An absolute must read for rope bottoms and riggers out there.

[Clara Ortí · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'll read it again, and again, and again

[Basak · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing and informative book for any rope bottoms and rope enthusiasts. Language of the book flows easily and very easy to understand.

[Hannah Parkes · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my go to and I come back to it time and again. For folks who have a hard time actually sitting in and feeling their bodies, this is a really good guide to doing so.