What is Embodiment?
Embodiment is inhabiting yourself more fully. But what does that actually mean?
Simply, it is the awareness or ability to sense what is happening in our mind and body – thoughts, sensations, images, concepts, emotions, energy. Some of what we sense is very tangible, like the physical sensation of sharp pain when you stub your pinky toe. Or it can be so subtle, like the faint tingle at the base of your spine when someone’s tone of voice arouses unconscious suspicion.
We’re all embodied to some degree and it’s shifting all the time. A natural ebb and flow of sensitivity. So, it’s helpful to think of embodiment as a continuum instead of an on/off switch.
The body and mind are interconnected with sensations in the body resulting in thoughts and vice versa. Like getting butterflies when you think of someone you love. It’s the way we are built, with our amazing nervous system weaving everything together.
What makes embodiment such a powerful and effective practice is that it works with both the mind and body. Trying to work with only one aspect of yourself often results in confusion and frustration.
Why Be Embodied?
You have an astounding amount of wisdom that is inherently part of you. You are literally walking around already holding so many of the answers you seek. And you can learn to access that knowledge through embodiment. This sounds like a pretty lofty claim, so bear with me as I explain.
Your mind and body are like a supercomputer, processing thousands of points of data every second, both internal and external - thoughts, sensations, emotions, concepts and energy. And you are blissfully unaware of most of it. Which is a good thing! Imagine if you had to think through each blink of your eyes. If you were sensitive of every little sensation of your being and had to consciously think through it, you would quickly become overwhelmed and shut down.
And the more data we process through our lives, the more our mind and body learns. Like the sensation of thirst meaning that you need to drink water. When I talk about the wisdom that is already a part of you, it is all this learning that you have done over your lifetime.
The human body is a well-honed machine, optimized to ensure your survival and safety. We instinctively act and think based on what we have experienced in the past. Like running away from a barking dog you feel will attack you or deciding not to speak up when someone is argumentative because it will lead to uncomfortable conflict.
And this works well to keep us safe, because it is based on what we have learned from previous experiences. So why would you change anything by trying to become more sensitive and embodied? Here are a few reasons.
Reason 1:
YOU WANT TO GET TO KNOW YOUR TRUE, AUTHENTIC SELF.
This feels like a massive, lifelong undertaking. And it is! But the pursuit of untangling my own values, purpose, pleasures and pains from all the noise of the external world has been what made me thrive.
At first it felt selfish and scary to be focusing on myself in such an intentional way. Now it feels like the best way to be the most loving, generous and kind person I can. And living this best version of myself feels so good! I’m not aiming for perfect and never will be. But I simply want to bring my best to the world.
Bringing your best self to the world with an embodiment practice sounds pretty conceptual and aspirational, so here is how I actually did it. The embodiment flow practice I do is my own mix of Michaela Boehm’s Non-Linear Movement Method and Jenna Ward’s Primal Feminine Flow practice. Through my embodiment flow practice, I learned to sense if something felt true or false, right or wrong. And slowly, from the safety of my mat, I started to feel into many of the beliefs I held. And was shocked at many of the answers that came up.
I realize the term “feel into” can sound flaky or woo-woo, so here is specifically what I mean. I would bring a certain belief to mind during my flow practice. And I would notice what sensations I could feel in my body, how my body wanted to move when I held that thought. If I was drawn towards or pushed away it. If I relaxed or tensed up. What other thoughts, memories or beliefs arose. If I felt energized or depleted. If I wanted to distract myself from doing the practice at all or anything else that came up.
And gently, over time I learned that I could discern what felt true and right for me. I then spent more time feeling these old and new beliefs that felt authentically me and learning what that felt like. And the more time I spent with my truths, the more familiar and comfortable they became. Conversely, beliefs that felt untrue were uncomfortable and I took the time to get familiar with what the feeling of a belief that isn’t me felt like.
Inevitably I started to bring this authenticity off my mat and into the world. I wasn’t a completely different person all of a sudden, but I was definitely evolving. And when I first began my flow practice, that evolution happened quickly! And it felt so much better to be living my own values and purpose. I think it is an intrinsic human experience to thrive when we are acting with integrity to ourselves and connecting authentically with others. And that was what I felt! Thriving. Of course, there was bumps and push back along the way, as there always is when you grow. But overall, it has been the best change I have made in my life.
Reason 2:
YOU DESIRE A RICHER, MORE FULFILLING LIFE.
The desire to experience life in a deeper, more fulfilling way is what drew me to embodiment and is still one of the biggest benefits it brings to my life. In my experience, there is immense value and satisfaction in being able to deeply experience the present moment. I felt like I had lost my spark and my daily embodiment practice is what helped bring it back. Before I was just having experiences without actually feeling much from the experiences. Which was like eating food without tasting anything. And it was leaving me feeling empty, even in a busy life full of objectively wonderful things.
Embodiment taught me the skill of being sensitive to sensations. And that is what allowed me to more fully experience my life. From mundane, day-to-day moments (which honestly is the majority of life) to once-in-a-lifetime peak moments, I was present. And this was my key to a richer, fulfilling life.
Reason 3:
YOU ARE NAVIGATING A NEW SEASON OF LIFE.
As you grow and evolve as a person, you are going to need new knowledge and skills you didn’t need in the past. This includes the sensations in your body. Maybe they are completely new sensations or sensations that you haven’t needed to feel and simply ignored, but now are very valuable. Growth also has a way of uncovering beliefs you may not realize you are carrying but are operating in the background of your subconscious. Those beliefs may be fueling your ability to grow or they may be limiting. They may be beliefs that served you will in the past but now you have outgrown.
When you know to expect these new sensations and beliefs to come up as you evolve, you are able to allow space to work with them, making this an integral part of your ability to grow as a person. Becoming familiar with these new sensations help you to stay true to yourself and guide you through new situations without becoming mentally overwhelmed by trying to use logic alone. You can strengthen beliefs that are true to you and empowering while also becoming aware and addressing beliefs that are not true to you or limiting.
Conversely, if you try and ignore the new sensations and beliefs, you can make growth so much more difficult and frustrating. Becoming overwhelmed by new sensations, unable to properly interpret their meaning or letting limiting beliefs hold you back without realizing why.
Taking the extra time and energy to use embodiment as a part of personal growth may seem to slow you down, but in my experience has been a much more empowering approach than being slowed down by becoming lost, overwhelmed, frustrated or fear.
Reason 4:
YOU ARE IGNORING SOMETHING IMPORTANT.
Somewhere along the way, you’ve probably learned to override or ignore an important piece of data your amazing body is trying to tell you. It could be because you were already dealing with enough and couldn’t handle any more (thank your body for keeping you safe and sane!). Or it could be because you were trying to replace the wisdom in a sensation or belief with logical thought or external direction.
For example, I had learned to ignore the tingle behind my eyes and heaviness in my stomach when I sensed someone wasn’t trustworthy, despite saying all the right things. If I couldn’t explain it logically, I didn’t act on my body’s warning, because I believed I couldn’t justify it. But my intuition is nearly always bang on. So, I have learned to be aware of my gut feeling and believe it is a justification entirely on its own.
In the case of being overwhelmed, it is useful to be able to filter out sensations and thoughts when you don’t have the bandwidth to deal with them. This is an amazing skill to keep yourself regulated and functioning. However, over time, these ignored sensations and thoughts can start to build up. And for me, everything would come bubbling up in an emotional meltdown when I couldn’t contain the backlog anymore.
Learning the skill of being aware and processing sensations, emotions and thoughts has meant I no longer feel trapped by a cycle of build up/ melt down. And when I do need to tuck something away to deal with later, it can come up on my mat during my flow practice. Which is much more graceful than a sudden meltdown at a random place or time.
I hope from these thoughts, experiences and examples you can see how embodiment can help bring more richness, ease, pleasure and contentment to life as well as help to navigate the more uncomfortable or painful parts of life with greater ease and safety. Both sides of this spectrum are incredibly valuable gifts that embodiment has brought to my life, often at the same time.
IS EMBODIMENT MORE PRODUCTIVE?
To be honest, sometimes it’s a lot easier to be more disembodied in a hyper-productive world where we’re rushing to get all the things done, now! It takes time and energy to deal with sensitivity to sensations and emotions and can seem counterproductive when you’re just focused on productivity.
Sometimes embodiment is productive and helps me get things done with amazing ease because I am able to use my instincts as well as logical thought to make decisions. Sometimes it is inconvenient, slows down progress or is downright unproductive when I take the time to feel and process instead of just barrel ahead.
I found that embracing embodiment required me to refocus my markers of success on more than just how productive I could be. Instead, embodiment allowed me to live an alive, fulfilling, deeply feeling life, aligned with my own intuition and values. Which turns out, felt way more successful that just getting more done.
WHAT IS STOPPING YOU FROM BEING EMBODIED?
Becoming sensitive to the sensations of life means becoming sensitive to the full spectrum of your feelings. This can be exquisite. It can also be challenging and painful. And even if the sensations are objectively pleasurable, if you aren’t used to them, you can become overwhelmed.
It’s a common response to disconnect from your internal world and become numb to avoid uncomfortable or overwhelming sensations and emotions. It’s a very natural response built into our nervous system to keep us safe.
Avoiding an uncomfortable or overwhelming sensation or emotions may seem like a great way of protecting yourself in the moment, and there are times when it is useful. But when you habitually numb out instead of becoming sensitive to your own internal world, I find things can take a turn for the worse.
Without connection to your own inner world, you can also lose connection with the ways your mind and body guide you to maintain your own values and direction. The emotions and sensations on both sides of the spectrum, pleasure and pain, hold so much valuable data. Maybe it’s an uncomfortable tightness in your chest or clenching of your jaw when something feels wrong to you, or how relaxed your posture feels around someone you can sense is trustworthy.
When I was disconnected from my body, I found I would lack integrity with myself, struggle to hold healthy boundaries, feel a sense of unworthiness or lack, didn’t know what my body needed and had trouble making decisions. I was relying on logic and external guidance to make decisions. And it wasn’t working.
Using your amazing mind to think through each situation you come across is helpful, but our brains can only do so much before becoming overwhelmed. When I have let my body help guide me through life, I am able to stay in integrity and make decisions with much more ease. For me this is a much healthier, easier way to live.
What’s wrong with not being embodied?
Without connection to my internal world, I felt a persistent, draining feeling of emptiness. I feel like this is a pretty common, and unpleasant, result of habitually numbing. So, many of us look to external sources, like food, alcohol, shopping, sex or scrolling, to fill the resulting feeling of emptiness. Quick hits of dopamine that I find fade quickly and make the feelings of emptiness worse.
Experiencing external sensations is not a bad thing, but your intention makes all the difference. Think of eating a piece of chocolate to fully experience the flavour or eating chocolate to try and numb out an uncomfortable emotion you do not want to feel. Or browsing through racks of clothes as a celebration of your beautiful body compared to shopping to distract yourself or to cover up what you feel is ugly or unworthy.
Embodiment has taught me the skill of feeling the sensations of my present moment with the intention of simply experiencing. And many of those are external sensations – taste, touch, sound, vision and scent. Being sensitive to the external world is just as important as sensitivity to your own internal world with the intrinsic value we derive from being present and aware of our life.
IS IT BETTER TO BE EMBODIED?
There is nothing wrong with you if you’re not 100% embodied all the time. I think very few of us are. Your level of embodiment will fluctuate with life’s ebbs and flows. It is natural and very healthy for you to shift awareness in response to your situation. If you are completing a task that requires a lot of mental concentration or reacting to an emergency that requires your body to run on pure instinct, you will adapt. The goal is to maintain an overall awareness of both your mind and body and not habitually block out one or the other.
WHAT IS FEMININE EMBODIMENT?
We all have aspects of both feminine and masculine within us. But in my own experience and from speaking with other women, many of us are living dominantly in our masculine - direct, doing, productive and logic. This feels unbalanced and we have a strong desire to reconnect and strengthen the feminine side of ourselves - feeling, flow, sensation and intuition.
Embodiment can give us the tools to balance these two sides of ourselves. Feminine embodiment, and the feminine embodiment coaching style I am certified in, puts emphasis on awareness and sensitivity of our feminine aspects. For me this is the perfect way to connect and thrive as a feminine woman.
And for someone who is more masculine, feminine embodiment coaching can provide a different perspective to navigate challenges that their normal approach may not be able to process.
CAN EMBODIMENT BE LEARNED?
So, if all of this sounds great and you want to feel more deeply, but never received the manual for your wild, chaotic body, what now? Embodiment is a learnable skill that is simple and available to all of us.
I like to think of embodiment like volume dials for my mind and body. Is the music of my mind blaring so loudly it’s impossible to hear my body? Or is the music of my body so quiet I don’t even realize it’s playing. I use the skill of embodiment to adjust those volume dials so I am able to hear both my mind and body. And then even go a little deeper so that my mind and body are playing together in harmony.
Most of us are familiar with the thoughts and images in our mind. Although it can be surprising when we take the time to deepen our awareness of our mind, to learn how much is passing us by unnoticed. This is the basis of the popular practice of mindfulness.
The language of our body is sensation. This is not a cognitive process. If you are more used to living in the realm of thoughts, learning to feel those sensations requires you to learn to pause and allow yourself to become sensitive to the emotions, sensations, intuition and energies that arise in your body.
Embodiment brings together awareness of the thoughts, concepts and images of the mind with the emotion, sensations, intuition and energies of the body. Allowing us to take advantage of a wide spectrum of valuable wisdom and insight. We are able to live more authentically and aligned with our own values and truth. And this brings a peace, flow and richness to life. Is it always pleasant, easy and comfortable? No. Are there times of dark emotions, doubts and pain? Yes. But is it deeply satisfying? Absolutely!
Want to chat with me to learn more about embodiment and feminine embodiment coaching?