What is Embodiment?

Embodiment is a term that has become popular in wellness, mental health, and spiritual spaces.

Because it is such a central part of my work, I want to share what it means to me, in both my personal experience and in my coaching practice.

On the level of Body, embodiment means to be connected to the body in real time, moment to moment.

I can feel my hunger, desire, my mood and emotional landscape. I am not shutting down or suppressing the natural aliveness of my mind & body.

This is important because our cultural norm is actually disembodiment. To suppress, disconnect from, and override the body’s innate cues.

We do this in order to get work done at a high demand.

We do this in order to find some level of safety in emotionally turbulent relationships.

We do this to maintain a level of peace in the midst of overwhelm and fear.

Our disembodiment actually carries a wisdom to it.

In fact, it’s often happening subconsciously, and of the body’s doing (quite the paradox!!).

I share this because blame is not helpful here. It only keeps us stuck in our minds.

There is no right or wrong way to be.

Disconnecting from our bodies can be a wise response when our systems feel unsafe and overwhelmed.

And coming more into our bodies is something we can do gently and with care, knowing that we will likely encounter discomfort, fears, and emotional intensity we hadn’t had the resources to feel before.

So why reconnect?

Why go on this journey of moving towards what we once turned away from?

Well, your reasons will be your own. But from my perspective, reconnecting with the moment to moment aliveness of my body has brought me the deepest and simplest fulfillment I could imagine. 

It’s as if the whole purpose of this life is actually to feel it, to go through the emotional highs and lows, the fears and overcoming. Because when we go on this journey we grow. We grow closer to ourselves and to those closest to us. We grow closer to the sky and to the trees. We grow closer to our own hearts. We grow closer to some sense of meaning and purpose here.

Simply put, embodiment is why we’re here. 

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On another level, embodiment means to live out what we believe and value. To welcome ourselves to be transformed by what actually matters to us.

To take our conceptual experience and to be it. To move from ideas to action.

For example, if I feel strongly that communication is important to me, to embody this would be to look at the areas of my life where I am afraid of speaking. To see where I have accepted a pattern of dismissal, and to, at my own pace, begin to lean in. To allow the fears that arise to be held and tended to while I move in the direction of communication.

Embodiment in this sense is vulnerable. (well it always is)

It's like walking on the edge of discovery and becoming…

This is why my coaching work includes values clarification.

We all have inside of us a goldmine of wisdom and vitality. When we tap into what is inside of us, and let it transform our outer layers, we come into what I believe is true authenticity and to our greatest sense of fulfillment. 

Put another way:

“If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you; if you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.” –Gospel of Thomas

Embodiment is so central to my life and my work.

I want to support more authenticity, healing, and right relationship with life rather than the suppression and overriding of our aliveness.  

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If you want to begin practicing embodiment, you can begin right now.

In fact, it always begins right. now. 

What happens when you pause, breathe, and notice the aliveness that’s right here in you?

A subtle whisper of sensation. 

Shoulders relaxing.

Hand on your belly.

A sigh.

Oh, maybe you have to pee.

Go pee, my friend.

Let it be so connected…