What Does Embodiment Mean to You? Exploring the Concept in Somatic Therapy
So many times i have been asked - What does Embodiment mean to you…and so many times, my responses have been…well, different.
Depending on my frame of mind, depending on my connection to Self and/or Spirit and depending on how my connection to my body felt at the time!
The essence of my response though, seems to remain…
Asking myself this time around, What is embodiment mean to me?
Embodiment is the aligned integration of what my soul wants, desires with how I speak, walk and move throughout my life in alignment with those authentic wants and needs. It’s the total unity of mind, body and soul moving in alignment with my Self. To be embodied asks you to hold a sense of awareness, of truth, of gentleness and grace. Its not about perfection, its not about striving….there is a truth to it, and whilst not easssyyy there is an ease to be found when you let go of the striving, feel what wants to be felt through you and I picture it as though I find myself in a space where i can kind of sit back, observe and align myself with the pieces that feel right for me right now!
I am a believer that we move through seasons of how ‘aware’ one is as life tends to send us seasons of softness, of pain, of joy and everything in between but when one is embodied, it is a practice that remains! It helps us stay present as we consider our whole being during our moment to moment experience (again speaking to body, heart, mind)!
In practice, can you experience softness as it is truly presented to you? In the moment? With presence? Can you feel it in your body? Can you allow it to speak to your soul? Can you allow your mind to melt into the presence softness calls you to?
To me, this is the same with any emotion, feeling or sensation (say pain, anger, grief?) I know, i know - embody anger you say?? Yet, anger is an expression of the energy around or within you and ultimately, life will not go by without it…the contrast to our joy, can you be present with the anger you currently feel? Can you sit with it without judgement? Without fighting it for a different experience? Like it belongs? Can you allow your soul to open up to it and experience what it truly feels like to it (you)? Can you breath into what it feels right now? The miracle of such a practice I have found is that there is always more gold to be found!
To embody an experience, to me, is the ultimate flow ❤️ I live to embody my experience in each moment as it stands before and within me….taste each moment with exquisite presence….
My journey to feeling embodied started with a journey inward, meeting myself (and Self), challenging belief, conditions, patterns and all the things! I am by no means ‘done’ and you know what, we are always discovering aspects of ourselves (and that actually becomes part of the joyful aspect of reaching within! Let’s save that for another blog post!)
My point here is that it started with getting to know myself, what i felt, believed, what my soul yearned for and….listening. A LOT of listening through meditation, journaling, expressive dance and so on 😊
After that, there was a period of okay what now-ness! Inwardly I felt connected but what then? How do I integrate how I felt inside into an outward action? Here is where I needed support and I had the opportunity of working with an amazing human for guidance! Whether its a counselor who gets it or a mentor, you may benefit from that guidance and that felt sense of someone believing in you and, well, having your back as it can be challenging at times to not revert to how life was before!
As I found myself practicing saying yes to my soul, I also integrated, through my studies and personal practice, methods to welcome by body into the process of embodiment and my spiritual practice melded with a grounded sense of being - being in my body, connected to my spirit/heart and welcoming of the mind….I could walk the path to where i felt I wanted to go in each moment.
What am I talking about still you ask? I’m talking about saying yes! Yes to the body awareness practices through self inquiry above but also dancing your ass off, listening to your body when it wants to make loud noises, pushing that floor away in childs pose if thats what you need to do, hitting that pillow, and shedding tears! At the end in clarified stillness, can you sense it all coming home in your body? All in the name of embodying (expressing) and releasing whatever was being felt that you potentially didn’t even know was in there? Yes, friend, that is embodiment too!
Learning how to appreciate the importance of all these aspects and integrate all these pieces of the puzzle is what embodiment means to me now…and the best part? I find myself living in alignment with my soul (heart, Spirit - insert what aligns most for you <3)
So how does Embodiment play a role in my work as a counselor?
I genuinely believe that when we place too much emphasis on talk therapy in mental health, we forget that the body is also a place to process emotions without words, especially when you’ve talked enough. In addition to this, your soul may yearn for things that your mind doesn't know how to express yet…self inquiry and your body can show you the way!
In a session we play with the concept that mental states and processes have a physical root in the body, and that our perceptions of the world are shaped by the way we experience the world through our bodies. That your soul speaks to you in imagery, symbols, metaphors and more….if only we take the time to listen….and integrate <3
Together we work to understand:
What it feels like for you in your body to feel?
Acceptance - Radical acceptance for what is there and the practice of saying Yes
How you can move with your personal experience and safely digest it
How you can ask yourself, as the ultimate knower, how you wish to move through life
How to align with your deepest core
On a practical level, move through challenges that you feel are in your way to living an embodied and life that is aligned with your authentic self
As you can see, through embodiment we are coming back to our whole selves. Not just spirit (ascension biased spiritual practices), not just our physicality and not just our mind.
Embodiment to me, is a coming home and being present to the body, mind and soul. Feeling into each experience fully. With all of our senses.
