The Value of being Embodied

Embodiment has become a bit of cliche, like 'trauma-informed care' and 'mindfulness'.

As I am writing a workshop on embodiment, I am getting to reflect on embodiment and what it really means on the ground, whilst also being informed by my favorite voices, Peter Levine, Tara Brach, John Kabat-Zinn and others, where I go to for solace and CPD 2-in-1, usually on my drives to work. 

A bit like mindfulness, hardly anyone goes through their day being constantly mindful; Sometimes we want to zone out by browsing reels on Instagram whilst eating a sandwich. Other times, we want to be quiet and check in with what is there, and decide what we need based on turning to what we find with compassion. I find that compassion is the key to embodiment. For me, the main practice is to be curious and non-judgmental about what is, turning to sensation, emotion, state or even stream of thoughts with curiosity and kindness. If we don't do that, we live on the surface of life, we don't live fully, we just survive, and at times we make poor choices that harm us rather than serve us. 

Sometimes what we find in our enquiry is not all that pleasant; it may be one of those feelings we don't like, like jealousy, anger, rage, our own narcissism and grandiosity, or a relational wound that cannot be healed and we would rather not know it is there. These are the parts that need us the most. As humans walking this earth, we are empowered by this deep knowing, even if the power we have is to accept and to grieve rather than to change. Embodiment impacts our experience of life and our relationships; it impacts every aspect of our being. As I am writing I hear Mary Oliver's Wild Geese in my mind, 'You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves'.

Embodiment is about fully inhabiting your skin so that thoughts, actions, feelings and intentions find a cohesive expression through the body. It is staying present internally while experiencing life. Embodiment is the opposite of dissociation, which comes from overwhelm, stress and trauma. We become disembodied to avoid negative experiences and compartmentalise ourselves to separate from what we dislike. When we are present in our own skin, we can feel and respond in coherent ways by staying connected to our own locus of integrity, what is true in our heart and mind; it provides pathways for that expression so that emotions, experiences and responses are not stifled and truncated.

Cultivating an embodied presence for ourselves as therapists allows us to tune in to ourselves and the other, to be fully there in body and spirit, empathise deeply, give words to the unspoken, so we can understand the story underneath the words. 

We also support our clients in becoming embodied themselves and connected to their own truth, and respecting their boundaries.

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