What is Embodiment?
Words like “somatics” and “embodiment” crop up as buzz words in the conversation about Nervous System regulation and healing from trauma. “Embodiment” was also my word of the year for 2020 and 2021 (following years of dysregulation and disembodiment)! Here’s my take.
Embodiment entails a sense of groundedness and the type of knowing that’s not bound to the realms of intellect or theory; the type of gnosis that only experience can provide. It relies on a sense of presence and of a desire to surrender to the dynamic nature of our changing reality, as our bodies express those changes through the language of sensation. This means becoming a keen observer of the ways in which thoughts, emotions, and physical sensation impact the internal experience that we have of ourselves (and the broader context) moment by moment. It also implies that the healing work we access be fully integrated into our physical reality where it can be of most use to us!
Discussing embodiment also begs for an understanding of the greater historical context. Why is this concept emerging with such enthusiasm right now?! Rene Descartes was a French philosopher responsible for introducing the concept of mind-body dualism (which is sometimes called the Cartesian split). This cultural phenomenon created a separation between the thinking mind and the feeling body, which enabled each to be studied with greater acuity.
Certain philosophers and scholars who have studied the Tantric traditions of India have proposed a “non-dual” reality, on the other hand. My teacher Christopher Hareesh Wallis said “the mind is the least dense aspect of the body and the body is the most dense aspect of the mind” to indicate a continuity that exists between the two. To be embodied means to access each of the successively more subtle layers of the reality that we live as humans (physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual) through the medium of the most dense aspect – the body. By bringing each of these subtler layers to land in the body, we’re able to see maximum benefits in our external reality, which is of a similar level of density!
Here’s how you can practice embodiment:
Discover a sensation in your body and assign characteristics to it. Use plenty of adjectives to describe its color, shape, size, texture, temperature, location, surface characteristics, etc. Continue to observe this sensation until it changes while attempting not to overlay thoughts/judgments on the experience.
Get adjusted! Chiropractic care enhances proprioception. Proprioception is a fancy word for knowing where your body is in space and understanding your body’s relationship to its environment. It does this by stimulating the Nervous System through intelligent touch. Did you know your skin shares the same embryological origin as your Nervous System? This is one reason bodywork/skilled touch can be so transformative.