Embodiment, in its most simple form, is inhabiting self; though, I like to view it as inhabiting the truest essence of self, so that the entirety of your essence can be permeated and felt from within, experienced through all of the senses and then expressed outside, laced into the entirety of the way you show up in the world, from the unique way in which you use your voice, the vision that you hold, the micro-behaviors and decisions you make daily and to the way in which you spend your free time. It’s like your unique blueprint, fully actualized.
Many schools of thought throughout society have taught us that divinity is something outside of ourselves; though my hope through the embodiment work that I do is to bring one back to the inner, innate knowing that divinity is, and has been, within all along. To experience the maximum capacity of embodiment is like soul meets body… heaven meets earth. To fully embody our essence takes us out of that drone-like state, operating numbly on autopilot and into a state of richness and expansiveness, so that we can truly be awake and alive throughout this human experience.
There is no such thing as a disembodied person, though I’m sure you have come across those who are either more or less connected to self, which shows that embodiment is experienced on a spectrum. If embodiment is experienced on a spectrum, and it occurs through and within the body, then sensitivity is also a key element contributing to the degree in which you experience embodiment. Sensitivity is the ability to discern and pick up on the subtle felt queues.
Sensitivity was taught to me in a really great way that I find to be a perfect example. Let’s say you are driving in your car, music blasting… a bit distracted, and you forget to put your seat belt on. Your car is giving you that annoying reminder, “Ding, ding, ding” signaling to put it on, but because the noise is so loud, you don’t hear it. Suddenly, the song stops, the car is radio-silent and you hear the ringing annoyingly loudly and put your seatbelt on. You see, sensitivity is the same… if we are distracted by the outside, external world and not tuned into what is going on within, we miss the subtle signals that our body is always giving us to keep us on track, to keep us in alignment with our truth.
To build the skill of sensitivity and to experience the max capacity of embodiment allows for you to live a life of flow, to discern what your truth is so that you can live a life of alignment, to dive deep into pleasure, with a sense of aliveness, but not shy away from pain, knowing that we are meant to experience it all. It allows for you to pick up on your body’s subtle felt queues when you are being asked, or requested of things so that you can set boundaries in the moment, and it allows for you to live a life with so, so much richness, awakening all of the felt senses.
If you have found yourself feeling disconnected to your essence and your body, then embodiment is for you. If you have found your emotions to be diluted, operating almost numbly through life, then embodiment is for you. If you have found yourself strayed from your path, yearning for more flow and alignment, then embodiment is for you. If you have found yourself exhausted, putting others’ needs before your own, dishonoring your boundaries, then embodiment is for you. If you have been feeling a pull to step into your grandest power, ready to magnetize that which desire, then embodiment is for you.
(Self study via: the work of Jenna Ward & Dr. Peter Levine)
