This June, I attended SYTAR, the Symposium on Yoga Therapy and Research. I met a woman named Bo Forbes – my new geeky neuroscience crush and hopefully a future mentor – and she talked about embodiment and disembodiment. Our ability to feel present sensations and ‘be in our body’.
It may sound kind of abstract and woo-woo – yet to the clients I meet with each week, this is real, tangible, concrete and NECESSARY practice. And her talk sounded a LOT like my TEDx Abstract I wrote this spring. We are kindred!
Being in the body transforms our immediate sense of self and our long term health outcomes.
In Bo’s talk, she confirmed with scientific research that being embodied changes many things on a physiological level. Slower breathing and heart rate, better heart rate variability and blood pressure dynamics, reducing pain and inflammation, reducing peripheral muscle tension, improving breath and organ functions.
Being in the body inherently brings on the Relaxation Response.
For many people, this can’t {yet} happen just with awareness in stillness or in meditation…we need movement in order to access our ‘state of being’.
Being disassociated, disconnected from the body flips the switch the other way – into the stress responses of fight-flight-freeze. Our embodiment (or lack thereof) directly hijacks into our autonomic nervous system.
She went so far as to say that being ‘disembodied’ is in itself a form of trauma.
Are you in a state of trauma or ease today?
Can you flip the switch?
Be present with how your body feels for the next few moments. Do some movement and feel, or just sit and notice. Sensations, posture, breathing…return to yourself. Fully. Embodied.
From my TEDx abstract:
We have a body, We are a body, and We transcend this body.
How can we more fully inhabit our body, utilizing the full wisdom of awareness, embodied movement and direct, personal experience – and how might that change our outlook, life, world?
Movement {with awareness} is so powerful.
Another way of looking at this? Can we quiet our monkey minds long enough in order to have an experience within our own body? Franklin Method and other embodied movement practices require us to learn this skill, and reward us richly.
Our practices and habits literally can change our physiology, our brain structure, our thought patterns. Many people get stuck wanting change but never taking action. Trust me when I say that most of the time, simply thinking about something won’t bring about the results or changed experience we desire. MOVE your body and I am willing to guarantee that in time, you’ll move your way into the new body, comfort, health and life you desire.
Your turn: What does being embodied mean to you? Or How do you practice being embodied?
Move your body, today friends!
Cheri
