What is embodiment? We came across this mindfulness concept through the wise and magical aesthetician-slash-healer, Sadie Adams, founder of celeb-adored Take Care Mind + Body. Essentially, embodiment meditation is an internally generated performance-enhancing drug.
According to Sadie, "We tend to pay more attention to the information in our heads than the information in our bodies. Embodiment meditation is a practice to learn the language of the body and to translate that information to a language our brains better understand."
Embodiment is a mindful state or way of being that emboldens intuition and amplifies our consciousness - a heightened way of perceiving our own sensory experiences. The practice helps us to tap into all the information coded into our nervous systems through years of experience and stimuli. Though it may be a crossover into the more spiritual side of wellness, embodiment's impact is very physical, visceral and impactful.
Curious to dive deep, we asked Sadie to share some insights on her own practice and experience as a facilitator. Discover the depth of mindfulness embodiment mediation can offer, and how to start integrating this practice into your daily life...
What is Embodiment?
To help break down the concept, Sadie directed us to Liam McAuliffe, a healer and meditation expert and has a masters in psychology. This is his explanation of embodiment:
In embodiment meditation, we apply meditative focus to specific physiological sensations, locations, and processes in our bodies. This allows us to cultivate and refine an interface between our cognitive and physiological awarenesses that’s more comprehensive than if we were to exclusively focus on the breath or recite mantras as is done in traditional practices.
Mindfulness breath practice is aimed at understanding the nature of the mind and reducing our emotional reactivity to our thoughts. The goal of mantra practice is to interrupt our habitual thought patterns while activating subtle energy centers. Though both can produce powerful physical sensations, the difference between the embodiment and these meditative practices is in the way embodiment meditation relocates the area of meditative focus from the processes of the mind to the interface between our minds and bodies.
What Is Embodiment Really About?Embodiment is about becoming more deeply present and aware of sensory information. All of the feelings that influence our thinking and physical actions are stored in our bodies. As such, our bodies contain an innate intelligence that is often out of reach to our surface consciousness.
We tend to pay more attention to the information in our heads than the information in our bodies. Embodiment meditation is a practice to learn the language of the body and to translate that information to a language our brains better understand. Embodiment deepens our capacity for presence, receptivity, and compassionate exchange with all of reality.
How Does Embodiment Enhance Mindfulness?Embodiment helps us tap into the nuanced sensory experience of living in our bodies. It helps us distinguish the difference between our defenses and the true, unadulterated essence of our identity.
We have patterns and we have preferences, and everything we do enhances our personality and sense of self -- modern society encourages identification with these qualities and influences. It dilutes the connection we have to our own intuition. What happens if we step outside of the roles - and traumas - we identify with, and just allow those things to be part of our evolving, or processing?
Embodiment is like giving a container to ourselves to have an experience of ourselves. We're so identified with our personality. By creating space to explore how we exist in the world and in our bodies, we tap more deeply into the current moment and experience a sense of autonomy in exploring it. It is the purest form of presence.
How Can It Help Us Process Trauma?
We get so attached to our coping mechanisms, to the point that sometimes we block ourselves off completely from accessing the root of our pain. But if we can get into the place where not just reacting to that raw vulnerability, but becoming aware of how it is represented in our physical body then we can actually begin processing trauma without having to talk about it.
Embodiement allows us to sit in meditation where we're actually allowing some of that emotional intensity to process out of the nervous system -- literally move through the synaptic space, arrive at our conscious awareness and, when faced without the defense of fear, eventually fall away. The body starts to become more able to be present, and the influence of trauma is revealed without threat so we're able to approach it and actually deal.
Mindfulness is all about learning to sit comfortably with yourself as sensations rise and fall away. Because of trauma, our capacity becomes limited - the body can only feel certain sensations. Embodiment can increase our capacity to be sensitive but also grounded, so we're not getting lost in the sensitivity to those traumas.
How Can It Ease Stress + Anxiety?A lot of stress and anxiety comes from not being present, from the influence of unprocessed thoughts, feelings and emotions, and from the possibility of loss. So many people are stressed out about being safe when the reality of the situation is we can't ever really be totally 'safe'. When we become grounded then we're able to leverage the higher intellect and consciousness - it can come through and actually override some of these fear-based principles that are running the show.
What Does It Feel To Be 'Embodied'?It's like a knowing, like a lack of needing, like a consciousness of the moment experienced from the part of self that doesn't need to be validated to be real and transformative. The energetic quality of embodiment is calm and comprehensive. It feels peaceful, even when we feel vulnerable or out of control. There's not a right or wrong way to do it.
It changed the way that I work. It changed the way that I moved. It changed the way that I communicated movement. It changed the way that I related to my loved ones. It changed the way I related to myself and gravity and space, my healing process, bless you, and again, how I learn and integrate information because I was doing it from my intellect before. It wasn't right or wrong and there was nothing wrong with that process. It's just that there was so much more available otherwise. Even if you think you know yourself really well there's always more information to perceive and more work to explore.
Just like meditation, anyone can choose to become more embodied, but to learn more about embodiment
meditation, find Sadie and her studio practice. Join a meditation practice with Sadie here.
The post In My Skin: UNPACKING THE POTENT PRACTICE OF EMBODIMENT MEDITATION appeared first on The Chalkboard.
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