Embodied self-awareness takes life from black and white to technicolour. We need embodiment to live life as beautifully as possible.
Don’t wait for tomorrow to experience an abundant life. The power of embodied self-awareness is here in the present moment and on terra firma.
My process towards embodied self-awareness is in the ‘intentional development’ stage. Embodiment language still feels new and different to me. It’s as if I am going through a closet of clothes I know are mine, but they need tailoring and styling to feel right.
My embodiment system got interrupted in infancy, thanks to a challenging home environment. I have been learning how to be in my body. Grasping what embodiment is has been uncomfortable yet transformative.
Digging deeper
Recently, it’s become more important to practice embodiment than ever before. Why?
I don’t want the rest of my life to feel like the first fifty-two
It’s time for me to be at a higher level of enjoyment
To help me use all my gifts and skills for the betterment of humanity
Being cut off from embodied self-awareness can start at any time.
For many, it is something which happens at birth, when we have not been able to attach securely to our caregivers. The separation from our bodies can occur at any point in life. Contributing factors might also be trauma, neurological damage, or consistent dysregulation.
However, a break in embodiment does not spell catastrophe. Life can be quite ok with conceptual self-awareness. The world is full of high-functioning, conceptually self-aware people.
Why we like conceptual self-awareness
Conceptual self-awareness gives us many perks. It helps us think well, be practical, take action, and feel in control. Conceptual self-awareness is essential for being a productive, functional human being.
But, a lack of embodied self-awareness can lead to many issues in life. We see the outcomes of non-embodiment everywhere in our world. It shows up as pain, confusion, inhumanity, judgment, disconnection, burnout, and ill health.
The industrial, academic, process-driven world has us well-trained. We can put on a good show for quite a while! Until we can’t.
This dualism will burn us out, even with its strengths.
The oxymoron of dualism
After all, our heads do not function when severed from our body. What makes us believe we can separate the two metaphorically? How do you know if you are living in conceptual self-awareness?
For me, it’s like ‘something is missing’ and there is a sense of dread and loneliness. I also tend to get stuck and the same problems keep occurring. Then I become a try-hard.
It’s way too exhausting to live this way. Everything might look ok on the surface, but dig a little and you find a stinker.
This is what makes it critical to let embodied self-awareness have the stage.
By now, you might be wondering about embodied self-awareness and what it is anyway.
Here’s the definition
Embodied self-awareness is the experiencing of self, based on sensing, feeling and acting. It is being in the subjective, emotional present and being able to feel one’s emotions without judgment or trying to escape. Embodied self-awareness is spontaneous, curious, creative, and open to change. It is also concrete, grounded and connected. Embodied self-awareness is living in the present moment, and is slow and deliberate.
While it sounds like a lot, it’s not as hard to get there as you might think.
Anyone can have embodied self-awareness because it is hard-wired into us. We only need to learn how to re-access it.
The re-access process
First, have a compassionate witness. This is someone who supports you in the cultivation of embodied self-awareness. The compassionate witness can be an outside trusted person or it can be yourself.
If you can be a good friend to someone else, you can be a compassionate witness to yourself. Witnessing requires patience, attention, curiosity and kindness.
For bigger issues or stubborn patterns, find a somatic professional to support you. Don’t rely on your skills for the difficult experiences of life — get support!
Secondly, create healthy conditions for proprioception, interoception, and exteroception to function. This is simply done by asking yourself some key questions each day.
Here’s what you can ask yourself to move yourself toward embodied self-awareness:
Proprioception: How I am holding myself? How is my posture? How’s the felt sense of my body in relation to others, objects, or the space outside of myself?
Interoception: How I am feeling? What am I sensing right now? What am I sensing or feeling inside my body that pertains to a need or want?
Exteroception: What I am noticing outside of myself? How is the world (others and objects) meeting me? What am I sensing and feeling from outside myself?
Before asking these questions, enter into a gentle state of mindfulness (settled awareness). These questions are a great exercise to do before you engage in the day or before you go to bed.
The more you can engage in this process, the easier it is to be in embodiment.
The most difficult part is trusting the process. If we over-rely on our thinking brain, then it is hard to trust the embodiment process. Stay in it and embrace the discomfort!
Here’s what you can expect when accessing embodied self-awareness:
The compassionate witness supports co-regulation through their own embodied self-awareness. We learn to resource ourselves. We reconnect to others, objects, space, the present, and nature. We enjoy simple, wholesome, non-addictive pleasures.
We can slow down time and allow what wants to emerge to emerge. From there, we can take healing and productive next steps and action.
We can verbalize an inner experience, our desires, wants, intentions, and needs. Words give us the path to bring alive that which was hidden.
We can be in closeness while being separate from others. We will discover playfulness in connection while being able to have healthy boundaries. Relationships become more satisfying and have a deeper, more wholesome quality to them.
We can self-regulate. The sense of what we need and the actions of taking care of ourselves becomes easy. We have confidence, know our needs and become able to meet those needs without distress
We have the desire to reengage with others and be in a relationship with them. Cynicism melts away.
We can release and let go of pain, rigidity, and other neurological safety mechanisms. The biology is at ease.
This list is outcomes is powerful. Imagine what possibilities there are when you have a well-regulated, happy nervous system.
I hope you found this article somatically supportive and if so, please share it with someone you care about. No one should feel alone in the struggle of being a human!
You can also click HERE to get even more embodiment support in your inbox.
Comments