Why Embodiment?
What we notice, what reaches out and grabs our attention, what resonates deep in our bones: these reveal things about our world, and they also reveal subtle aspects of our individual, unique perspectives. What I am drawn to, what I love, the moves I make again and again, are all movements toward more of who I am.
In studying depth psychology over the last several years, these "noticings" became more prominent for me, and I began to attune to the subtle language of the body. I discovered the practices of close reading and embodied writing—keywords would jump out at me as though worlds unto themselves. These keywords, like symbolic images, gave me a strong sense of resonance. I would feel the words through some sort of embodied response, revealing a deep meaning beyond the words alone. Through embodied writing, I would use this sense of resonance alongside curiosity to guide my work. The topic of embodiment became the most salient thing for me to write about in my classes, and I could relate it to almost any subject. Each class built upon the last, culminating in the drive to integrate these experiences, but also to go further and excavate more of what might be discovered. In that, it felt like this topic was asking me to tell its story. My dissertation focused on how we know through the body, especially through proprioception in its psychological sense. I titled it The Poetry of the Body Within: How Proprioception Informs Embodied Knowing in Depth Psychology. I learned a great deal about embodiment as well as myself. Now I’d love to share such experiences with the world.
It’s not hard to envision, as I type and stare at a screen, how electrified and computerized, how visually and mentally focused, life is right now. It’s not meant as a critique but rather simply stating the way of things, what simply is. But there’s been movement toward enhancing our more right-brained experience—the non-verbal side, what lives beyond the mental/intellectual/rational ways of being. Like seeking a yoga, tai chi, or meditation practice, or the emerging field of interoception, alongside the brilliant work around trauma-informed modalities or treatments of trauma, the body is our essential vessel and it wants to be heard.
Seeking and understanding the body’s expression, especially in its more subtle language, can bring out more of who we are as individuals. Embodiment, or our awareness of the complex systems of the body and how they communicate—essentially, what we notice through the body—can bring a depth of experience to our everyday reality. How we know, learn, and perceive through the various sensory avenues of the body, including verbal and mental, makes up our total knowledge; all knowledge is necessarily embodied. Yet we so often focus on our most readily accessible channels of awareness. Listening to and feeling into our subtler ways of knowing can bring a deeper understanding of ourselves, like emotions, instincts, imagination, and sensation, or a natural synesthesia—a co-mingling of the senses. Tapping into our complex sensory system can be like tapping a well of creativity.
In Creative Embodiment Workshops I include experiential activities that provide an outlet for all our ways of knowing, embodied and relational, with ourselves and with others. Through guided imaginal and breathing exercises, embodied writing responses, working with air-dry clay, and subtle movement, the 6-module experiential-educational workshop is designed spark a deeper ongoing dialogue with one’s own sense of embodiment.
Please join me for this unique and creative experience, or pass it along to someone you know who might be interested or inspired.
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