Embodiment can be understood in different ways and the word is used differently in different contexts.
However, before going on, i'd like to echo teacher and champion of embodiment, Mark Walsh, and say, athleticism does not equal embodiment (for more on embodiment misconceptions, check here).
A certain level of control over the body, kineasethic ability or proprioception (handstands or advance yoga postures) does not automatically make one 'embodied'.
In fact, it can lead to the opposite: disembodiment. What do I mean here?
Well, one can have a tremendous degree of control and proficiency over the physical body, or even 'bodily intelligence', yet at the same time be numb to the processes of and within the body: one lacks an intimacy with the physical body.
So, how might we then understand embodiment?
For me, it best describes a certain level of awareness actually inhabiting (being-in) the body; or even an awareness of the physical body being an integral part of who we are.
That means how we use the body is a reflection of who we are. How we use the body consciously also has the ability to shape who we are.
So, call it an 'inner sensibility', which then allows us to experience life within and through the body.
An abstract concept, I know. But remember, embodiment isn't cognitive, it's bodily. It is known better through practice rather than theory.
Another way embodiment is currently used and understood is a result of a practice.
Yet, I invite you to reflect on whatever embodiment practices you do, with the above in mind, and ask:
"To what degree and in which ways is this practice allowing me to inhabit my body deeper?"
"Is this practice truly cultivating an inner sensibility to my human condition?"
I've had to ask myself this quite candidly, and still do today with regard to several practices I may have wrongly understood as embodiment.
However, every embodiment practice allows us to experience embodiment in different ways - or even cultivate a unique kind of embodiment. Here lies another space for inquiry:
"What quality am I embodying / cultivating through continuing this practice?"
Mark Walsh offers a great model of using the 'four elements' to reflect on this, although I leave diving into that for separate post.
But to touch on it, I will share that, after noticing my prior yoga practice may have in fact been reinforcing a certain well-established aspect of my personality (call it 'Earth' element: rigid, structured, grounded, stable), I decided to explore new territories... (for better or worse).
With awareness of our bodies, we may better know ourselves, we may shape our character more fortuitously, and be better guided by our bodies, hearing more clearly the ways in which our intuition speaks to us.
With love, Fred
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