Frequently Asked Questions
What is Embodiment?
Embodiment allows to you to learn the language of the body. In turn your body can inform and contain your presence and sense of self, becoming more aware of itself without needing thought as a guide.
Wisdom of the Body
All feelings that influence our thinking and physical actions are stored in our physical bodies. Our bodies contain an innate intelligence that is often times out of reach to our conscious mind. Through embodiment, the brain is the last to know, allowing space and expansiveness without intrusive thought or patterned/learned ways of thinking getting in the way.
Why should you embody?
Embodiment supports the integration of the body and mind, thus allowing presence, emboldening intuition and ultimately amplifying our consciousness.
By solely identifying with our sensory experience and personality (something society often chooses or concocts for us), we diminish the connection we have to our intuition and higher sense of self. Embodying allows us to tap more deeply into authenticity and what is arising in the present moment, rather than reacting (whether cognitively and/or physically) to our past.
What does this have to do with trauma?
Embodiment can provoke the physical body to begin processing trauma without needing to talk about it.
Throughout our lives, our body learns to only feel certain sensations as a way to protect itself from repeating traumatic events, thoughts or feelings. When trauma and unprocessed emotions remain stagnant, it becomes very difficult to become present in our physical being, as hard as we may try to cognitively work through them.
The practice of embodiment allows us to feel safer, no longer by way of external forces (talking, others in our orbit, experiences or material objects) but rather by grounding in our feet and our physical being without having to cognitively reason the safety. The influence of trauma on our daily lives, whether in a felt sense or cognitively, is revealed without threat so the ability to approach and understand it with compassion and curiosity becomes infinitely available.
What about traditional meditation or talk therapy?
Traditional meditation and cognitive behavioral therapy techniques often pay more attention to the information in our heads than the information in our bodies.
Embodiment is more comprehensive when compared to exclusively focusing on the breath or reciting mantras, too, although all of these methods are valuable in their own right.
What does it feel like?
As the name suggests, embodiment is a very physical, visceral and real experience. (There will be no denying it once you feel it.)
The physical sense of calm will be followed by a knowing and peaceful comprehension that sticks.
After practicing embodiment, you will notice a reduction in your emotional reactivity to your thoughts. You may feel less controlled by your cognitive perception of things, and more grounded in your senses of self, your bodies and in present moments.
Embodiment feels like a knowing, with a lack of needing. It is a sense of self that doesn’t need to be validated in order to be real and affective.
How do I embody?
You’ve come to the right place. While there is no truer guide than yourself, we are here to provide you with some tools to get started.
Classes at Ritual Moves use meditative focus to bring awareness to specific physiological sensations, locations, and processes in our bodies.
The only essential role to embodiment is a sense of curiosity in your body’s messages.
Resist the urge to fight your bodies natural processes (shaking/crying/restriction/untethered feelings), and rather embrace and grow curious about its innate wisdom and what it may be trying to communicate.