Why Embodiment Changes Everything

When I lived in Washington, DC in my 20s I started going to yoga classes a few evenings a week after work. Transitioning away from running a ton, which wasn't working for my body anymore, I begrudgingly tried yoga – the more rigorous and sweaty the better. 

And at first, yoga was really just an extension of the way I was in the habit of overriding my body's cues in general. Constantly pushing, forcing it to do more. Dismissing movement as not “counting” unless intensity was high. Being more concerned with how advanced poses looked from the outside than with how they felt in my body. 

But looking back, I see how potent those early years were as the gateway into this path of embodiment and whole-being integration. 

Without consciously understanding how powerful it was at the time, yoga offered me my first felt-sense glimpses of the practice of turning inward and starting to get to know my inner landscape – sensations, feelings, needs, urges, vibrations. It planted the first seedlings of expanding my capacity to be with a fuller range of the spectrum of inner experience. 

These are the foundational elements of embodiment. 

And embodiment really changes everything. 

Once we're able to open space in a friendly, welcoming way for whatever's happening within ourselves in a given moment, our life experience shifts in profound ways. 

Reconnecting to our bodies is the foundation of all else that wants to open up to us on our spiritual or personal growth path. 

All the juiciness of life starts to flow more organically once we're back in touch – or, for many of us, get in touch for the first time – with the felt sense of aliveness, of life force, coursing through our body. 

So this week as you're out moving through your days, you might gently tune in to notice moments when you do feel “in your body”.

When you're able, pause to really soak those moments in.

Consciously notice what those moments of embodied presence feel like.

The more we pause and take note, the more those glimpses of embodiment accumulate to become our default way of being over time. 

Lots of Love,

Melissa

PS - If you’re curious about exploring these themes in a sweetly personalized way, be in touch about 1:1 coaching possibilities.