Your body is a gateway, a bridge between the energetic and cosmic nature of being human and the gritty reality of flesh and bone.

Unfortunately, most of what we were modeled growing up leads us to relate with our bodies as mere machines or, at best, vessels for our consciousness.

But there is so much more to our bodies.

As we continue to evolve and explore our inner and outer realms, I find the the idea of Embodiment to be increasingly relevant to our collective evolution.

Embodiment is a combination of a few words. “Em” refers to “being in a certain state,” or “to be in something.” “Body” of course refers to our physical form and structure. While “Ment” refers to the result of something previous.

All together we can see that Embodiment is the result of “being in within our phsyical structure.” In perhaps simplier terms, living through the inner world of our bodies.

How does this relate to our daily lives?

When we think about it, it is through our physical bodies that we experience everything. Even what we perceive as thoughts are simply electrical impulses run through a highly intricate network of nerves, fascia, and brain matter.

All too often, our attention is so focused on the external world that our inner experience is set aside, either being viewed as inconsequential or considered to be simply an experience of imagination and the digestion from our last meal.

When we consider that our bodies are more than just mechanical machines, that they, in fact, have their own intelligence, guidance, and memories, we can see how our bodies are much more than a jumble of flesh, fluid, and carbon.

Instead of an inconvenience, we can begin to learn how to utilize our body, and its wisdom.

A big aspect of Embodiment practices and awareness is the understanding that our bodies remember, everything.

It is often from emotions and sensations held in the body that haven’t been fully felt, processed, and integrated that we experience the disease, limiting beliefs, and other challenges of our human experience.

This has a lot of ramifications to how we understand trauma and unconscious patterns, and how to create more ownership of our experience.

Sadly, we live in a culture that seems more to demand the stoic approach.

For both men and women, in perhaps different ways, the expression of emotion is often viewed in our modern culture as being unwelcome, crass, and is often even viewed as being uncivilized.

Instead of naturally releasing our emotions, we tend to hold onto them. This often creates disease in the body, tensions in our muscles, and form much of the neurosis, doubts, addictions, and uncertainty that plague our daily lives.

The challenge for many of us is how the paths between our conscious minds and our unconscious body wisdom have for years, perhaps decades, been neglected and often it will take attention and intention to enliven our inner communication.

This requires intentionally slowing down in a world that seems to demand us to move quickly, and usually well before we’re actually ready and willing.

By intentionally create time and space for process and experimentation, and to actively engaging in the inspiring process of reconnecting with our bodies and viewing them as gifts instead of burdens, we reclaim a deep aspect of our human experience.

As we bring more embodied and somatic awareness into our daily lives, we begin to rebuild a deeper relationship with our closest ally, our bodies.