If you’ve been around the health, fitness and wellness spaces you are probably familiar with the term embodiment. 

Today, I wanted to walk you through a more detailed explanation of embodiment and spend these next couple of weeks unpacking more of the specifics of what embodiment means for your brain and body.

Below is one of my favorite quotes when it comes to defining embodiment…

Embodiment is the practice of utilizing our body (muscles, joints, sensory receptors like visual, auditory etc) as a tool for a deeper connection to ourselves.

When we are embodied we have higher self-awareness and can more easily self-regulate our body and emotions, as a result empowering us to heal ourselves.

Embodiment is cultivated through 3 primary systems of the brain and body – Exteroception, Interoception and Proprioception.

1. Exteroception – what we sense from our external environment like the way the sun feels on our skin.

2. Interoception – internal body cues like hunger or noticing heart rate changes

3. Proprioception – utilizing sensory feedback from our environment that allows us to confidently know where we are – walking and not needing to look down at our feet.

Here’s the tricky part, embodiment practices need to be tailored to each individual far more than the cookie cutter recommendations we are seeing.

Why?

Well, we each have our own lived experiences that has changed the way we see, feel and experience the world. Most importantly how we access safety in our body.

Therefore, some of us may struggle with interoception embodiment practices like tracking our heart rate when we are stressed, but thrive in exteroception embodiment practices like cold showers.

If we force ourselves to connect with our body in one way that doesn’t make sense for our brain and body it can leave us feeling ill-equipped to heal our body. 

The end result? 

Frustration grows and our confidence in healing starts to dwindle.

My reassurance to you today is to remember that if one pathway towards being embodied hasn’t worked for you, please keep in mind that it isn’t you. Instead it’s the strategy that did not meet what YOU and your brain needed to open up a line of connection.

Please stay tuned to learn more about how we can approach embodiment from a more individualized lens so you can finally create a home in your body.