Your path of healing and highest expression is uniquely yours.
In this post, learn about embodiment as our central body of work: Connecting you skillfully into self, and further into the whole of life on Planet Earth that leaves you able to move through it all with more skill and more grace. It is along The Embodied Path that we move through the healing and light-filled transformation that we are ready for. More than this, it is along this path that we become capable of showing up for this world outside of self (our families, our communities, our ecosystems) in ways that matter most.
What is Embodiment?
Embodiment is a simple and natural concept, but by no means is it an easy state to experience. Especially given our modern world, including the way it has wired us for generation after generation, the path of embodiment can be a slow-going process, and often a challenging one at that. But I promise you, it is worth it.
The way I understand embodiment is a natural way of being for a human being: one where we are conscious to the whole of ourselves, sensing and feeling as we perceive the world in all the ways that matter. Of course, “perceiving the world” includes our own selves, body and mind, and all other parts included. More than this, I believe that embodiment has everything to do with our ability to be skillfully tuned into the world around us:
- tuning into it all in a way that is manageable
- discerning truth and reality from nonsense
- being discerning as we make skillful choices that move us through it all
The problem, again, is that us humans have created what I see as a far-from “natural” way of being, and because of this, all of life suffers. Embodiment is the path to ending this suffering – for our own sovereign selves, and for all of life on planet earth.
Embodiment is a healing path, but it is so much more than this
To be embodied is to be present in the whole that you are. Recognizing that this process is “whole-making” is, inherently, a healing process. It is healing as you remember the whole being that you are, reclaiming conscious and skillful connection with all the parts of self that the modern world has distanced you from (either through shame, discredit, or ignorance).
Along the way, embodiment is also a path that requires that we heal many of the wounds that are perpetuating harm:
- harm within self
- and harm that we inflict on others because of our unskillful patterning
This second definition of the word “healing” arises as part of the embodiment path, and it is a necessary part, but not central to the work we do here (meaning, we are not here to endlessly work through our own wounds, but as part of the greater embodiment work we are doing, healing your own wounds becomes necessary as they show up in conflict to the work you are doing. Make sense?).
Let me say it again: embodiment goes hand-in-hand with healing, but they are not the same. In truth, embodiment goes far beyond any idea having to do with a consistent path towards feeling better within ourselves. In truth, embodiment teaches us to be in skillful relationship with healing, knowing when it is time to work towards feeling better, and when it is time to show up for life given whatever shape we are in.
With this, embodiment recognizes life as it unfolds moment to momement. Perhaps, in this moment of experiencing a wound once again, it would help to go into it, or else, to reach out for support so that you can work through, mend, or otherwise heal it. Other times, we show up for life, wound and all, and move through it all with as much grace as possible.
Are you starting to see the intricacy of the embodied path?
Embodiment is always an individualized path
Let me say this one loud and clear. You paying attention?
There is no clear-cut, idealized, cookie-cutter protocol that will move you through your own embodiment path. Instead, you step onto your own embodied path in recognition that you are sovereign, and you have agency to move yourself forward through whatever gifts and obstacles arise.
Along the way, of course there is always space for guidance! So read books and blog posts. Listen to podcasts and YouTube videos. Hire experts. Get the help you need.
Along the way, know that this path is yours, and yours uniquely. Anyone trying to get you to fit into their box with their optimized protocols and promised results is selling you bullshit.
You are in charge here, and if you don’t like that because you want someone to fix your problems for you…. well, then, you’ve come to the wrong place (Planet Earth, that is).
Here, you get to reach our for help. You get to find your community of individuals who are up against similar challenges or seeking similar joys. You get to be part of networks that are working together.
And, here you get to own the fact that you are on your own journey. You have agency. You have the power to move through it all as you will.
With time, there is a beauty, a magic, and a depth of fulfillment that is experienced here.
Don’t believe me? Let me tell you a little about my own story.
I am a trained yoga therapist. I am also a trained Priestess. Believe me when I say I have a wealth of tools, techniques, and even protocols to help move you through challenges and towards joys in life.
And, let me tell you, that the greatest of healing and light-filled transformation that I have experienced has to do with signing up for a 100 mile race. Yes. I know. It is wild and weird and who does that????
But I know myself. And when I was down in the depths of hell and couldn’t meditate or do yoga without getting pulled into awful panic attacks, I did the thing that I teach most of all:
I listened within.
As I listened within, I recognized that I feel the best when I am outside, feet on the Earth, moving my body.
And, I recognized that I experienced profound healing when I was out doing hill repeats up and down a mountain. Because there, the fire within my soul (and nervous system, and thought patterns, and more) could be matched by the fire in my body. Here, moving at intensity, I could be in resonance with what was needing to come through.
Here, I found the flow that was needed to heal.
Here, I found the flow that was needed to open me up to life in a way that had been knocking at my door for years!
Here, I could finally become the person I was meant to become.
Which is, well…. me! More of myself, being free to be fully myself, including the strange mix of characteristics that I embody on my own wild path through life, including ultra marathon running, and earth priestessing, and yoga, and meditation, and so much more.
I never would’ve gotten here following someone’s optimized protocol to my highest expression of self. Because who the f*** would write a story like this one? GO sing up for a 10 miler so that you all will have a powerful reason to get outside and move your body most days; oh, and at the end of it all you will experience the deepest of fulfillment you ever have in your whole life!
I mean…. no. That doesn’t go on a landing page to help anyone out.
What does help? Teaching you how to listen to what you need, and what could help support your own path. And, helping you to put it all into practice so that you get to experience the healing and transformation that is possible.
How I teach, coach, and otherwise guide you along your Embodiment Path
As spoken to above, embodiment is about healing as much as it is about transformation towards that which is calling you to bring your more joy, deeper fulfillment, and purpose in life that makes you feel internally satisfied as you lay your head upon your pillow at night.
It has nothing to do with getting you something or having you become someone that anyone else thinks matters. Embodiment is an internal game. From the internal transforms the external.
To do this, what I have for anyone I work with is a toolkit, one that comes with a large volume of practices that could, potentially, help you.
And, what I have for you is a list of skills for you to develop so that you become better and better able to move yourself forward through it all.
My Toolkit
As a Yoga Therapist and Priestess, my embodiment toolkit looks something like a long list of modalities:
- yoga
- breathwork
- shadow work
- mindfulness meditation
- ecotherapy
- etc.
Let me tell you a secret though: The practices are the easy part. You can readily google search for any type of practice that could help you, and try them out for yourself.
Here is the tricky part: knowing which practices will help you, which ones might actually hurt you, and which ones would be a waste of time.
As a yoga therapist, embodiment coach, and trained priestess, it is my job to gauge which practices may actually support you at each moment in time given your needs (physically, mentally, energetically, etc,) and your desired outcomes (i.e., what you are wanting to work towards).
This is where my experience and my years of study comes in, along with my fierce devotion to helping you with whatever it is you are up against, be it a physical or mental health challenge, a nervous system issue, trauma, or any other blockage that is keeping you from getting to where you want to go.
This brings us to the skills that I am here to teach you
As I made clear up above, I do not believe that we are here on Planet Earth to outsource our problems to others who can save us. Instead, we are here supporting each other, and I do this for you with my long list of practices and experience.
Along the way, I do not wish to leave you in a state where the next problem is just going to sweep in and bring you back to the same place: in need of help, and unable to do anything for yourself.
Because of this, what I am really here to teach you is how to listen, and how to discern for yourself along your own embodiment path. With this, you will be better able to work through challenges that come your way (no matter where or when you find yourself in life). And, if you do need the help of another professional in the future (or, the guidance of a friend), you will be better able to discern whether this is truly helpful. In doing so, you will be able to move through all of life with far more grace, moving through whatever it is you need most. (again, maybe that is healing, or maybe that is the ability to call in joy in the moment!)