Embodied Movement
Embodied Movement
What?
Embodied Movement.
hmmm….. 🤔 ⏳ …. Well, isn’t all movement embodied? Like – it’s in the body, right?Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Yes, and…. Conscious movement is fully embodied. That is to say, when we toss our head from side-to-side just because our ponytail swings better and then we chomp gum as we are speaking, these may not be fully embodied. They are big and bold, certainly, but are they intentional?
To fully EMBODY one’s movement means to bring one’s attention as fully as possible into the action that the muscles are taking.
When I was training for my second (and last) marathon several years ago, someone recommended “Running with the Whole Body,” by Jack Heggie. I purchased it immediately thinking – “this will revolutionize the way I’m running, and I’ll be an overnight speed runner and, finally, win the New York Marathon as I was meant to do!”
Whoa…. A little self-Unaware, there, girl!
😂 😂 I don’t want to say my reaction was over the top …. because what actually happened when I read this very thin book was two-fold:
I was disappointed – I was ready to do intensive workouts and run further and longer and faster. I was going to feed my intense, obsessive, addictive personality with this book. I was going to win my father’s approval with my impressive physical ability.
🎯 None of that happened.While it did not make me an overnight marathon winner, it did change my life in ways I could never have imagined and continues (nearly 15 years later) to inform much of what I do.
This little book is a series of very simple exercises that invite one to get in touch with the mechanics of one’s body. One exercise was to lie on the floor and move one leg in the motion of running. The trick, though, was to do it incredibly slowly, so as to get as deeply in tuned with how each muscle, ligament, joint, CELL was connected to and moving in harmony with the next muscle, ligament, joint, cell.
Embodied movement is about fully embodying the movement in which one is engaged. To put one’s vast attention and whole personality in the swing of that ponytail, the swish of those hips, the blink of that eye. Can I feel the pull of the ponytail on my scalp, the soft caress of the ends of my hair on my neck and shoulder, the whisper of wind in my ears? Can I feel how my thighs brush up against each other, the extension & contraction of my waist as my hips move from left to right and back again, the slight undulation in my buttocks & their own contraction & release? Can I sense how my vision changes at each moment as the lids close and reopen, the sensation of the rim of the upper lid connecting with that of the lower, the color of my eyelashes in the sunlight vs lamplight?
Embodied movement can be a slow activity – in fact, it’s good to start slow.
And, I have danced to fast songs with vigor and been so embodied that my mind was left behind and spectators were left speechless as it took them on the journey out of mind with me!
Being fully embodied is inspiring to self and others.
A few years ago someone introduced me at a webinar we were co-hosting saying, “This is Ceci. She is the most body-aware person I know. She can tell you that if her left eye is twitching it is because her right pinky toe needs a massage.”
😂 😂 Well, that may be a bit extreme.
And yet, I devoted years to understanding the wisdom that my body is sharing with me.
A few years ago, I gained some weight. At first, I was angry at my body for this treason!
Here lately, though, I am coming back into my body with love and compassion. So much has happened since February 2020. My body is telling me that there was a need to hunker down, to be sedentary – for a season. She needed the time to gestate on some things. I was birthing something big, and I needed the spaciousness to be with that gestation.
Now, I am in a season of movement and action and bringing forth newness. Now is the time to move my body with intention – in ways that support and serve the greatest good of all.
When you are ready to take this intentional journey
and would like a companion, reach out to me.
I’m ready for you now. I’m here to hear and witness you. Possibly to guide you in some fully embodied movement so that you, too, can begin to hear your own body wisdom.
Cover Photo by Diego Rosa on Unsplash