A Practical Guide To Embodiment Practices

This talk explores the concept of embodiment, a topic often discussed in neo-tantric, new-age, and spiritual circles. I’ll break down what embodiment actually means, how to cultivate it in your daily life, and the ripple effects it can create in how you feel, act, and interact with the world.

If you’d like me to cover more embodiment-related topics, let me know in the comments!

Transcript

Hey, This is Ish, And in today's talk, I'll be going over a very practical guide to embodiment. Now, You may have heard of the term embodiment in various New Age, Neotantric, Or spiritual communities. And you may be thinking, Okay, What does embodiment actually mean? So I'll be going over what embodiment means, How to practice it, And then some of the ripple effects that practicing embodiment can have in your life. So very simply, Embodiment is where we take a certain quality or intention that we want to experience, And we combine that through expressing it through our bodies itself. So there's a certain physicality to this practice. And embodiment is a practice that we take on. So it is like a skill that we learn to develop. And we can learn to develop certain qualities over time. So obviously, There are many different intentions and qualities that we can choose to practice. So some examples could be learning to embody love. Now, We may have heard this saying that so-and-so is an embodiment of love, We hear this expression. So this quality of love may be conveyed through, Let's just say, Warm eyes, Or their soft touch and smile. Their body language may be open, Inviting, As opposed to closed off and cold. And we can even use certain archetypes and symbols to further describe this loving archetype. So think of a loving grandmother, For example, This can conjure up feelings of this loving persona. And on a practical level, We can practice this quality of love by practicing loving kindness, For example, This sort of meditation to soften up our heart to imbue our emotional body with feelings of love and kindness and goodwill towards ourselves and other people, Learning to forgive ourselves. We can also practice just softening up our body language. So these are all practical applications of embodying this intention of love. Another intention that we can learn to embody is the quality of being calm. So we can do this on our meditation cushion, Practically, By the more hours we put sitting in our meditation cushion in meditation, We naturally become calmer and calmer over time. We can also practice being more still in general, Also reducing our worldly desires, And also letting go of energies of grasping at things or pushing things away. So in practical Buddhist terms, This would be craving and aversion. And whenever these feelings of attachment arise throughout a day, There's kind of a feeling of I need to do something, We just let it pass. And we slowly over time, Learn to let go the energies of restlessness. We can also practice being proactive as opposed to reactive. So increasing your level of control throughout the day. Another quality that we can practice in embodiment is the embodiment of groundedness. And I've made various topics on being grounded and how to actually do this. So you can go check that out. But one thing we can do is practice being more still, Both in our movements in our body language and our gestures. So not fidgeting or making unnecessary movements, And actually just slowing everything down. Both in our speech, In our gestures, In how we respond. And also, We can take our attention, Which may be stuck in our thoughts in our head, And rooted down into our feet. And by bringing our focal point down to our feet, We can actually feel more sturdy, More grounded. And we feel like an anchor that is unmovable. And the last example I'll give is the embodiment of excitement and passion. So you can see this in a lot of really extroverted content creators, Where they are super excited, They seem to be moving a lot and gesturing and the energy seems to be operating from their heart area, As opposed to say the feet or abdomen, Which be more indicative of the grounding energy. So being excited and passionate, You'll see that your energy starts to rise up. And this can also be good because you can inspire other people. And sometimes you need a faster paced energy to do that. Now grounded energy is also inspirational too, But it comes from a different place. So you can invoke or put out into the environment and influence the environment in a certain way by practicing some of these qualities. So our energy, Our presence and our intention does shape the world all around us. And in addition, We can also change ourselves by practicing these certain qualities as well. And you may not have actually consciously thought about what type of energy that you're putting out there or qualities you want to present us. But this is also a really great way to practice mindfulness as well. Because you're consciously taking control of your intentions and how you choose to respond in the world. So rather than being reactive to the world at large, And the forces in your mind as well, You are taking conscious control and being proactive, And you're having the choice. And again, I want to remind you that this is a practice that we continue to do. So if you label yourself as a super anxious person, That is ungrounded, This isn't who you are. But rather, You just haven't developed the qualities of being grounded yet. Likewise, If you tend to describe yourself as very rigid and firm, And you want to practice being more open, More free, Be more loose, Playful, These are all qualities that you can learn to develop through an embodiment practice. So how interesting is that? Because when we start to take on certain qualities through our intentions and physicalize it through our body, This actually influences the world like I mentioned. So how does this actually work? So let's take being confident and being grounded, For example, Something I talked about earlier. When we practice being still, Practice calming everything down, Being grounded, Breathing lower into the body, In the abdomen, For example, Or having the focal pointer in your feet, Other people will actually see you as more reliable, More steady, Unshakable, And a person to come to in times of chaos. You know, Especially in today's modern world, Where people are distracted, They're on their phones, They tend to be reactive, One person that is radiating feelings of groundedness can actually calm the entire room all around them. Because as human beings, We look for certainty in the environment. And we look for those that have things under control, Or at least portray that feeling of control. So by being more grounded, You can, For example, Be more respected at work, You can be someone that other people count on, You can be the person that calms everyone down in the room. And in addition, In addition to the external benefits that you'll notice, It is also internal as well. Because as you learn to ground to still more still yourself a bit more, You will learn to work with your feelings of restlessness or anxiety, And to be content with where you are right now. And this can be very powerful. In addition, If you look into more neotantra, Traditions and circles, They will say that being grounded is where you emanate or embody the masculine pole or the masculine energy side of the spectrum. So when you start to embody these qualities of stillness and calmness, In a dating situation, You will also attract a more what we call a feminine partner that is more moved by movement, So the opposite quality. So there's a polarity in place. So now let's look at another embodiment. So let's just say you are going now to the more heart centered embodiment practices. So you're practicing gratitude, Love for all things in the world, You are practicing self acceptance, You'll notice that when you do this, Your attention will be more in the heart center, Like I mentioned earlier, In the heart chakra. And when you do this, You'll experience a wider connection with more people, People will be able to kind of trust you a bit more. You also have the increased capacity to help other people as you're more in tuned with yourself and other people around you through connecting to the heart center. And they can also be a lot of healing internally as well. So getting healing a lot of the past things that have happened to you to find forgiveness to work on very difficult and strained relationships, Tapping into the heart center can be very beneficial for all these things in your life. So I hope you found this talk helpful. I wanted to keep this very concise, So you can have a good understanding of this. But if you actually want to know how to practice some of these embodied principles, Like I mentioned, I can actually make other talks on this. So if you if you'd like a specific topic on embodiment, Just let me know, And I'll make a video on that as well. So hope you found this helpful. And let me know in the comments what you'd like to embody. So what intentions and qualities would you like to embody throughout your day, And actually practice this today. So if you want to be more calm, Or more grounded, Or more confident, Or more hard focused, Or more loving, Actually set an intention to practice it throughout your day. And actually notice how can I practice this both on my meditation cushion, And then throughout my day in my body itself, Start to think about this and practice it. And these qualities will grow over time. Thank you

Reviews

Thank you very much indeed. So useful, interesting
and uplifting. Here’s to more calm and playfulness.