To me, embodiment means you become a living breathing vessel for what you stand for and what you’re creating in the world.
What you're sharing and talking about moves beyond just the remits of the mind and becomes a lived experience in the day-to-day.
It’s hard to describe.But there’s this certain layer of magic and potency that you can feel when someone is embodying what they’re sharing.
In a world where speed, efficiency and metrics are valued more than other essences, are we taking the time for integration and embodiment?
To sit with what has been learned.To reflect. To discern.To let it shimmer and emerge within and through your beingness however is right and authentic for you and your context, not based on how others do it.With the rise of AI and modern technologies we are becoming even more mind-based;
How do we make sure they stay as tools, as collaborators, and not begin owning us?How do we keep ourselves rooted in our wholeness in these times and beyond?How do we stay grounded, connected, embodied?And how do we ensure we don’t become de-sensualised, disconnected from the wisdom in our bodies, our sensuality?
This rise in modern western tech has the potential to de-sensualise us even more from our full range.
A greater disconnection from the wisdom of the body, heart, spirit, and greater reliance on the mind.
But only if we let it.
This is why embodiment is imperative in this time now and going forth.
And embodiment doesn’t just encompass the body, it too includes the heart and spirit.
Just as our ancestors always knew, we have four wisdom centres. The mind has been overvalued in our world and it has its place, and there are three others who want to be related and collaborated with.
Sustainability efforts are currently not working. In my opinion, one of the main reasons for this, is because they lack an integrated approach, and completely bypass and ignore our full spectrumness. Sustainability and regeneration efforts have to come from a place of wholeness, a place that recognises all of our wisdom centres, if we are to see any lasting and holistic change.Throughout my PhD research, I explored how spirit, heart, mind, and body interweave and co-create, and this became a key part of my methodology. While these four domains relate and overlap, each emerged uniquely throughout my creative research journey.Spirit manifested through contemplative and introspective moments, intuitive hunches, and connections to ancestral, energetic, and subtle realms.The heart domain spanned the emotional field, processing emotions and my relationship with the work and everything going on in-between, all whilst guiding intuitive, creative decisions.The mind engaged with the theory, was essential for visioning and ruminating on ideas, creating links, synthesising, generating and creating data.The body was the physical creator, that allowed me to translate complex ideas into tangible forms, through physical acts of making, primarily creating embroidered textiles.
So how do we start to relate to all of these parts within ourselves?
What is required is daily and very simple yet intentional connections to these essences. Learning to say ‘hello, learning to listen, and allowing what wants to emerge to emerge co-creatively.
Below I list a few ideas and I invite you to find your own that work and resonate for you. Note that when we start saying hello to these parts of ourselves, they organically interweave with one another:
SPIRITMorning moments of stillness, even just 5 minutes. Presence with your breath. Acknowledgment of the sacred in the mundane - your morning coffee, the light entering your room. Time in nature without agenda. Meditation, in whatever form that looks for you. Reverence for the animating force that weaves through all of life.
HEARTTuning into what you're feeling throughout the day, not just thinking about feeling. Processing emotions rather than bypassing them. Letting your heart guide creative decisions instead of just your mind. Asking: What does my heart yearn to express through this work? Connecting with what you love, not just what you think you should be doing.
MINDReading, researching, analysing - but this is just one part of the ecosystem, not the entire ecosystem. Visioning future possibilities. Intellectual engagement with ideas that excite you. And also questioning: What concepts want to be embodied, not just understood?
BODYDaily movement that feels good to you - walking outside, dancing, stretching, gyming. Stitching, drawing, working with your hands. Noticing the sensations in your body that emerge as you create. Presence with the physical process, not just the outcome. Making outside, with places.
How can you begin weaving these wisdom centres into your creative practice?
Some practical ways I've discovered through my own creative journey, many of which we unpack and practice together in Weaving Worlds:
* Create from contemplative states. Let the repetitive actions of your craft - whether it's stitching, writing, painting - become a form of moving meditation that allows you to access deeper states and portals to new possibilities.
* Work in different places. Let your environment inform your work. Make outside sometimes. Let the elements participate and mark your work. How does your work become a collaboration between you and place?
* Ask your materials how they want to co-create with you and what they want to become, rather than imposing predetermined outcomes. Listen with more than your ears.
* Take your creative work to gatherings, on public transport, to parks. Let the energy of places and people weave into what you're making.
* Learn to connect into and trust your intuition. Intuitive hits feel different for all of us - are your fast, subtle, hit hard, where do you feel them in your body? Develop a relationship with this part of you.
* Create ritual around your making. Light a candle. Set an intention. Work with reverence for the worlds you're bringing into being.
* Let go of ‘pristine’ and ‘perfect’ outcomes. Surrender to co-creating with the process itself.
Embodiment is an emergent and relational process. It is not achieved overnight, and takes time and intentionality through repetitive small actions in the day-to-day. And it’s going to look different for all of us.
We don't have all of the answers and never will. And I find this to be so liberating.
But coming into a deeper relational weave with all of our wisdom centres and beginning to attune to them, to relate to them and allow them to express themselves through us, and with us, this moves us beyond just thinking about change work, about sustainability, about our creations, toward embodiment.
I believe that the goal shouldn't be about what we can take from all of our wisdom centres as well as diverse ways of being and practicing in the world, many of which I mention above. We completely need to let go of this extractive and goal-orientated way of thinking if something else is to emerge.
Instead, can we allow ourselves to play, to explore, to relate to these parts of ourselves, of our communities, through a curiosity, a detachment from outcomes, as well as a reverence and reciprocity for the gifts we continue to be given through life each and everyday.
Embodiment requires all of this.
I would love to know what your relationship to embodiment is like?
As always, Loads of Love,
Ania xx
