What is Embodiment?

Let’s start by talking about what brings you down: body image. Then we'll talk about what brings you up: embodiment.

 

Body image is the picture of our own body we have in our mind because we are self-conscious, literally, conscious of ourselves as a body. It is the way our body appears to our mind based on overt and covert lessons we have learned from society about attractiveness, desirability, and social value. Our body image is how we look to ourselves, but our perceptions might be inaccurate. Since we are visible to the gaze of others, we are and feel subject to the evaluation and judgment of others. We form an idea of how others see us, but the ideas we form may not be accurate. They are projections from our mind onto the world. Then we internalize the perceived disapproval or approval as expectations that affect our self-esteem, our personality, and our self-care choices, especially in eating. The expectations we form may be unrealistic. They may be distorted. 

Body image dissociates the mind from the body. If we develop an accurate positive self-image, that’s great, but if we form a negative or distorted body image, we feel chronic body dissatisfaction. We engage in body checking. We are fearful of wearing certain clothes or engaging in certain behaviors. Our bodies are not a source of comfort and ease; our bodies cause shame and embarrassment.  We perceive our bodies as constrained or restricted, and our choices are influenced by the media and our peers. We have difficulty identifying and expressing our own wants, needs or emotions. Sometimes we engage in self-harming neglect or punishment of our body.

We need to actively resist negative body image socialization and the long-term pernicious effects it has.

Embodiment is the inner experience of our body engaged in the world. We know our body through our senses, agency, and actions, abilities and disabilities, relationships, and communication. Positive embodiment means internal unity of mind and body; strong connection of the mind to the body; a sense of competence and freedom. We can take up space, make noise, move in public and private spheres. We can feel and express positive and negative emotions and our individuality. Positive embodiment means that we feel joy, comfort, self-care, protection, needs, desires, and rights.

For some people, embodiment excludes the spiritual. For some people, the spiritual minimizes the body, treating feelings and physicality as things to be transcended or to detach from. However, Ferrer suggests, “The body is a divine revelation that can offer spiritual understanding, discrimination, and wisdom.”[1] We can look to our bodies as well as our minds for connection to Spirit. The body offers us spiritual understanding, discrimination, and wisdom. IThe body is the point where the spiritual, the mental, and physical converge and integrate into one whole. In contrast to body image, EMBODIMENT unites mind, body, and spirit into an inner nexus within the closely related context of our earthly home.

   

[1] Ferrer, J. N. (2008). ‘What does it mean to live a fully embodied spiritual life?’ International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 27, 1–11.


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