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Embodiment is the self in motion, the living, breathing story of who you are and the culture and people you have come from.
Embodiment is the conscious knowing of and living as a body, not as a thing distinct from the self or the mind.
also means grasping that our cultural views of land as an object to be used, conquered, or stolen are relics of settler-colonialist ideologies—as is the belief that we are hyper-rational individuals who can exist and thrive outside of community.
This is meant to rehumanize us all and to distance us from the paradigms that separated us from our bodies in the first place, as if any of us could ever transcend our bodies.
But body-image research shows that the closer we get to achieving our ideal appearance, the more conditional our sense of worth becomes, and the more we fear what it will cost us when our appearance inevitably changes.
And it promotes the false belief that it’s better if there is less of
But prioritizing theology and intellect over other forms of wisdom, knowing, and spirituality is in many cases a by-product of privilege. Who has the luxury of being able to identify more with thinking than with bodily existence? Traditionally, it was men of high status who could spend their time in the academy or seminary rather than engaging in physical labor or caring for children.
we are not just observing our bodies from the outside but living through them from the inside out.
treated as a scapegoat for a person’s suffering,
Mental freedom shows up in three ways: (1) the ability to challenge societal ideas about the body, (2) the ability to challenge rigid gender stereotypes, and (3) the ability to freely express ourselves.
To increase our physical freedom, Piran suggests (1) engaging in physical activity that feels free, expansive, and unrestricted by appearance standards; (2) existing in spaces where our bodies are safe; (3) tuning in to ourselves and providing self-care; and (4) connecting pleasurably to our desires.
Because of how much our heads are down, looking at our phones, it can even be an act of resistance to put down our devices and look up and around in the world, keeping our hands, eyes, and minds free from constant stimulation and the ensuing anxiety or numbness.
In studies, those who perceived stress as helpful—as a way that their bodies were equipping them to navigate difficult situations—had fewer long-term negative health effects of stress, and many performed better at whatever task they were attempting to accomplish. In contrast, those who perceived stress as negative had worse health effects from stress.15 If we can shift our thinking about our bodily response when stressed, it can be protective and even corrective.
She was doing what she had been trained to do: to think of herself as being monitored, to think of herself from the outside, and to anticipate judgment.
Culture has ideals about bodies—what is considered a body to prize and what is a body to change—and the ideals are communicated through three primary sources of influence: parents, media, and peers.
Celebrating another person’s weight loss and believing it to be complimentary supports cultural messages about weight bias that end up hurting us all.
My body is good, without conditions. The word body includes more than just appearance; it encompasses the fullness of what it means to be human. I do not need to change my body in any way to be more valuable, even if my culture says otherwise.
I do not need to punish myself for a changing appearance or for looking different at two points in time.
My appearance is a part of me, but it is not the only or most important part of me. Being a body invites me into deeper connection with myself and those around me.
People who are able to notice their interoceptive cues and do so with a high degree of accuracy are better at completing complex cognitive tasks and using intuition for decision making. In contrast, people who have a low degree of awareness and accuracy around interoceptive cues are more likely to see their body as an object, and they are more likely to struggle with depression and eating disorders.14
But to support our resistance and healing, we can also look for ways to connect with our bodies that incite gratitude and wonder.
But some of us have confused our ability to feel our feelings as they move as energy through our body with our ability to talk about what we feel. We can sit in therapy, tell sad stories, and talk about feeling sad without ever having the bodily experience of sadness.
Inhibitory affects are particular emotional responses that allow us to push down feelings so we can go along to get along. The three forms of inhibitory affects are anxiety, guilt, and shame.
“the deepest life force, a force which moves us toward living in a fundamental way.”4 It is the personification of “creative power and harmony. . . . The sharing of joy, whether physical, emotional, psychic, or intellectual, forms a bridge between the sharers which can be the basis for understanding much of what is not shared between [people], and lessens the threat of their difference, . . . and [it] can give us the energy to pursue genuine change within the world.”5 Decades later scholar Joseph Wittstock defined sexuality as “that physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual energy that
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Our body is the intelligence—the seat of the self that turns our thoughts on and off.
Sexuality is not at odds with spirituality but, in fact, a deep human expression of it.
As it turns out, the word spirit comes from the Greek word pneuma. In Greek, pneuma means “breath” or “breathed” or “to be breathed.” Like this breath. Like the breath you just took right now. What shocked me about this was that the word spirit was not about anything far away but about the most human thing we all do—breathing.
this metaphor was meant to remind us that we are living in our true nature when we are undoing oppressive systems, choosing connection over conquest, and paying attention to the miracle of our existence.
is also about the awe it stirs in us and how it woos us into deeper engagement with our world. For this reason, I define beauty as whatever I am drawn to, whatever holds me in the place where I want to linger, whatever celebrates something numinous and ineffable.
Not one of us lives without breath in our lungs. Not one of us is less mysterious and wildly beautiful than the mountains or trees or ocean. All inhales and exhales are doorways for the Divine.
Myokines have been shown to make us more collaborative, better at teamwork, and more hopeful or resilient in the face of stressors.
When we think about movement this way, we discover that movement is a human right because it is a human need. It is also a pathway to health, an expression and discovery of identity, an invitation into satisfaction, and a doorway to play. If there is a tension in our relationship with our body, looking for pleasure in movement is a way to bridge the gap.
