Embodiment Based Coaching
Embodiment is about being aware of and inhabiting your body. Why is this important? The body is a source of both information and power that you're not accessing if you're not fully inhabiting it. Bringing your presence into your body, you will be instantly more grounded and aware of your responses in different circumstances. We hold tensions in our bodies and block the natural flow of our emotions when we don't like or accept what is happening. With this we block our own creative flow, and stop ourselves from living fully, creatively and authentically.
We also store memories in our bodies, tarumas, happy events, and these memories influence and sometimes control our behaviour. The more aware we can become of these influences, the more we are able to chose freely what we want to do.
“Love feels no burden, thinks nothing of its trouble, attempts what is above its strength, pleads no excuse of impossibility; for it thinks all things lawful for itself, and all things possible.”
Thomas Kempis
When we take an embodied approach, this means we work with the whole person, not just their intellect. Thoughts, emotions, beliefs, the physical body, our spirit... we are all made of multiple parts, and unless we work with all of them, integrating them into one whole with a common purpose, inner divisions will drive a person to sabotage themselves.
Learning that involves the body, in addition to the mind, last much longer and is more readily available when we need it. You minght have had he experience that your hands remember how to play an instrument, even though your mind has forgotten. Or riding a bicycle, your body remembers.
Embodiment means what we carry in our body. This includes our baggage, our characters (subpersonalities we put on depending what situation we are in), how we feel in that moment, what our energy level is, whether we are in love, and many others. This comes across to people very strongly, even if they are often unconscious of what they are picking up. If you compare two people you know, who are very different from each other, they will be embodying different qualities. These qualities will determine how people feel about them, how trustworthy they come across, or how friendly and approachable they come across, in fact any of the multitude of perceptions we have about others.
Awareness of this in others and ourselves gives us skills and knowhow we would be missing out on otherwise.