What happens when your garden starts to awaken in the Spring after the long winter of rest and quiet?
Do the plants emerge without roots, reaching for the sky without their feet underneath them to stabilize their progress?
Not hardly.
The roots of every plant in your garden are foundational for the health and growth of the plant. The plant simply can’t thrive without being rooted within itself, nurtured by the Earth.
As humans, Spring often brings an accelerated pace. We do more, move faster, pack more into the lengthening days. We burst forth from our winter cocoons, reconnecting with one another and the outdoors.
Without your feet firmly planted on the Earth, it’s easy to swirl around in all the bustle; perhaps feeling overwhelmed, outside yourself.
In energy terms, that’s a form of disembodiment.
What is Disembodiment?
Disembodiment, or being ‘up and out,’ is when your physical body and your energetic awareness, your inner self, are not processing in sync with one another.
You may be in the grocery store, but your mind and emotions are elsewhere, perhaps rehashing a previous difficult interaction with a friend.
In more extreme cases, the separation of your body from energetic awareness leads to lost recall. If you’ve ever driven home from work after a long day and not remembered the actual drive, the route you took, which stop lights were red, whether you chose to turn left on Elm St. or Maple, that’s lost recall.
Disembodiment can feel like you’re unfocused, distracted, disorganized. It could be accompanied by perseveration, reactivity or anxiety.
When you’re able to recognize these symptoms as an indication of lack of embodiment, you’re on your way to resolving the problem!
What Can Cause Disembodiment?
There are two common types of disembodiment:
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A tendency to be mentally overstimulated, perseverating – which is almost always tied to past or future events or concerns
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A trauma response from earlier periods in life
Fatigue, overwhelm, uncomfortable emotions and pain can also contribute to a lack of embodiment.
What is Energetic Embodiment?
Energetic embodiment is a practice that supports you to ground into the Earth through your energy body.
It’s quite similar to plants; rooted in yourself and nourished by the Earth!
Energetic embodiment helps you operate in current time, supporting your ability to be present to yourself and to your life.
What are the Benefits of Embodiment?
Being embodied allows you to fully be in your life, living authentically.
Clients often share that they have come home to themselves. They have a sense of ‘down and in’, rather than ‘up and out’.
Other clients report sleeping better, feeling stronger, being more relaxed, centered and resourced.
One recent client shared:
“I continue to use the tools and have seen a profound change. It’s increased my ability to live in consciousness and mindfully move through growing experiences without leaving my body.”
Living in grounded, embodied awareness, rooted like a plant, is a glorious way to experience your life. The more you practice embodiment, the easier it becomes.
Be the plant!
I’ll leave you with a quote from one of my favorite teachers.
“I have arrived. I am home. In the here and now.”
Thich Nhat Hanh
If you’d like tools and practices to thrive, being rooted within yourself, and nurtured by the Earth no matter what’s going on around you, join me for a 90-minute workshop, Coming Home: Spring Forward with Embodiment & Grounding, on Saturday, April 18th, from 10:30 am to noon at Heartwood.
Learn more & Register here!
