Hey, hello, beautiful, sovereign hearted beings. Welcome to another episode of the sovereign heart Podcast. Today is short and sweet, all about embodiment. This is such a key principle to so many of the things that I talk about on here, so much of the work that I do in the world and with clients and with myself, of course. And I really just wanted to give a short, sweet episode to break it down and give an underlying sense of clarity as to what it is that I am talking about, or perhaps other people in the field of somatics and healing and coaching and all this kind of stuff are actually talking about when we say embodiment. And of course, this is from my lens. This is my perspective. This is my training and also my personal expression and experience with embodiment that I'm going to be talking about here today. So let's break it down. First, why do we need it? Second, what is it and then, why is it relevant right now in our world? So we're going to break down those three. Let's start with, why do we need it? Why do we need embodiment? Before I get into what it is, let's talk about why we actually need it, or rather, why it's important, why it's so powerful, and why it's such a powerful tool to have in your tool bag for creating deeper states of connection to yourself, of connection to others, of a sense of sovereignty in who you are and the depths and the layers and also the bounds of that who you are and what you are not so embodiment. And I'll talk about the tools that help us embody and what those are in the second piece. But for now, let's stick with embodiment helps us drop beyond the layer of the mind, beyond the layer of the conscious prefrontal prefrontal cortex, the logical brain, that brain that has developed over time, right? Other animals, such as, like, you know, insects or lizards, or even like, like elephants or something I got, well, you can't see my elephant right now, but I have my little elephant tapestry back there. Elephants, right? They don't have as developed as a logical brain as us humans do. So you could say we are advanced in our, you know, system, and also there are limitations to that because of the culture that we live in that focuses highly on our logic, that emphasizes and kind of sees the logic and the logical reasoning as more than and like dominating over the more emotional, softer, intuitive, subtler expressions and experiences of the world. And so we need tools to be able to get us out of that prefrontal, logical brain that we're in most of the time, and get to these deeper parts of the brain, like the midbrain and the very root of the brain, right? Like that, where the amygdala is where, like trauma is stored, and you know, where the just the brain, like the oldest brain that we have, right, like the brain that developed first, right, that lizards still have, or the mammalian brain that developed after that, that has a little bit more awareness of connection. Right? Mammals are very much about connecting. They bond, they pair bond, or, you know, not necessarily pair bond, but they bond with other animals, and they bond with their children, right? It's a different kind of connection that's available. There a more emotional kind of connection, and those are the two pieces of our brain, the two parts of our brain that when we have access to, when you have tools to be able to access those parts of the brain, you can actually go beyond what you thought was possible, if you have limiting thoughts, limiting beliefs, or you've just been told that you can't do a certain thing, or that's not possible, or you know, you have to do things in a logical kind of sequence or reasoning based way, when you tune into those deeper layers of the emotional brain, of that kind of more primal, like just instinctual based brain, you're actually able to access these parts of yourself that, usually in our everyday lives we're not accessing. We don't really have connection to those pieces. So we want to be able to do that. Because then we have again, more access to deeper layers of who we are, of the things that we want, some of our deepest held desires, for safety, for love, for connection, for belonging, you know, for for all of these things, live in those deeper parts of the brain, and we can reason ourselves out of them. We can we can logic our way out of needing those things or wanting those things, but when we go into deeper states of embodiment and access those pieces of us, it becomes Stark clear, not only that they're there, that they need us to work with them, to be seen, to be held, to be witnessed, but also to give us that clarity, to give you that clarity of what is actually needed. What can you actually do in the here and now, using your logical reasoning brain, you know when you're coming out of that more embodiment type space, to be able to then plant seeds and create little new pathways of possibility for those deeper needs and deeper experiences to be able to be met. So this can help move through any kind of like challenges or blockages that you're facing on the road to whatever it is that you're creating better relationships, better, career, better, you know, work, life balance, whatever it is, it can help you achieve, achieve, reach deeper states of regulation and peace, right? It can be used just to be able to access the deeper realms of peace and ease that we actually have access to, or even the deeper realms of pleasure and goodness and just okayness in the world, to just be able to pause and let things be okay. Really deep embodiment. Journeys can go all the way into experiencing, you know, what you would experience similarly if you were going on a psychedelic journey, right? Accessing those altered states of consciousness is also possible through embodiment. You're able to connect with that which is beyond human reasoning, that which is beyond human logic and into the interconnectivity of all life that's living within you, and that's living within all things, when you can plug into that power and how you exist within it and see yourself as that you are, just automatically, you stop worrying so much about the little things. You know, I'm not going to give you a list of what it'll do for you, right? Because you don't know what that's going to be. You don't know what you're going to need. I don't know what you need right until you drop in and you receive that medicine. So it's similar. Can be similar really deep embodiment journeys. I'm not talking like 510, minutes here, but really deep, you know, hours long, embodiment journeys can be very similar to a psychedelic experience in the way that it allows us to access these deeper layers of ourselves, the deeper states, altered states of consciousness, where we can receive downloads and insights about our lives, and, you know, all sorts of things that help us get again out of this prefrontal cortex and into the deeper meaning of being human and what it all is and what it all is for you. So that's the why, why we want embodiment. So what is it? What can embodiment be? So there are five main tools that I use right to access deeper states of embodiment. The first one is breath. It is the simplest thing, and it's the most profound thing. Doing something as simple as remembering to take a breath in and exhaling out already changes your state of consciousness already changes the way that you're regulating, right, the way that your nervous system feels and can arrive here and now in this moment. So that's the first one. And breath can be used in a variety of ways. One can be regulation, right? That that deep breath in, deep breath, out calming the nervous system. That can be down regulating to the nervous system. It can be calming, right, taking dose, slow, deeper breaths. But it can also up regulate your nervous system, so it can also help you, like, access more of yourself. That's why, you know, personally, I love working out, because I'm breathing deeply and, you know, the whole for a full hour and moving my body, and it's a really powerful altered state of consciousness experience for me that I love, but also the breath in and of itself, when used to be, to be a tool To access those states, that's when it becomes really powerful. So this is where you hear things like breath work. I've taught a couple breath work classes, right? And teach people that in my coaching sessions, and breath work is something that I do on a regular basis, right, to access these places, and that's instead of those longer, deeper breaths, i. That's where you can bring the breath into more of a flowing kind of state, where you're not
you're not trying to relax, but you're actually inviting in more energy. So the breath could be faster and a little bit sharper, right? Like, ah, ah, so that kind of breath allows us to access already a little bit more of those deeper states of our brain. So why is that? Because when you're moving the breath faster through your system, faster through your body. You're actually kind of depriving the brain of oxygen a little bit. But it's not to the point that it's dangerous. It's not to the point that you're going to, like, pass out or something. And if you ever do feel like you might do that, if you go to a breath work, press practice or class or something, and you feel like you're gonna pass out or you're super overwhelmed, always just stop, always just let it go, come back to those, like, more supportive, like regulating breaths. But this kind of breathing actually is such a key tool in being able to get past this logical brain and into those deeper states, right? So if you take a breath work class with me, I actually have one that should be pre recorded so I could actually share that in the show notes, so that you can have a deeper dive, and I give a much more comprehensive understanding of breath work and safety and precautions and how to do that safely in that class. So yeah, so if it's something you're not familiar with, please dive deeper. I'm just giving a very broad overview here. That's the first tool. The second tool is movement. So actually moving your body, letting your body move, letting your body have movement, allowing the breath to move with the movement, allowing yourself to notice sensation. So movement and then also mindfulness, right? So this is the third one is mindfulness and consciousness awareness, right? So this is just awareness of what is present in the moment as I'm moving my body as I'm sitting here. Can I notice the little bit of tension in my neck? Can I notice the little bit of like, openness in my chest. Can I notice the plantedness, the heaviness of my hips on the chair? Can I feel my feet on the ground? Can I, or rather, on the chair for me, because I have a funny little meditation sitting chair thing that I sit in, and so all of these things, just noticing what you feel in the moment, noticing sensations, noticing thoughts and emotions without getting attached to them. So it's kind of like a deeper layer of meditation, right? Where meditation is about noticing the thought, notice the feeling, and then let it go. You're noticing it, but you're also getting even more curious with it. You're getting even more intimate with it, you're getting even a little bit closer and a little bit more present and alive with the sensations that are present. The fourth tool is sound. So actually allowing yourself to ah sound if you feel a feeling inside of you, if your body naturally wants to sigh or yawn or just make a silly sound, whatever it is, allowing these movements is so beautiful. I just did a session recently and somebody apologized for yawning. I was like, no, please give me your yawns. More yawns, all the yawns that are present, right? It's so good for your body to have these natural releases. A yawn is releasing so much out of your jaw. Any way that you bought your body, your your system feels to move and express itself is usually your personal expression of embodiment, telling you that, yes, there is something ready to be here, there's something ready to be released here, there's something ready to be moved through. And the fifth tool is pleasure. So pleasure goodness, you can use them interchangeably. Pleasure can be something that's erotic or sexual, but it can also be something that's super sweet and innocent and has nothing to do with sexuality. That's why I like to use pleasure and goodness interchangeably, because it really just depends on the context. It depends on what state of mind you're in, which one is available to you, and which one will feel a little bit more supportive. And so you can connect to this quality of pleasure or goodness to just allow yourself to feel what feels good. We are so focused, especially in the healing world, on figuring out what the block is. Let's get you, you know, let's do the healing. We gotta, we gotta, you know, work through this issue. You have a problem, and we need to. We need to get you better or something. And it's, it's so much that we don't pause to just say, what would it feel like if I just. Allowed myself to feel good right now. What do I feel like if I just allowed myself to feel just 1% more pleasure and let that be okay? So those are the five tools. And the final thing I'll say to wrap this up so I can hop off to my next thing as well is, why do we need this in our culture today? Why is this so relevant now? Two huge reasons. One, same reason I started with, we are so connected to that logical brain, it is so powerful to have other ways to access those deeper states of ourselves. And two, it is such a powerful balance to a lot of the traditions that have become normalized in our culture, like meditation and yoga, those things are amazing, but they're not doing as much of the getting into the body, getting into the movement, getting into the sound. And so those things that are so powerful and so amazing and have given so much to like modern culture, to have the tools of meditation and yoga and things of that nature, it can tend to be rigid. And this is coming from somebody that's practiced yoga and meditation for over a decade. It can become rigid over time. It can create a sense of rigidity around what being conscious and what being, you know, working towards your self actualization, or whatever it is, can feel like and so all of the things around embodiment help us balance that out, help us bring it into more of a present moment. Here it is, here's the juiciness, here's the aliveness, here's the full spectrum of what is there in the moment. And it helps us create such a more beautiful, more balanced expression of our deeper states of being, our deeper states of consciousness, who we really are in the world, and helps us show up as more of who we are in the world as well. So I hope this was a short and sweet, comprehensive understanding of what is embodiment. I want this episode here so that you can always reference it if you don't know what the fuck I'm talking about when I'm talking about embodiment, and hopefully it will set the stage for us to be go going even deeper into how we can use these kind of tools to do things like experience more of what we want, better relationships, more sovereignty, living from our sovereign hearts. So yay. Thank you so much for listening, and I'll see you next time. Bye. You.
