In 2006, I was enrolled in a year-long yoga teacher training with Vishali Varga.
One weekend, we spent an entire day focused on observing downward-facing dog in each trainee. We discovered a range of ways that bodies can inhabit this basic yoga pose, and we learned to give different types of instructions about how to come into better alignment.
When it was my turn to be observed and coached, Vishali said:
“She has so much access to movement that she doesn’t know which way to go.”
That one experience, that one simple sentence summed up a lot about the physical form that I inhabit and my way of being in the world.
So many choices, which way to go?
the shed at Inspiration Community
Seven years later, I was taking the 8-week course that is the signature offering at Jessica Dibb’s Inspiration Community.
Jessica was facilitating one of my favorite exercises, where she calls each person into the center of the room and gives them an essential quality to inhabit. It is remarkable to see how the attuned naming of Essence instantly transforms people. I watched my classmates become Sweetness, Freedom, Diamond Value.
About halfway through, I knew that I was going to be last, and something inside of me began to crack. I stopped comparing myself to what anyone else was expressing and began to say to myself “Everyone is that and I am that.”
And so when Jessica said,
“Julie, be All — ”
I was completely present and available to inhabit All, not from any concept, but from a place of embodiment.
What was the difference from 2006?
Having access to so much movement was no longer a problem to be solved. I wasn’t stuck in my head trying to figure out which way my body “should” go. I had gained enough felt experience with inhabiting myself over the last seven years that I could trust whatever wanted to flow through the vessel that is me.
Body Practice is The Only Way To Experience Your Embodiment
I’ve read a lot of books as part of my coaching, yoga, and breathwork studies (you can see some of my favorites above). Each of them has opened up critical avenues to deepen my conceptual understanding of what can and does happen through the body.
It’s hard to communicate just how much I love books.
And also, they are not a substitute for embodied practice.
No matter how robust, clear, descriptive, or sophisticated a book is, no matter how well-studied or well-accepted a particular model is, if you are reading or attending a workshop about the body, you are primarily using your head center.
Of course, the intelligence of the heart and head are paramount to our development as fully-expressed human beings. Yet without the foundation of an alive body, our knowledge is theoretical.
Embodied practice has helped me to understand and stand in myself in a way that no book or lecture could ever teach me.
I feel deep gratitude to the many teachers who have helped me to experience this knowing.
Opportunities for Body-Based Practice
Accessing Your Inner Guidance in Chaotic Times: I recorded this practice at the beginning of COVID in 2020, and it continues to be a useful way to come to a place of dynamic stillness in the body so that the mind can be clearer.
IEA Keynote Reprise, The Paradox of Movement Into the Beyond: Sunday, July 10 from 12-1:30 pm ET. This presentation and practice session will help you to embody yourself in space and time, and give you the opportunity to have a direct experience of the power of the Law of Three. Free registration here. Recording distributed to all who register.
Alive in Your Medicine, A Four-Day Journey with Breath, Community, and the Elements: September 14-18, 2024 at the UnU Center in Embudo, New Mexico. Ready to take a deeper dive into cultivating your embodiment? Join me on a transformative, embodied journey with a dedicated group of participants for an immersive experience with breath and nature. You will leave with a deeper felt sense of who you are and what truly brings you alive. Learn more and apply here.