The Case for Embodiment

What is embodiment, anyway?

"Embodiment" wasn't even a thing when I started practicing yoga. Now it's plastered across every wellness Instagram account, therapy website, and retreat description like some kind of spiritual cure-all. Look, I’m guilty of it too.

I know the word has been beaten to death. Commodified. Stripped of its actual meaning and sold back to us as another thing we're supposed to achieve.

And yet. AND YET.

26 years ago I experienced my first yoga class, and everything changed.

When my body became ‘real’

I was lying in savasana when it happened for the the first time I could remember, I felt my full presence in my body. Not the mental story about my body, not the constant criticism, not the disconnect—just being in it. I felt a little bit like the Velveteen Rabbit - real at last!

I wept tears of joy. And then, almost immediately, tears of terror.

Was it even safe to be in my body? To actually feel what was happening in there?

That question blew my whole world apart and changed my course in life.

The ruination of a word

Here's what drives me crazy: we're all technically embodied because we're alive. You don't get to be a disembodied spirit floating around unless you're dead. However, the wellness industry has taken this word and transformed it into another product, another destination, and another thing you're failing at if you're not "embodied enough."

Complete nonsense.

Real embodiment—the kind that actually matters—is about being aware of and connected to what's happening inside your body in the present moment. It's interoception and proprioceptive capacity, but let's skip the fancy words because they're just more ways to make simple things sound complicated.

Embodiment is this: knowing what's happening inside you, moment by moment, and having the courage to stay present with it.

Even when it sucks. Especially when it sucks.

Your body isn’t the enemy

After decades of working through and healing the trauma I experienced and learning how to stay present and feel my feelings without getting crushed by them, here's what I know: embodiment isn't about achieving some blissed-out state where everything feels good. That's spiritual bypassing dressed up in yoga pants.

Embodiment is about being alive and awake enough to navigate the shitstorm AND the beauty with equal presence.

Here's what actually happens when you stop running from your body:

Your clarity becomes a polished diamond. All of your power exists in the present moment, and the present moment is happening in your body. Not in your head, not in your fantasies about the future or your stories about the past. Right here, right now, in the messy reality of sensation and breath and heartbeat.

Healing stops being theoretical. Healing becomes a grounded way of being—not doing—where you find clarity and power with what is. Not with what you wish your body was, not with some future version of yourself, but with the reality of right now. Healing isn't fixing yourself or achieving perfect health or always feeling blissed out—that's wellness industry bullshit. It's developing a relationship of care and dignity with the body you actually live in: chronic conditions, aging, pain, trauma, scars and all.

You stop being a victim of your reactions. When you're embodied, you respond to what's actually happening instead of reacting from old wounds and ancient fears. This is where real power lives—not in controlling everything, but in showing up fully for whatever is.

The hard truth about coming home

I still catch myself throwing around "embodiment" like it's some magical solution everyone should want. Because it is that important—profoundly, life-changingly important. But I also understand the "HELL NO, GET ME OUT OF HERE" response.

Being in your body can feel dangerous. It brings up everything you've been avoiding. It's messy and uncomfortable and the exact opposite of the Instagram version of wellness.

Your body holds your joy AND your terror. Your power AND your pain. Your clarity AND your confusion. Coming home to it means feeling all of it, not just the pretty parts.

But here's what I've learned in my own healing and in working with clients who do this work: embodiment isn't the easy choice. It's not the comfortable choice. It's not the socially acceptable "love and light" choice.

It's the choice that lets you actually live your one wild and precious life instead of just surviving it or trying to escape it.

I don’t promise to stop using the word embodiment, because sister, I want a world of embodied humans who are present, clear, and empowered to live pain-free and create on purpose. May it be so.

Are you experiencing pain, tension, or a chronic condition? I work with people who want the real thing—not the Instagram version of embodiment. Join me for Restoration sessions to stop fighting your body and find your clarity and your power in the healing.