What Are Embodiment Practices in Psychology?

Embodiment practices use the body as a tool for healing through self-awareness, mindfulness, connection, self-regulation, finding balance, and creating self-acceptance. Embodiment explores the relationship between our physical being and our energy. It involves the interaction of our body, thoughts, and actions.

Embodiment practices fall under the umbrella of somatic psychology. Somatic psychology assumes:

• Events impact our physical, emotional, cognitive, and spiritual being as a whole.
• All events must be processed through our sensory systems.
• Thoughts are physiological and occur throughout the body, not just the mind.

Embodiment practices often use dance or movement therapy, visualization, sensory awareness, and progressive muscle relaxation. Using embodiment practices in psychotherapy might involve a client identifying sensations as topics are explored in session to expand the healing process.

Embodiment is cultivated through an integration of three sensory feedback systems (Korner, Topolinski, & Strack, 2015):

• Exteroception, which is sensing the external environment through the body (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, skin) to the brain. A good example of this would be a mindfulness exercise that focuses on paying attention to specific sensations.
• Proprioception refers to the sensory feedback of the body related to gravity. Proprioception happens when neurons bring sensory information from the joints of the body and inner ear to the brain. A yoga practice or embodiment practices using dance are examples of this.
• Interoception involves the sensory experience of the internal body. It may include a sense of hunger, thirst, alertness, body temperature, pain, or tension. It provides feedback about emotional experiences facilitated by sensory neurons that bring information from muscles, organs, and connective tissue to the brain. A mindful eating exercise would be a good example of this.

Movement Grounding

Grounding is the act of using the mind and body to clear excess energy away.

It is the act of getting closer to the earth, or putting our feet firmly on the ground. Grounding is a fundamental skill, not just in magic and ritual, but in everyday life too. It is one of the basic tools to be used in energy work and is a necessary skill for all people, especially those who intentionally work with energy, and people who can be quite high strung or anxious.

There are many ways to ground. You will find different methods work for you better than others. I do best with physical techniques, but grounding visualisations can also be useful. This is just one example:

Visualization Method

1. Sit, lie or stand somewhere quiet. Close your eyes (if you wish). Focus on your breathing and try to breathe from your diaphragm (just below the lungs) instead of high up in your chest. Consciously slow your breathing down.

2. Focus on your muscles, particularly tight spots like your shoulders, hands, feet, chest, head/forehead and neck. As you breath in and out, see your muscles relaxing.

3. Imagine that you are a large tree in a wide open field. You have branches that reach to the sky, and roots that reach all the way down, deep into the earth. As you exhale, send all your excess energy or stress, or bad feelings down through your spine, through your legs, and into the roots in the ground. There the earth will recycle or use that energy as it needs it.

4. Continue to do this for as long as you feel you need to, always aware of your slow breathing, and the energy that you’re directing away. Feel yourself as a strongly rooted tree. You are always connected to the earth, and you are comfortable and stable.

5. When you have finished, become aware of your body by focusing on things like; the sensation of what you’re lying / sitting / standing on, the feel of any breeze or clothing on your skin, the heaviness of your flesh etc. Make sure that you focus on physical sensations because this is very helpful to the grounding process.

6. Wiggle your toes and fingers. Open your eyes (if you closed them). You should be feeling much more calm and relaxed without feeling spacey, foggy or like you’re floating. This feeling of stability is known as being ‘grounded.’

Visualization 1 can be adapted so that you are sitting against an actual tree and sending your energy through the tree, instead of through yourself. Sitting in nature can be very helpful when it comes to grounding. It can also be adapted for sitting against rocks / buildings / or anything that has part of its structure go deep into the ground. The reason we send excess energy there is because the earth stores it and uses it for later, it safely removes excess energy away from other people, and the element of Earth is a grounding and stabilizing element.

Physical Methods

If you are quite a high-strung or anxious person (i.e. get stressed easily, lose control of your breathing, aren’t very in touch with your body) or aren’t used to energy work, then visualization isn’t always the most effective method. In some pagan groups, it is common to eat after ritual, and one of the reasons for this is that physical activity like the consumption of food and drink is very grounding!

Consider the following activities:

Eating and Drinking

When you have just finished a ritual, or are noticing that you’re feeling very stressed out, consider grounding through slowly eating and drinking. Eat simple foods, like some bread, or some fruit or cheese, and savor it. Know that you are sharing with the bounty of the earth, and really notice the flavors and the action of chewing and swallowing. When you drink (hot beverages like tea are really fantastic for grounding), do so slowly, savor each sip and focus entirely on what you are doing. As you narrow your focus, you also force all that excess energy to drift away so that you become grounded and stable.

Stretching

Stretching is a wonderful way to ground. Find stretches that are gentle on your body (such as stretching your arms towards the ceiling, or bending down and letting the energy flow out of your hands into the ground directly). The key word with stretching is to go slow. Slow your breathing down, focus on how it feels to move your muscles, and if you feel pain then stop! This should feel good, not painful.

Mundane Chores

Simple household chores are actually extremely grounding, they require physical activity, but they are also generally simple and repetitive, and this combination makes them excellent for helping you to contain your stress and excess energy and focus. When vacuuming or sweeping, imagine that you are sucking up all the negative energy into the vacuum, or sweeping it away. You can even imagine that the vacuum is sucking up your own excess energy. While washing the dishes, become aware of the sensation of water around your hands, and the feeling of the earth against your fingers (most kitchen implements after all, come from the Earth element).

Having a Shower or Bath

Taking a shower or bath can literally help you to ‘wash’ excess stress and energy away. One of my favorite visualizations while in the shower every morning, is to imagine all my negative and unwanted energy flowing down the drain. It is very refreshing, and the warm water helps us to stay focused on our body instead of letting our head drift into the clouds (which is the opposite of grounding). When cleaning your body, you can literally ‘scrub away the bad energy’ through visualization, or wash away the stress.

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The basic goal of grounding is to make sure that you are calm, focused and stable so that you feel more in control (particularly for stress-related problems) and that you are not carrying around excess energy from ritual which can be problematic! Ground before and after ritual, when you’re stressed out, after visualisation, and whenever you feel it’s necessary! You can do the physical exercises whenever you want to, and if you try and do them once a day you will notice a difference in your general well-being.

Give one or two of them a try and see how you go!