You may have heard the word ‘embodied’ in a yoga class, or a coaching session or as you scroll through your socials where every unqualified person wants to remind us that if only we could embody abundance we’d all be rich - sorry not sorry but that does drive me a little bit batty!
The neuroscience behind the word, the idea of embodiment is this. The more of our senses we use to connect with our clarity, our values, our dharma, and with the essence of who we are, the more opportunity the different parts of our brain have to focus on. The simplest example is one I have to remind myself of every single week. I am not a runner unless I actually run. If I only use my thoughts inside my mind for running, I’ll never actually run anywhere. So I have to use my other senses. I use language and my voice to tell my friends what races I’ve signed up to. I get my running gear out and put it on the bed and look at it for a while. Eventually I put it on and lace up my shoes. Some days I even go out and use my body to actually run - which admittedly feels really good. I read about running, about training, about what to eat for long runs. I post a photo on socials that I went running. And all of a sudden I’m no longer someone who thinks about running, I’m a real life runner.
The latest one I’m playing with - because it is playful and life and the way we live it is a game - is ‘I’m building a global, nature-based empire to uplift women’. These words help me stop playing small and to start making decisions that feel more expansive, more connected to Mother Nature and more ‘all in’ for women everywhere. This kind of narrative gave me the courage to bring on admin support - because if I’m leading a global empire I can’t be the one doing all the admin all the time right? Me embodying building an empire to uplift women helps me say no to events and teaching requests that are not exclusively for women, or that don’t align with my values of integrity and connection.
So whoever the YOUest version of you is go embody her today. Sometimes we have to start small, pick one thing that feels like embodying the truest version of ourselves. If your soul is craving art and you work in a mansplaining office with no windows, maybe today’s embodiment is stopping at a free gallery after work, or doodling on your notepad through every boring meeting or buying a print from your favourite artist or walking through the park on the way home to notice the artistry of Mother Nature. The thing we so often forget, because we are fed the lie that change only happens with dramatic events, is that it only takes us turning up for ourselves over and over again, it only takes us consistently creating a series of small actions and feelings that align with who we really are, to become that version of ourselves on the day to day. I only have to run once a week to be a runner. The most wonderful thing about this approach is that it comes with an incredible snowball effect. And that effect is our brain’s Default Network Mode (yep that’s right, we talked about that earlier in The Rewilded Woman), reprogramming itself to look for more of what we are feeding it. So every tiny action and thought you have that feels like you being unapologetically you, is putting you back on the path to re-become yourself. Isn’t it wild?!
So embody the YOUest version of you today, do it again tomorrow, and the next day and then watch how life suddenly begins to feel like it’s supporting you to be more like yourself. Some call it a miracle, I call it science, either way you’ll be playing the game of life on your own terms.
I love you, thank you so much for being here and I’ll see you very soon for more of The Rewilded Woman.