What is Embodiment?
Em - Bodied: To be present, centered in one's body.
An ancient way of being, one that has been held within traditions across the globe and is now re-emerging into collective consciousness as a movement away from the overly patriarchal, mind-over-matter worldview that has been largely adopted in industrialized worlds, and into a more holistic, aligned way of living.
Embodiment is the natural state of being for us human beings. It is not a novel idea, but it also is not a call to "go back to the way things were." Instead, it is a call to deepen into all of the wisdom that is available to us in these modern times, and with it, to cultivate an internal state in which we are more grounded, centered, and aligned than humanity has ever been.
It does not take many words to point you to how disastrous our overly industrialized, mind over matter worldview has caused pain and suffering. What might take more convincing is the path that I offer us out of it:
- One that grounds us more fully into our humanity, and into the earthly nature of who we are
- One that brings us into deeper alignment with our highest potential (as individuals, but more importantly, as a human collective)
- One that continues to improve upon the power of the mind, just as it brings the mind into humble connection with the full wisdom of the body
- One that enables each of us to be in a greater state of presence: in tune with reality as it is unfolding such that we can skillfully be discerning our way through it all; and, so that we can more fully enjoy each moment for the gifts that each moment brings, and in doing so, come to that heaven is really here, on Earth, and is an experience that can be embodied, here and now
This is The Embodied Path, and it is with this website, including the free teaching material, the courses, and the 1:1 work, that I hope to open doors for you to pursue it:
So you may become more grounded, centered, aligned, and present to what matters more than ever before
Join me on this journey. I promise, each step of it all will be worth it:
- For you
- For the whole of life on Planet Earth
The Embodied Path: Foundational Principles
Below, you will see the core "states of being" that set our foundation for The Embodied Path. Before getting into this, I wish to first establish some ideas that set the greater stage for our work here together:
1. You Are Not Separate
You are part of a living whole — a web of life spanning all of Planet Earth — and everything that unfolds within you is in direct relationship with everything that unfolds around you.
You, as a sovereign human being, are woven into this web, not separate from it. What happens inside you and what happens "out there" are not two different stories — they're one story, told in two directions.
- Inward, this means you're free to explore your inner world — the mind/body connection — as a way to heal and to bring more light into your embodied experience. (Light, here, meaning wisdom, peace, abundance, compassion — the qualities we're all ultimately reaching for.)
- Outward, this means every relationship you're in — with a partner, a family, a community, your work, an animal, an ecosystem — is an opportunity. Each one is a chance to bring more light into the world, or more pain and shadow. Which brings us to the next principle.
2. You Have the Power to Shape It
You have real power to affect this world in every moment — and being here means choosing, again and again, to use that power in service of the whole rather than the self alone.
You, as a sovereign human being, are always in resonance with an intention to be a light in this world — to enter each moment hoping to leave things a little better for all of life. That means the old pattern of tearing self or others down for ego's sake no longer has a place here. Instead, we hold self and all of life with the intention to lift, to deepen, and to grow toward our highest good.
- When you notice an intention to hurt someone else, that's not a failure — it's information. It's an invitation to bring awareness, and from there, healing.
- Healing is always a choice worth making.
3. As Within, So Without
This one is the hardest to hold, and that's alright.
What serves the whole and what serves you are never actually in conflict — even when centuries of conditioning have taught us to believe they are.
Because you're interwoven with the whole web of life, and because you hold the intention to lift up all of life, no action you take can truly separate "what's good for me" from "what's good for everyone." Humanity has spent millennia believing otherwise — pitted against each other, taught by a hyper-individualized, competitive culture that one person's gain requires another's loss. Unlearning that takes real work. But underneath it:
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- An action that serves the whole is always in alignment with an action that serves the self.
- An action that serves the self is always in alignment with an action that serves the whole.
One final note before moving on to the skills & states you are here to cultivate:
If you find that you are not in full alignment with these principles, that's okay! Notice what resonates and what does not.
As someone who was originally trained as a scientist, I often like to hold ideas like these as "hypotheses" - this means I do not hold firm attachment to them being true, but instead holding space for them to play out the way I think they might, being an observer of whether or not reality supports this (or disagrees with this).
The Embodied Path: Key States of Being, including Skills to be Embodied
The following outlines the central states that we get to focus on cultivating as we take each step along The Embodied Path. Know that this short list of states is not all-encompassing, but what they do is to set a strong foundation for everything else we do!
As you begin to learn these key states, I invite you to not just think about them in your head, but to feel them in your body. It is the way these feel in your body, and the way that these feelings connect you to your lived experience, that matter.
- Grounding
- Center (similarly, Inner Stillness)
- Alignment
- Discernment
- Presence (An Embodied State of Awareness)
The idea for this section is to speak to the key skills to be developed as you understand the teachings and experience them through practice. As you learn and practice, with time, you will experience the embodiment of the higher states written above.
A note before jumping into this section: the list above shows 5 skills and states that we get to focus on during our work together. Please understand that this is not inclusive of the full range of embodiment or spiritual skills and states that you get to work on in this life. Still, I have selected these five states because they create a meaningful path worth following. They do this in a loosely sort of linear way (for example, finding grounding helps to find center, a state from which it is easier to come into alignment and be skillful in discernment). Also note that presence (which I define here as an embodied state of awareness) arises spontaneously as you experience the practices taught here and as you cultivate the prior 4 parts of the path.
Also, and perhaps more importantly, is to understand that this path is not a truly linear one. It is cyclical and iterative. You do not have to master step one before step two. Heck, you might be called to begin at step 3! More than this, what I really wish for you to understand is that the practices that are offered here will work on many of these steps at one time. Yes, there are practices that guide you intentionally towards grounding (many of them, actually), but these practices are going to be simultaneously helping you to embody the rest of "the path."
A second note on the use of "skills" and "states" is to speak to the fact that, most of the above terms can be used for either:
- a skill, being something you are becoming better at with the intention that it will help you, and it will help you to make the world a better place
- a state, being an embodied experience
For example, grounding is a skill that you can call upon with intention, but it is also a state that you can lean into, or experience spontaneously.
As the second example, the ability to live life centered, with a level of inner stillness (with calm, lack of chaos, and often clarity being similar characteristics) is a skill to be cultivated. Meanwhile, you may also naturally experience times of feeling centered, and you may lean into this state so that you may experience more of it.
I say this because I want you to understand that each of our foundational skills and states that we are developing here at ForestBody may be used in different ways:
- Grounding as a practice; Grounding as a state being cultivated
- Stillness as a practice; Stillness as a state being cultivated
- etc.
As I say this, I wish to reiterate a most important point written up above:
The states and skills we are developing are interwoven and interdependent. They are not necessarily learned in a linear method, but instead, cultivated as you follow your own path through the healing and growth that you are ready for.
Let's break this apart.
First, recognize that the five key states and skills written above are not separate, distinct experiences, but actually have a large amount of overlap. For example:
- Grounding can be practiced directly and intentionally, such as in my favorite Deep Roots Guided Meditation. When this meditation is practiced, there is a significant amount of presence and inner stillness that is also being cultivated. From this space, alignment, then discernment may arise.
- Finding center, or cultivating Inner stillness can be practiced directly and intentionally, such as by doing a thought-based or breath-based meditation. When this meditation is practiced, there is a significant amount of presence that is being cultivated. However, a breath-based meditation may be far more grounding than a thought-based one.
- Alignment practices are invoked to bring multiple parts of self into connection, and therefore, to bring you into more skillful alignment. This being said, every time you skillfully work on any part of self, you are already moving into deeper alignment. (note, I say "skillfully work on any part of self" because it is possible to devote too much time and energy into one aspect, and therefore cause a great imbalance, which in turn will move you out of alignment).
Second, recognize that there is no "correct order" to follow to pursue these skills and states. What I mean is, you do not have to do 1 to then get to 2, to then get to 3, and so on.
In actuality, The Embodied Path is less like a strict path to be followed and more like a garden to be cultivated. The "path" part of the framing speaks to the journey that you, yourself, gets to walk as you take each step. But this path is winding. It is a spiral. You are allowed to take steps forward, then back.
But you are not following the same exact footsteps as others. Although, you are, of course, free to take note of the footsteps made my others, and choose to follow (or to go your own way), which is a skill encompassed by the term discernment.
As you take each step, you are creating a life of your own that is your own beautiful creation. As you become more aligned and discerning, you come to live a life that is more authentic to your true nature, and in turn, you experience the joy and fulfillment that you are here to embody.
The Best Way to Navigate This Website: Guidance for Cultivating Your Fundamentals
Given everything said on this page, there are two things I want you to take away.
The first is that your spiritual path is your own. It is not something to copy/paste from someone else's version of what needs to be done. Instead, it is your path to walk, and you can walk it with more skill, more grace, more joy, more peace, and all those good things as you take each step forward.
This being said, guidance along your path is essential. Not so you can skip on the important lesson that is cultivating your own discernment, but because as human beings, we are meant to be deeply and powerfully connected.
The second is that your spiritual path is interwoven with the whole of life here on Planet Earth. The ancient adage is true: "As within, so without."
When you work on Self, you are working with The Greater Whole.
When you turn your attention to The Greater Whole, you cannot pretend that every aspect of Self is also present and being worked.
Combined, what this means is that, at any moment on your path through it all, you get to choose:
- to focus on Self
- to focus on The Greater Whole
As you do, know that, really, it's all the same thing.
This let's you let go of any b.s. idea of selfishness. If it is truly in serve to you, then it is truly in service to the whole. If it is truly in service to the whole, then it is serving you (at least in a soulful and spiritual way... even if your ego temporarily disagrees).
I say all of this, because my highest guidance for you is that you follow your intuition as it leads you through this work.
Allow your intuition to take you into the practices that speak to you. Allow your power of will to hold you to the fire when things become challenging (yet you know that you are working towards cultivating a higher state).
Feel free to jump around. Again, there is no right or wrong way to do things here. I mean, sure, there are better ways and worse ways, which is why I am here as your guide and teacher (and why I offer 1:1 sessions so that we can be in direct communication).
However, as long as you hold the power of your sovereignty, the devotion to your spiritual growth, and the knowing that guidance is here when you need it, then I know that you will thrive in this space.