The path to the self: what is embodiment and how does connection to the body affect consciousness?

In today’s society, body awareness is increasingly talked about as a way of finding one’s true self and creating inner harmony. Embodiment implies close contact between the body and thought. Feeling it, learning to manage it, you can reach a new, better level of life. Let’s find out how to do it together with Ruslan Panov, expert-methodologist and coordinator of the direction of group programs X-Fit in Russia, expert of the International Festival of Health and Sports SN PRO EXPO FORUM.

How do thoughts affect the body?

The expression “a healthy body – a healthy spirit” goes back to the distant past and does not lose its relevance today. The human body is more than a vehicle of consciousness – it is a symbiosis of physical and metaphysical, matter and energy. Modern conditions: pace of life, emotional stress, gadgets, Internet – all this provokes concentration on thoughts and external factors – attributes of success, prosperity and material comfort. And the body as a link connecting these worlds is taken for granted. Many people believe that if you do nothing, nothing will happen to it, and the body will function for a long time without any problems.

Often people pay little attention to how long they are in one posture, how they perform basic habitual movements: walking, taking things and the like. And at this time, due to the influence of gravitational force, any “poor quality” movement leads to compensatory changes in the spine. Compensation clamps the central nervous system with shifted or tilted vertebrae, which leads to its incorrect work.

What does this have to do with “bodily intelligence”? Directly! The nervous system (central and peripheral) is essentially the brain of the body, it controls all processes, regulates movements and reactions. Thoughts also depend on its state: if something hurts, there will be an unpleasant atmosphere in thinking as well. At the same time, most people get used to living, believing that the body only moves the consciousness in space, and not paying due attention to it.

How to befriend the body and mind?

Embodiment is a practice that allows you to first teach the body to think, and then to get along and cooperate with the mind. This direction appeared in 1960-1970s for rehabilitation of people after serious physical or psycho-emotional traumas. The essence of it consists in conscious performance of physical exercises or complexes. The choice of training can be very different: from martial arts to massage practices – any direction is suitable.

But embodiment is not only the integration of the training process into the life process. It is a serious coaching work, where a specialist teaches you to feel and perceive any movement, right down to breathing. This is necessary for tuning the nervous system and clearing thoughts from background slag. After that, one accepts one’s body as a companion with whom one can communicate. The ideology of embodiment is based on achieving happiness not externally, but internally, which a person gets from the life path itself and its realization.

How are embodiment and functional training related?

Functional training methodology fits perfectly under the ideology of embodiment. By building a neutral body position, for example in balance, functional strength and reactivity exercises, it is possible to train the central nervous system to control stabilizers. These are the muscles responsible for almost any movement, maintaining correct body posture and preventing injury.

During training, natural motor skills become reflexes and are transferred into everyday life. As an added benefit, functional training frees the channels of the nervous system, improving the quality of its functioning.

Embodiment is an excellent practice in body awareness and acceptance, proving that through movement you can indeed become happy and achieve harmony with yourself and the world around you.