Prevention, Body Awareness & Embodiment

PREVENTION

For many years I’ve been frustrated that our health care rarely include the topic of prevention. We would be healthier and save a lot of money if a portion of our resources were focused on the prevention of dis-ease. Recently an older adult client told me they wish they had been given better education about how to stay healthy from the start. There is a lot of information available but our health care is mostly focused on sick care.

In this SARS-CoV-2 world we are starting to talk about prevention. How to prevent getting and sharing the disease by socially distancing, wearing a mask, washing our hands and there’s even discussion about how to prevent severe outcomes from the disease. My dad texted me the other day, “I read today that 80% of people hospitalized for Covid are vitamin D deficient.” So making sure you’re getting some sun or supplementing seems to prevent severe disease. Many health conditions that plague us could also be prevented if people were more aware.

BODY AWARENESS

Body awareness is having the ability to recognize the subtle cues from body. Since childhood we are told to do the opposite. Sit still! Don’t move! It still happens, my son got after school “refocus” when he was 5 for wiggling on the carpet! Even as an adult I was with a date standing on line to order food and I did Eagle Pose, because it felt good. He was embarrassed and asked me to stop.

There are multiple studies that show having increased body awareness helps with managing chronic disease (low back pain, congestive heart failure, IBS) but might we even prevent those conditions if we were aware of our body and how it was communicating with us before these issues begin. When we are not connected and listening to our bodies then we won’t hear the whispers until they become shouts.

Often when giving someone bodywork they will remark, “Oh wow, I didn’t even know that was sore before you touched it.” This illustrates how often we are cut off from parts of ourself and it makes sense to me that it leads to dis-ease. As soon as you notice a small niggling, you can make a change to support your health rather verses letting things go until your body forces you to stop and pay attention.

When you are tuned in with your body you are the expert. You know that sleeping that way causes pain, that food doesn’t make you feel great and not stretching before doing that hurts. Every body is different. How people respond to a drug can be different, some people are allergic to peanuts while other’s aren’t. Your personal chemistry is unique and your body will give you so much information.

LIVING EMBODIED

This James Joyce quote is the exact opposite of being embodied. “Embodiment is the practice of attending to your sensations. Awareness of your body serves as a guiding compass to help you feel more in charge of the course of your life. Somatic awareness provides a foundation for empathy, helps you make healthy decisions, and gives important feedback about your relationships with others. Embodiment. . . applies mindfulness and movement practices to awaken body awareness as a tool for healing.”-Dr. Arielle Schwartz

Becoming embodied is a life long practice. The keys for me is do what feels good in your body, just starting to notice. Spend one moment in the morning noticing how your body feels, connect your feet to the ground. Be curious and be playful. I spent many years working with a Hakomi (Somatic) Therapist which really helped. One of my favorite practices I still do regularly is just tuning in with my body and asking a question. Noticing how it feels. Think about something you know you love, like chocolate and notice how you feel, then think of something you know you don’t love and notice. I used to do that a lot about going out at night and sometimes I do it about driving home a certain way. Movement practices like Yoga, Tai Chi and QiGong are great for helping with body awareness. Progressive Relaxation is a good tool to tune into signals from your body.

If you’d like any other tools or coaching around becoming more embodied please reach out! Get in your body!