What Embodiment Is + Why It Matters

Embodiment is a radical science, a field of psychology, a life-changing method, and a lineage of ancestral wisdom that improves physical, emotional, and social well-being. Its key revelation is that the body has a mind—a power, presence, and awareness—of its own, and this awareness shapes us as much as we shape it.

Many people are aware that well-being requires a strong mind-body connection. And yet, it’s hard to pinpoint what exactly the body part of that connection entails. Over the last decade, science has shed new light on the factors that lead to well-being, but some of the most important insights into the body’s true potential haven’t yet reached mainstream understanding.

From a young age, most of us learn about the five major senses that help us process the world around us: sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. Yet we have inner senses, too, which help us perceive the world inside our body in relationship to the world around us. These include:

Interoception, the ability to feel what’s happening inside our body. We might sense muscle soreness following a workout, fullness in our belly after a meal, or the speed of our heartbeat. Just as the smell of something burning alerts us to a fire, our ability to note a change in sensations like heart rate can protect our health. Interoception also affects our emotional health: difficulty receiving or interpreting the body’s signals plays a role in illnesses such as anxiety, depression, chronic pain, eating and body image disorders, and addictions.

Proprioception is the ability to know where we are in space and to regulate the space around us, particularly as we move. We engage this sense when we walk through our neighborhood, exercise, or recover from an injury. We lose proprioception as we age; luckily, science is beginning to discover how we can cultivate it—and why it matters that we do.

Body agency is the freedom to move in a way that matches our intentions. It forms the basis for self-determination. We express agency when we’re thirsty and get a glass of water, ride our bike up a nearby hill, resist someone’s attempts to control us, or work together with someone toward a common goal. A compromised sense of agency contributes to anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, addictions, narcissism, and schizophrenia.

Body ownership is the sense that our body belongs to us. This is me-ness, the awareness that the body in motion is ours. The relationship and sense of belonging we have with our bodies shape our identity and sense of self.

Body resonance is the ability to feel empathically the experience of others. This sense manifests in the visceral response we have to someone else’s pain or emotions, and is the foundation of health, boundaries, and mutuality in relationships.

Our hidden inner senses are vital to survival. They influence every aspect of our lives, from anxiety and depression to gut health, from disease-causing inflammation to chronic pain, from personal well-being to the quality of our relationships to the welfare of our communities.

Together, these senses form a meta-sense that strengthens every other means of perception we have. They open up a hidden dimension of awareness, a valuable new way of experiencing our bodies, other people, and the world around us.

Our inner senses are the wellspring of every practice that enhances health—and which we often try to manage individually, like exercise, nutrition, and sleep. The term for the awareness of these senses—not just that we have a body, but what’s happening inside the body we have—is embodiment. To access these senses and cultivate them is what it means to be embodied.

Why is embodiment so important now? Despite global advancements in medicine, we feel worse than ever. In growing numbers, we struggle with anxiety, depression, and addictions. We endure mystery inflammation, chronic pain, fatigue, and malaise. We suffer constant stress and emotional strain. We steep in social and political polarization. We’ve tried everything we can to feel better, but nothing has moved the needle on our suffering. And the current pandemic has exacerbated emotional distress worldwide.

In laboratories worldwide, researchers are studying the inner senses. Their discoveries are leading to a novel understanding of the mind-body relationship. We’ve been told for so long that we need to train the mind with meditation or psychotherapy in order to heal the brain and body. Or that we need to rewire the brain through medication or neurofeedback to change the mind and body. My work is rooted in the idea that the path to wellness involves more than therapy and medication. The science of embodiment offers life-changing news: training the inner body (and the relationship we have with it) cam change the mind and brain.

People who connect with the body’s inner senses enjoy significant benefits. They have a greater sense of focus and willpower. They perform better at sports. They regulate their emotions better. (Being present with sensations builds a visceral resilience that translates directly to emotional resilience.) It alleviates chronic pain more effectively than painkillers. (This makes it a potential lifesaver in the global battle against opiate addiction.) And it’s more powerful than cognitive treatment in the epic struggle for a better body image. (Studies show that being present in our body makes us feel better about our body). These benefits result not from any aspect of our physicality—size, shape, weight, level of conditioning, or ability—but from the inner life of the body and the connection we have with it.

Our inner senses also influence the way we engage with our social world. From personal feelings like anger or sadness to social feelings like envy or distrust, emotions begin as sensations in the body. The ability to tune into our inner senses and connect with the body experience of a partner, child, or friend helps us be more empathic and less reactive. It makes our relationships more authentic and satisfying.

Our inner senses belong to us, but also connect to a larger social body. The sensory intelligence that balances emotions and improves relationships can help to address larger societal problems. According to social scientists, we tend to identify with people who resemble us and can harbor implicit bias toward those who don’t. The body makes a difference. Military organizations know this: When soldiers who have little in common move in synchrony, they forge profound bonds. The same is true of dancers, sports teams, and people in group exercise classes as well as other social and political settings.

The body is as social as it is personal, as public as it is intimate. Consider the news: the COVID-19 pandemic, school shootings, domestic terrorism, sexual harassment and assault, the erosion of abortion rights, systemic racism and prejudice, mass incarceration and police violence, and the separation and abuse of undocumented families and children. These are examples of forced disembodiment, which attacks not just the body’s physicality but its power, presence, and awareness, and the damage trickles through to every aspect of our lives.

Dominant cultural groups use forced disembodiment to acquire and maintain power over others for social, political, and financial gain. Boys and men of color are forced to limit body movement and how they speak or dress to make themselves appear less threatening, reduce the risk of police brutality, and ensure their safety. Women and other vulnerable bodies experience epidemic levels of sexual assault and harassment. People with disabilities face body erasure in a world that values able bodies.

In these contexts, cultivating our inner senses is an act of reclamation and resistance. This hidden dimension of body experience restores a missing piece of our humanity and with it a true sense of meaning, purpose, and belonging.

PRACTICE SECTION.

Spot the Box: Tracking Your Body Bias

For the next week, notice the comments you make about your body, whether to yourself, loved ones, or groups of people. It will take a little practice to develop your “ear” for body comments, so allow yourself time. Record these comments in your journal.

Also listen for and take note of the comments others make about their bodies (or yours), including those you hear on television, see in advertisements, or spot on social media. Record these in your journal.

When the week is over, rewrite your comments in one column, and the comments you hear from other sources in a second column so you can see them side by side. What do you notice? How are they similar? Different? Record your reflections in your journal. Consider coming back to this exercise over time and adding to your reflections.