Why I Practice Embodiment
The other day, my Tai Chi teacher, Linda Brown, was observing me and the other students in class, in order to get a sense of how we are embodying the form we’re learning. Her feedback to us was: “Be in the moment because that’s where the power is.”
That principle of ‘be in the moment, that’s where the power is’ is central to the Chen-Style Hunyuan Tai Chi I study. I experience it as a reminder to not get ahead of the move I’m in, to relax into the move so I can fully express it, so I can fully be the move itself.
Linda’s wisdom landed deep, right into my heart and the marrow of my bones. It’s as profound as it is elusive for my own embodiment practice, for my own maturation and re-learning as a human being how to be my best in the world. Learning to Be in the Moment also is one of the main reasons I left a “real” job and started coaching and teaching Zapchen Somatics and embodied meditation.
One of the remarkable things about body-based, somatic practices is that, if practiced over time, they cultivate the capacity to Be in the Moment. Having practices that help us relax into the moment is really helpful because of the existential undercurrents that hold us back.
I’ll give you an example. I notice in myself a reaching for the next moment so it doesn’t get away. Rising up and out to the next thought, the next response, the next action, the next thing to admire, the next item on the to-do list. Call it an existential fear of resting in the moment because: What if the next moment doesn’t come? That will mean: Life-as-I-know-it is over. My clients do their own versions of this, too. It’s one of the main bugaboos of being human.
This grab moves us further away from the power of our aliveness. Practicing embodiment helps loosen the grip on the grab to get ahead of ourselves. If we do the practices.
Zapchen Somatics and some other embodiment practices cultivate our capacity to rest back and down into the moment and, over time, into consecutive moments. Relaxing into ourselves allows the power of our aliveness inside to move freely and release into effective action, kindness and wisdom.
How do the practices do this? They themselves are the form that is the expression of the experience of being aliveness as body, energy and presence. In the case of Zapchen Somatics, the forms are combinations of movement, breath, sound, and touch. The more we do the practices, the more we are shaped by them. We build capacity to open to more of what that lives inside us.
When I ask myself, why bring this work to my teeny-tiny-speck-of-a-corner on this planet? Because it’s an experiential truth that embodiment practice helps regular people, like me, to be at ease in the moment and feel our powerful aliveness. And who wouldn’t want to join that caravan?
From my heart to yours,
Marla
Practicing Tai Chi with the Rabbits of Sydney, Australia.
