Research Paper By Laura Valenti
(Embodiment and Holistic Coach, SPAIN)
Introduction
Knowledge is only a rumor until it is in the muscle.’[1] (Papua New Guinea Proverb)
I believe that we live in a time where it is necessary to expand our sensitivity, and this includes the possibility to embrace our bodies as a source of intelligence and wisdom.
Therefore, I decided to explore in this research paper the importance of embodied awareness in coaching. For me, this is a significant field that we can include in our current cultural, historical, and social context. It is also very dear to my heart, as I have been an apprentice to the School of Movement Medicine (a mindful form of dance) since 2009, and I have been exploring the themes of holistic health, body intelligence, personal and collective growth and transformation in the last twenty years.[2]
Psychology, during the twentieth century, has taken a robust cognitive approach. Western medicine created a paradigm where we see the body as an assemblage of parts that we need to treat separately.
For more than 2500 years, the body had a ‘bad’ reputation. The philosopher Xenophanes wrote: ‘If a man wins victory in wresting boxes, he is given a seat off-hour at the games, yet, he is not worthy as I am. My wisdom is better than human strength or horses; it is wholly unfair to rank strength above my wisdom.’
Greek philosophy started to construct the idea of higher, more abstract, more pure, eternal, intelligence. At the same time, the body is impermanent, and it can get sick, injured. Up there is possible to be enlightened and reach higher states.
Aristotle proposed a system of education for the body. He affirmed that physical and mental training needed to be separated as they ‘counteract each other.’
Christianity also built a culture where the flesh is an instrument of sin. Various philosophies, in general, and religions, see body and soul as divided, and the body is an object that needs purification.
Especially the work of Descartes in Europe heightened and sublimated this separation between mind and body. Cogito, ergo sum is the Latin philosophical proposition by Descartes, usually translated into English as ‘I think, therefore I am.’
This narrative often leads to perceive emotions as something to manage, control, that disrupt intelligence and are mostly childish or primitive.
We evolved collectively, seeing the intellect, logic, and reason as separate from the ‘brutality’ of the body and inner awareness. We located intelligence in the head and the brain.[3]
We see this today also in new age culture. ‘Higher’ is presented versus ‘lower,’ spirit needs to elevate and transcend the body; higher levels are planes for light, purity, ‘better vibration,’ and eternal life. Many spiritual circles praise the ‘upper chakras’ versus the more instinctual, primitive and animal-like ones.
We live in a world that encourages us to spend much time up in our heads. We are over-stimulated with information and time in front of the screen, and we can disconnect from our bodies very quickly. We are removed from our natural habitat, live in a disembodied way, and know that sedentary life kills more than tobacco.[4]
We worry a lot about how we look; we compare our image to others; we are not entirely at home in our bodies and comfortable in our skin. Frequently, we relate to our bodies as if they are just a piece of flesh that we need to move, fix, numb, stimulate, medicate, put on a diet, or control. Most of us are numb to many subtle sensations, which actually would provide us with relevant and accurate information. In many cases, addiction is a way to avoid these kinds of feelings and inner knowing.[5]
We are always on the go, rushing somewhere, stuck in traffic or on public transport, and spend much time in front of our electronic devices. These habits trigger a sense of alarm in our nervous system, which is overstimulated and aroused, and it leads to mimic the fight or flight response. It is not a surprise that we often feel exhausted, thanks to an overproduction of stress hormones.
We live in a collective culture that allows the mind to create walls, judge, separate, compartmentalize, and see the world as other than us. In this story, we create labels; we need control and end up dominating nature (which doesn’t have any consciousness and intelligence).[6]
We inherited a worldview where the mind is the seat of intelligence, which is logical, is rational, and also separated from the rest of the world which we inhabit. (Claxton, 2015)
In ancient societies, the belly was considered the center of thinking. Nowadays, science equally recognizes the gut-brain connection (which is created by a network of neurons and chemicals) and speaks about our second brain in the gut. That is why also in popular culture, we talk about our ‘gut feelings’ and instinct. Neuroscience also discovered that our intelligence lies not just in the brain, but in the whole body. It travels into the spinal cord and to the extremities of the body through the central and autonomic nervous systems. The heart has its nervous system and makes decisions independently from the brain.[7]
Several authors wrote about the wound of separation from each other and nature in our society. They acknowledge the suffering we experience collectively, which also reflects the split between our body, heart, and mind.
Our relationship with the world can only mirror and express the relationship we have with our bodies. Having estranged ourselves from the body and its wisdom, we find ourselves also estranged from the world and its wisdom. (Philip Shepherd, The Embodiment Manifesto)
Zen master Tich Nath Hahn has spoken extensively about the idea that what we do to/against our body, we do it against the earth and vice versa. In the same measure in which are separate from our bodies, we became estranged from a part of ourselves, and we don’t fully inhabit the world around us.[8]
As I already wrote on my ‘Power Tool’ paper ‘Connection vs. Separation,’ I think that the wound of disconnection is very intense in our society. It profoundly affects the relationship that we have with ourselves, with others and the natural world. We need to rethink and reinvent how we inhabit our bodies as that offers a direct experience of how we relate to the world. Our health, resilience, transformation, and wellbeing depend on it. The welfare of the planet and our community depend on it too.
It is interesting also to notice that the narrative of separation and split between body and mind, leads naturally to control. Nowadays, at the time of the crisis of COVID-19, it seems natural to want to find an enemy, push against something ‘other’ than us, fight it and shift gear towards control and crisis management. We always project out the estrangement from ourselves.
What does embodied awareness mean?
I don’t have a body. I am a body. I am smart precisely because I am a body. I don’t own it or inhabit it; from it, I arise. The association of intelligence with thinking and reasoning isn’t a fact; it is a cultural belief. (Guy Claxton)
According to Mark Walsh (founder of the Embodied Facilitator Course), ‘embodied awareness’ is a form of mindfulness.
The word ‘embodied’ can be used to distinguish between a mindful approach to the body and one focused solely on fitness, sport, or mechanical activities.[9]
In October 2020, the ‘Embodiment Conference’ will take place. Here below, there is a short abstract about the presentation of the event:
‘Embodiment is about making friends with your body, and feeling at home in your skin.
Embodiment is an antidote to the violence, disconnection, and overwhelm caused by numbing, and a return to our shared humanity.’[10]
I understand that embodied awareness supports us to heal our fragmented sense of self, the split between body-heart and mind, and our separation from each other and nature.
Many attempted to explain what embodiment is and is not.
In the field of theatre and performing arts, Copeau spoke about embodied awareness in actors’ training.
‘What is needed is that within them, every moment is accompanied by an internal state of awareness peculiar to the movement being done’ (Cole and Chinoy, 1970). With each repetition of each exercise, for the nth time, there is this ‘something more’ that can be found in one’s relationship to movement. It is repetition per se, which leads one, eventually, to the possibility of recognizing oneself through exercise. Embodiment is the process of uniting the imaginary separation between body and mind.’[11]
Philip Shepherd, the author of the groundbreaking book ‘Radical Wholeness,’ describes ‘embodiment’ in this way:
‘So the undoing begins with the basics. If it doesn’t, we will remain stuck in the place where so much contemporary work on embodiment finds – where we gently turn our attention to the body and listen to it, or observe its sensations, or patiently notice the breath. All of these practices have value, but it’s hazardous to mistake them for embodiment. Embodiment isn’t about quieting the thoughts in the head and noticing the sensations of the body from there – it’s about bringing the abstract intelligence of the head into a relationship with the body’s intelligence. Wholeness is never either/or – it’s both/and. So the popular advice to ‘listen to the body,’ well-meaning as it is, is stuck in the story of division. The phrase itself suggests that you are in one place, and your body is in another. It implies that you are separated from your body as though by a wall, and the best you can hope for is to put your ear to that wall once in a while and listen to what’s happening on the other side. So although its intention is to foster embodiment, the advice to ‘listen to the body’ actually reinforces the very divide that it’s seeking to overcome. Similarly, the instruction to ‘notice the breath’ assigns you the role of a spectator of your own life: sitting up in the head, you observe the sensations of your breathing. What a different thing it is to allow the center of your awareness to descend from the penthouse suite and merge with the thinking of your being as it lives through those sensations so that the here-and-now experience of breathing is the here-and-now experience of ‘you’ – of your embodied presence in the world. You are the breath, alert to what the world reveals. Embodiment isn’t about sitting in the head and paying attention to the part of you we call the body – it’s about fully inhabiting the intelligence of the body and attuning to the world through it. It’s about listening to the world through the body. It’s about feeling the world through the breath. For our purposes, then‚we might say that embodiment is a state in which your entire intelligence is experienced as a coherent unity attuned to the world. In that state, any distinction between ‘mind’ and ‘the body’s energy’ becomes meaningless.’[12]
Guy Claxton, emeritus professor of the learning sciences at the University of Winchester, is convinced that ‘the physical body constitutes the core of our intelligence.’
Furthermore, Claxton reminds us that system theory is a cornerstone of embodied awareness and cognition. System intelligence emerges from a lot of sub-systems talking, communicating, and connecting. The body is a system. Our heart is beating in a certain way while it is also listening to the lungs, and digesting the food. ‘I am as I am because I am shaped by the food I eat, the air I breathe, the sounds I hear.’[13] (Claxton, 2015)
The human system is self-organizing. When aspects of our inner activity, feelings, sensations, consciousness go hand in hand, then all the different chemical loops of information come together. In essence, all information may contribute to the decision making process. When embodied awareness and visceral feelings arise, we can take them into account. However, if there is no awareness, they may still be there, but will not contribute to the decision making process.[14]
Research on mirror neurons has shown how our brains make sense of what other human beings are doing, thinking, and feeling. We are mimicking and copying each other all day long. If you see someone lifting one arm, similar neurons in your brain will fire, even if you don’t take the same action. Mirror neurons explain how our non-verbal understanding of each other and the world work.[15]
Furthermore, according to research conducted at UCLA, up to 93% of communication is non-verbal, including gestures, posture, and tone of voice. We sense and interpret each other’s presence, authenticity, through non-verbal signals.[16]
I want to conclude this paragraph with this quote:
‘Embodiment, the incarnation (e.g. the journey from spirit to matter) and becoming grounded, doesn’t end with being born and is something we might work on our whole lives, as part of coming more into our being and presence. In other words, connecting-down as well as up, and somatic working really helps with this. I suspect this is particularly important in a modern western society where cultural splits between mind and body have become endemic and where many of us are over mind-identified (thinking is all).’[17](Aubyn Howard, 2017)
The research on embodiment[18]
You do not run from a bear because you are afraid of it, but rather become afraid of the bear because you run from it. [19](William James)
New science has researched the placebo effect extensively. It is more than positive thinking and believing that a procedure or medicine will work. It explains the connection between mind and body; it has been around as a source of healing for centuries. A placebo can be just as effective as traditional treatments and is very effective in treating insomnia, pain, and side effects of chemotherapy.
It is still not completely understood how the placebo works. What is it? It involves a variety of neurobiological reactions, from an increase in feel-good chemicals like endorphins and dopamine. It stimulates more significant activity in specific brain areas linked to moods, emotional responses, and self-awareness.[20]
We also know that brain scans show a change in the physiology of meditators.
The mental activity does affect the body; we may also ask how the body affects the brain?[21]
In 2012 Richard Wiseman published an article on the Guardian: ‘Self-help: forget positive thinking, try positive action.’ Somewhat he debunks the positive thinking myth: it is not enough to imagine things to create real change. He explores the work of William James, others who didn’t agree with the principle that emotion always comes before the behavior.
In the late nineteenth century, working at Harvard University, William James started to look at how behavior influences emotions. He thought that the common idea that we smile when we are happy, and we frown when we are sad was not complete.
He came up with the theory that physiological arousal leads us to experience an emotion and not the other way around.[22]
In the seventies psychologist, James Laird from Clark University decided to test James’s theory. He invited several volunteers to the laboratory and asked them to embody certain facial expressions. Participants clenched their teeth to create angry poses and pulled back the corners of the mouth to create the happy ones. The experiment demonstrated that the participants felt significantly more content when they put a smile on their face, and much angrier when they were clenching their teeth.
Wiseman calls this the ‘act if’ principle: act as if you are that person or have that quality, and you become it.
The University of Singapore conducted studies in will power. Motivated people tense their muscles and leap into action. Participants made fists and contracted their biceps to avoid buying sugary snacks. The experiment demonstrated that it is possible to reproduce will power.[23]
A well-known study looked at power poses. Dana Carney, an assistant professor at Columbia Business School, divided volunteers into two groups. The people in one group were adopted power poses; some put their feet up on the table and interlocked their hands behind the back of their heads. The people in the other group took poses associated with passivity. Some put their hands in their laps and looked at the ground.
Only one minute of power pose gave a real boost in confidence.
The study examined the chemicals in participants’ blood. Those power posing affected their levels of testosterone and changed the chemical physiology of their bodies.[24]
Being depressed affects the body’s posture (anyone can recognize this state by looking at somebody’s chest, shoulders, facial expression). The contrary is equally true: Dr. Paul Ekman had some researchers take on some facial expressions and body postures and confirmed how this affects people’s moods.[25]
In her famous (and controversial) Ted Talk: ‘Your body language may shape who you are,’ Amy Cuddy speaks about her Harvard research. She speaks about ‘high-power’ poses, which are generally more open, big, relaxed, and expansive. She initially found that holding these for up to two minutes increases levels of testosterone by 20 % and decreases cortisol by 25%. These postures, associated with changes in hormones, promote a more relaxed, confident, and assertive way of being and an improved capacity to cope with stress, challenging situations, and job interviews. Many critics attacked Cuddy’s work and called it pseudo-science because it didn’t pass a statistic measure called ‘p-curve.’ She then published a new paper on Psychological Science. Her latest work offered ample evidence (that even matched the p-curve test’s requirements). The conclusion is that adopting an expansive posture allows feeling powerful. [26]
A 2013 research looked at the connection between mental evaluations and body side to side movements. Often people describe their ambivalence like being torn, for example. The study used a Wii Balance Board to measure movement. It demonstrated that people who were experiencing doubt moved from side to side more than people who were experiencing clarity. When people moved side to side, their uncertainty increased.[27]
Movement is an integral part of who we are and of our embodied intelligence and cognition. Dr. Peter Lovatt, at the University of Hertfordshire, looked at how dance and movement support hormonal health, problem-solving and risk-taking behavior.[28]
Equally, Guy Claxton, in his book Intelligence in the flesh, speaks about the experiment conducted on kittens in a carousel. I am aware this can be sensitive material as experiments conducted on animals are cruel. The two kittens were visually impaired as they were just newborns, and both were attached to a carousel. One was able to rotate, and the other one could not move; it was pulled around by the other one.
The experiment proved that movement is critical in developing intelligence. The kitten that wasn’t able to move its legs didn’t develop proper perception and vision.[29]
Claxton also speaks about research conducted via video. A nanny spent time with a child speaking Chinese. A second child watched the nanny in a video so that he could see and heard what the first one did. The second child learned no Chinese, whereas the first baby picked up a lot. He was able to make eye contact, to connect to the nanny’s facial expression, tone of voice, warmth, care, and body language. [30]
On the contrary, the sad story of many children growing up in orphanages in Romania tells us how much neglect, suffering, and lack of warmth affected their learning abilities.[31]
Researches nowadays show that children who struggle with sensing their inner landscape and interpret their sensations may not be able to recognize their emotions. They may also have difficulties knowing when they feel hungry, full, hot, cold, or thirsty, and to self-regulate. This capacity is known as ‘interoception’ (interior perception) and is the ability to feel what is happening inside the body. Contemporary studies speak about the link between enhancing one’s inner sensitivity, making better choices and decisions, and improving empathy toward others.[32]
Guy Claxton speaks about our ability to reduce emotions by tensing our muscles. For example, we may tighten our diaphragm, torso to make our breath shallow and controlled to avoid tears and sadness. When we have this habit, we may spend a significant amount of energy to create a contraction. This movement may affect our immune system or digestive system, which can be compromised by constant tension in the abdomen. (Claxton, 2015) [33]
Studies report that people perform better when they are more sensitive to their heartbeat or their visceral sensations. They can include those feelings in their decision-making process.
There are other studies related to people with depression or eating disorders. People with depression are below average at sensing and monitoring their heartbeat, and they have problems in decision making. People with an eating disorder do not experience those visceral feelings that signal that they could be full or hungry. (Claxton, 2015)[34]
When we are numb to this kind of inner perception, we are shutting down part of our intelligence. We are not tapping fully into our capacities, wholeness, and potential.[35]
Furthermore, there is extensive body-oriented research in the field of trauma healing. Dr. Peter Levine (creator of Somatic Experiencing), Pat Ogden (founder of Sensory-Motor approach), and Bassel Van de Kolk (author of The body keeps the score) address the limitations of talking therapies and cognitive approaches. PSTD has a physiological, chemical, and neurological component and is not only a mental phenomenon. We all know nowadays about the freeze, flight, and flight response. Levine observed that in nature, animals discharge excessive amounts of energy, adrenaline, and return to balance by moving, running, shaking.[36]
People who suffer from PDST may have an overactive amygdala. When the amygdala fires up, scanning for danger, shutting down the prefrontal cortex, and activating the fight or flight response, it floods up the body with stress hormones. Our implicit and embodied memories, triggers, association with past events activate our amygdala and the fight or flight response. We repeat this pattern even when we are objectively safe. Some of us will freeze, some others will withdraw, and some will explode in anger. And here we go in loops. These patterns are built and reinforced by repetition. [37]
Techniques such as centering, mindfulness, breathing exercise, gentle movement may seem necessary to regulate the nervous system. These tools help reactivate the frontal cortex and hippocampus (which inhibits fear and stress response).[38]
Last but not least, Stephen Porges created the polyvagal theory. He looked at how the vagus nerve balances the parasympathetic nervous system (that controls the ‘rest and digest response’) through relationships and social engagement.[39]
Coaching application
The body always leads us home, if we can simply learn to trust sensation and stay with it long enough for it to reveal appropriate action, movement, insight, or feeling. (Pat Ogden) [40]
Including the body allows coaches to work more holistically, to get more quickly to the root of many issues, and creates more meaningful changes.
Neuroscience shows us that reading a book or talking may not be enough.
‘We are largely shaped by impact memory, which forms in early life and it affects the way we behave, handle emotions, and relate to others. We become physiologically wired towards certain behavioral patterns.
This is the reason why we can say that change happens under the conscious level. We need to build new implicit memories and reach the limbic part of the brain and rewire the nervous system to develop a new resilience and new ways of responding to life challenges.’ (Amanda Blake, 2009)[41]
Involving the body boosts confidence, relaxes the nervous systems, stimulates the creative right side of the brain, promotes leadership qualities, presence, and empathy. It also supports more effective problem solving, to expand one’s vocabulary of expression, and navigate more efficiently in a complex world.
As coaches, we can include practices to stimulate the five senses, inviting an embodied awareness. We can also encourage clients to do ‘centering’ exercises.[42]
Below I share the steps described and taught by Mark Walsh for ‘centering’ (a technique used in Aikido material art). It is useful to self-regulate and relax the nervous system but also to stimulate and create arousal. [43]
Aware: be mindful of the present moment using the five senses, especially feeling the body, ground (chair and feet, your abdomen), your heartbeat and your breath. Start from the feet and travel up to your head. Exhale slowly.
Balance: in posture and attention; have an expansive sense of ‘reaching out’ (Walsh affirms that ‘a visualization of glowing light a bulb may help’); stand tall like a tree, avoid tilting. Imagine a current of electricity connecting you to the ground and the sky above you.
Core relaxed: relax your mouth and stomach; breathe deeply into your belly; visualize the central line of your body. Find your center of gravity below your waist; this part of your body grounds you and stabilizes you.
Connected: bring to mind people you care about and who care for you, people that respect you.[44]
People’s experience varies in terms of how much attention they give to bodily activity. Stephen Porges has developed a questionnaire to check one’s embodied awareness. Here below are some of his questions.
Are you never/occasionally/sometimes/usually/always aware of:
Mark Walsh also suggests to develop a simple practice to enhance an embodied awareness where you check in a few times with yourself during the day and ask :
According to Walsh, these are a couple of questions that we can bring to the coaching session:
I want to add also these questions that can enhance the client’s process of embracing a deeper embodied awareness and transformation:
Another excellent way to support our clients reclaim more of their somatic[47] and embodied intelligence is the process called ‘focusing’, which is about bringing awareness to the torso, where all the major organs are located. This increases interception and calms down the noise in the mind. (Claxton, 2015)
Gendlin called these pre-verbal, embodied sensations the ‘felt sense,’ which is a form of intuition that often times we dismiss, or we find it difficult to express or explain.[48]
Conclusion
If you want to give birth to your true self, you are going to have to dig deep down into that body of yours and let your soul howl. Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith and trust that if you turn off your head, your feet will take you where you need to go. (Gabrielle Roth) [49]
I think that ’embodiment’ is a very valuable framework in coaching.
We can learn tools and exercises for ourselves and then decide what it feels appropriate ethically and professionally to share with our clients. We chose to include simple tools, to go for further training, or implement what we already know (from martial arts to yoga, body-work, conscious dance practices, mindfulness). The field is vibrant and open with possibilities.
We, as coaches, can learn to be more aware of our bodies during our sessions. We can be calmer, centered, relaxed, so we can be open, curious, and enhance our listening skills. We can learn to self-regulate our nervous system, balance our energy, release anxiety and the fight, freeze, and flight response.
For example, during the session, we can be aware of the contact with the ground, feel our feet, our sitting bones, deepening our breath, be conscious of our heartbeat. We can be mindful of our posture, tension in the jaw. We can enhance our capacity to be present, especially if we feel triggered by our clients.
If through embodied awareness and practices, we are going to feel more, we will also need to develop the skills to be present with a broader range of emotions. We can learn to give more space to that feeling that wants to arise in the body without wanting that to disappear, numb it, or to fix it.[50]
Embodied awareness allows us to respond creatively and responsibly.
In other words, the more fully embodied we are, the more present we can be. We can learn to be connected to others and be in the present-moment experience rather than being run by our biography, habitual patterns, triggers, stories, drama, or background.
We can also support our clients to have a more comprehensive intelligence, and that includes awareness of their posture, breathing patterns, movements, visceral feelings, and sensations. In this way, they can learn to feel themselves from the ‘inside out’ and make more holistic and powerful choices.
I also think that we can invite the clients to include some gentle movements in the session to stretch, change, or shift their position or posture if they feel so.
To explore and fully inhabit our bodies is a way to awaken our inner intelligence, to increase our vitality, and intuitive sense of knowing. We become more receptive to creativity, more in tune with our internal rhythm, and more connected to the natural flow of life.
Visceral feelings provide us with information about ourselves and our surroundings (we all know the gut feeling or butterflies in the stomach!). This capacity to experience one’s inner sensation is a tool for self-regulation, for making better decisions, and for developing empathy also towards others.
The ability to build trust with the client through one’s presence, clear communication, and active listening are critical skills for any coach. Embodied awareness can be well applied to embrace even more deeply the ICF professional and ethical guidelines.[51]
Through centering, mindfulness, posture, interoception, movement, and with repetition, we can build new embodied responses. We can create new habits, memory in our muscles, and neural circuits that bypass our cognitive patterns.[52]
Richard Strozzi-Heckler’s pioneering work made, somatic coaching more approachable to a mainstream audience: ‘while psychotherapy focused on reasons why something is the way it is, I would ask how it is that we have formed ourselves. For example, how do we form ourselves toward contact or away from contact, instead of why don’t we make contact?’ Strozzi-Heckler invites those interested in personal, collective and societal evolution to wake up, on the premises that working through the body leads to deeper transformation[53]
The idea of integrating the body into coaching may have sounded woo-woo until now. The most recent findings in science may also convince our skeptical western mind.
Last but not least, I would like to share that I have been a dancer all my life. I teach a form of mindfulness in motion called Movement Medicine, which I am very passionate about and profoundly changed my life. In my ICA Power Tool Separation vs. Connection and my coaching model, DANCE, I speak extensively about the transformational and restorative power of movement, connection to self-other-community, and nature.[54]
References and resources:
https://www.azquotes.com/quote/1277983
https://charleseisenstein.org/video/separation-vs-interbeing/
https://coachfederation.org/core-competencies
Developing Somatic Intelligence: Leadership and the Neurobiology of Embodied Learning, by Amanda Blake,
https://embright.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Developing-Somatic-Intelligence-NLJ10x.pdf
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02066/full
http://embodiedknowledge.blogspot.com/2011/12/classic-experiment-by-held-and-hein.html
http://www.globalstewards.org/quotes-life-bodies.htm
https://www.health.harvard.edu/mental-health/the-power-of-the-placebo-effect
http://www.managetrainlearn.com/page/the-abc-of-centering
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5330336/
https://philipshepherd.com/what-is-embodiment-anyway/
https://plumvillage.org/pratiques-cles/touching-the-earth-to-mother-earth/
https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/the-intelligent-divorce/201503/somatic-experiencing
https://www.psychosynthesiscoaching.co.uk/us/
The Science of Embodiment, Pdf, Embodied Facilitator Course, by Mark Walsh
https://strozziinstitute.com/somatics-neuroscience-and-leadership-2/
Susannah and Ya’Acov Darling Khan, Movement Medicine, Hay House.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/jun/30/self-help-positive-thinking#maincontent
https://www.webmd.com/pain-management/what-is-the-placebo-effect#2
https://www.verywellmind.com/what-happens-during-an-amygdala-hijack-4165944
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embodied_cognition
Working with the Body in Training and Coaching, Pdf, Mark Walsh
[1]https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7487675-knowledge-is-only-a-rumor-until-it-is-in-the
[2] http://schoolofmovementmedicine.com
https://www.movementmedicineassociation.org
‘Movement Medicine is an invitation to experience the power to create that is in us all. It’s a body-based movement meditation practice that will reconnect you to the wisdom of living from the heart, the joy of knowing who you are, and the satisfaction of making your unique contribution to life. Movement Medicine was developed by Susannah & Ya’Acov Darling Khan over a period of 30 years of study and practice with many teachers and teachings worldwide. These include Shamans from the Arctic Circle to the Amazon, an 18-year apprenticeship with Gabrielle Roth and the 5Rhythms, Gestalt Psychotherapy, Family Constellations and work with the Pachamama Alliance.’
[3] Guy Claxton describes this story, from ancient Greece to contemporary tendencies in his book Intelligence in the flesh, Yale University Press.
[5]https://www.healthyplace.com/blogs/debunkingaddiction/2015/10/feeling-overwhelmed-as-a-trigger-for-addictive-behavior
Overwhelming and unpleasant feelings may trigger addiction. Often it is challenging for people to be present with those emotions, and it can be compelling wanting to numb them.
[6]https://charleseisenstein.org/video/separation-vs-interbeing/
Charles Eisenstein speaks extensively about the story of separation.
I explored it in my ICA Power Tool Separation vs. Connection.
[7] https://strozziinstitute.com/somatics-neuroscience-and-leadership-2/
Candace Pert was a researcher at the National Institute of Mental Health. She is the scientist who discovered the endorphin receptor and spoke about these neuropeptides as ‘bits of the brain’ that float throughout the body. She said ‘I can no longer make a strong distinction between the brain and the body.’
‘Developing Somatic Intelligence: Leadership and the Neurobiology of Embodied Learning,’ by Amanda Blake,
https://embright.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Developing-Somatic-Intelligence-NLJ10x.pdf
[8] https://plumvillage.org/pratiques-cles/touching-the-earth-to-mother-earth/
[9] Working with the Body in Training and Coaching, Pdf, Mark Walsh.
[10] https://theembodimentconference.org
[11] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embodied_cognition
[12] https://philipshepherd.com/what-is-embodiment-anyway/
[13] Intelligence in the flesh, Guy Claxton, Yale University Press.
[14] As above.
[15] https://strozziinstitute.com/somatics-neuroscience-and-leadership-2/
[16] As above, Somatics in Neuroscience,
https://strozziinstitute.com/somatics-neuroscience-and-leadership-2/
[17]https://www.psychosynthesiscoaching.co.uk/us/
[18]In this chapter, my primary reference is the article ‘The Science of Embodiment’ by Mark Walsh. I also researched the facts and science that he mentioned and included some extra items.
[19] https://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/jun/30/self-help-positive-thinking
[20] https://www.webmd.com/pain-management/what-is-the-placebo-effect#2
https://www.health.harvard.edu/mental-health/the-power-of-the-placebo-effect
[21] The Science of Embodiment, pdf, by Mark Walsh.
[22] https://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/jun/30/self-help-positive-thinking
[23] As above, https://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/jun/30/self-help-positive-thinking
[24] https://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/jun/30/self-help-positive-thinking#maincontent
[25] As above.
[26] https://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_body_language_may_shape_who_you_are/up-next?language=en
[27] https://www.spring.org.uk/2013/01/sway-the-psychology-of-indecision.php
[28] The Science of Embodiment, Pdf, by Mark Walsh.
[29]http://embodiedknowledge.blogspot.com/2011/12/classic-experiment-by-held-and-hein.html
Guy Claxton, Intelligence in the flesh.
[30] Claxton, as above.
[31] The Science of embodiment, Pdf, by Mark Walsh.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5330336/
[32] https://www.understood.org/en/learning-thinking-differences/child-learning-disabilities/sensory-processing-issues/interoception-and-sensory-processing-issues-what-you-need-to-know
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02066/full
Susannah and Ya’Acov Darling Khan, Movement Medicine, Hay House.
[33] Claxton says: ’Numbing down equals combing down. (…) In a world that confuses intelligence with rationality, we can be persuaded to think too much. Clear, conscious, deliberate thinking can easily overwrite sources of quite or more fleeting information.
Intelligence in the flesh, page 248.
[34] Guy Claxton, Intelligence in the flesh, Yale University Press.
[35]Claxton openly states that when we neglect messages in the body when we contract muscles and numb visceral processes, we are affecting our emotional, social, and cognitive intelligence. We disconnect from the somatic process that binds together feeling, action, and perception. He speaks about the cruel system of boarding schools, where children survive by cutting off their feelings.
Intelligence in the flesh, page 272-274.
[36] The science of embodiment, Pdf, by Mark Walsh.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/the-intelligent-divorce/201503/somatic-experiencing
[37]https://www.verywellmind.com/what-happens-during-an-amygdala-hijack-4165944
https://strozziinstitute.com/somatics-neuroscience-and-leadership-2/
[38] As above.
[39]https://ct.counseling.org/2016/06/polyvagal-theory-practice/
[40]http://www.globalstewards.org/quotes-life-bodies.htm
[41]Developing Somatic Intelligence: Leadership and the Neurobiology of Embodied Learning, by Amanda Blake,
https://embright.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Developing-Somatic-Intelligence-NLJ10x.pdf
[42]https://strozziinstitute.com/somatics-neuroscience-and-leadership-2/
[43] Working with the Body in Training and Coaching, Pdf, Mark Walsh.
http://www.managetrainlearn.com/page/the-abc-of-centering
[44]Working with the Body in Training and Coaching, Pdf, Mark Walsh.
[45] Guy Claxton, Intelligence in the flesh, Yale University Press, page 244.
[46] Working with the Body in Training and Coaching, Pdf, Mark Walsh.
[47] ‘Somatics is a word that comes from the ancient Greek idea of what it means to be a good citizen. It refers to the art and science of living in the human body; to the inherent and inescapable unity of thinking, feeling, and acting in the world. In somatics, we view the body as the place where sensation, emotion, and cognitive interpretation of events all meet and interact to form one’s moment-to-moment experience of life.’ (Amanda Blake, 2009)
Developing Somatic Intelligence: Leadership and the Neurobiology of Embodied Learning, by Amanda Blake,
https://embright.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Developing-Somatic-Intelligence-NLJ10x.pdf
[48] https://www.embodiment.org.uk/topics/felt_sense.htm
[49] https://www.azquotes.com/quote/1277983
[50]https://strozziinstitute.com/somatics-neuroscience-and-leadership-2/
[51]https://coachfederation.org/core-competencies
[52] Claxton concludes in his book that the best ways to develop embodied awareness are focusing, mindfulness, exercise, movement, and interoception.
Intelligence in the flesh, Guy Claxton, Yale Library.
Susannah and Ya’Acov Darling Khan speak about micro-movement as a way to develop interoception. It is helpful to close the eyes for this practice, which is an invitation to focus on the interior of the body and allow the dance and the movement to come through.
Susannah and Ya’Acov Darling Khan, Movement Medicine, Hay House.
Furthermore, neuroscience speaks about neurogenesis (the capacity to grow new neurons) and neuroplasticity (the ability of the brain to change itself) and about dance as a tool to increase neuronal connection and activity in the hippocampus.
[53]https://www.psychosynthesiscoaching.co.uk/somatic-path-coaching-working-body-mind/.
According to Aubyn Howard, Strozzi differentiates between:
[54] Laura Valenti, ICA coaching model: Dance.
Laura Valenti, ICA Power Tool: Separation vs. Connection.
Susannah and Ya’Acov Darling Khan, Movement Medicine, Hay House.