How can we become more embodied? by Loretta Ferrucci

It was day 4 of a 5-day Iyengar Yoga Intensive - the forward bend and twist day- my absolute worst!

The physical and mental challenge of six hours of asana practice daily was taking its toll. As I was reaching and trying to soften into a forward bend with my hamstrings screaming and my back protesting, it suddenly happened.

For the first time in my 36 years of life, I felt fully embodied - as if I’d landed, come home.

Since then I’ve experienced this same feeling while surfing, once or twice during a fight in karate and even while jogging - something I’m terrible at and don’t love! Most recently I’ve experienced it more and more at my pole fitness classes.

From the above it may sound as if I’m a fitness junkie or athlete but the truth is that I’m far from that. I was always the brainy, nerdy girl who sucked at sport and had a terrible body image.

I spent decades trying to punish my body into a shape that society told me was necessary to be beautiful and accepted and despite all my efforts, it didn’t work.

Finally, I learnt that the body I have is the perfect vehicle for allowing me to fulfill my potential and purpose - to bring my soul-inspired desires and vision into the world.

That still didn’t make me appreciate or accept my body as much as I would have liked but it did make me less resistant to the body I have and less likely to aspire to body goals that were just unrealistic.

Our souls have the vision of what we’d love to create but we need our bodies to take the actions that will bring that vision to fruition. This is why being fully embodied is so vital to living an inspired and fulfilled life!

How much time and resource do we spend trying to ‘fix’ the way our bodies look and perform? How much shame and guilt do we carry about not having a body that conforms to society’s beauty standards? How much time do we devote trying to ‘avoid’ disease by ‘eating clean’ or avoiding entire food groups?

So what does our body have to do with being a visionary woman?

To answer this question, we need to look at how things are brought into creation.

We have three levels of mind: the higher mind/soul, the lower mind (what we call our thinking mind) and our unconscious/egoic mind (the part we find difficult to access) but which ‘runs’ us on autopilot if we’re unaware. Our unconscious/egoic mind is where our map of reality is housed - our fears and beliefs about ourselves, others and the world.

These three streams of consciousness are constantly feeding information to our subconscious mind which then creates our reality.

To understand creation, we have to understand that our focus, not our attitude or circumstances, creates our reality.

Our focus is by default on our unconscious/egoic fears and limiting beliefs about ourselves, others and the world. We have to direct our focus, using our will, to our higher mind/soul-inspired visions in order to create what we’d love - what our souls are longing to express.

In the body, the autonomic nervous system, which controls all the automatic functions of the body, including hormone production, immune function and digestion and assimilation, is governed via the subconscious mind. So whatever information your subconscious is receiving from either your higher mind/soul or your unconscious/egoic mind is going to be expressed in your body. Your focus will determine whether the impulses your autonomic nervous system act on are predominantly from your higher-mind/soul or from your unconscious/egoic mind.

Consider this example: If you’re trying to nourish yourself with healthy food because you’re terrified of getting a particular disease, your focus is on avoiding the disease and thus on the disease. No matter how ‘healthy’ your lifestyle, you’ll likely unconsciously create the very disease you’re so scared of.

In contrast, when you’re focused on creating optimal health and taking action that’s in alignment with that, you will be nourishing yourself optimally with the focus on health and not disease.

This may sound like splitting hairs but the point is that the action we take isn’t the most important thing. Where our focus is when we take that action is what truly matters.

We cannot get rid of our egoic mind or what it contains, but we can learn to hold the tension between what our soul is longing to express and the reality of our limitations and fears, while choosing to focus on our soul choices.

The key step to creating what we’d love - to singing our soul song - is to take action in the direction of what we’d love and this is where the body comes in. Without the body, the action that creates momentum to bring our vision into the world, isn’t possible.

When we are in resistance to our body - hating the way it functions or looks - our focus is on what’s ‘wrong’ and since focus creates reality, we get more of what’s wrong.

When we are trying to ‘fix’ our body, we’re focused on what needs fixing so we create more of what needs fixing.

All of this struggle depletes our resources which moves us further away from bringing our inspired soul vision to the world.

We cannot bypass the body in the name of ambition, spirituality or just because we couldn’t be bothered.

How can we become more embodied?

Bodies were designed to move in ways that are functional so activities that use the whole body as well as focus the mind are great to facilitate embodiment. Yoga, dancing, climbing, swimming, martial arts, pole fitness to name but a few.

Here’s a simple exercise to engender more acceptance and gratitude for your amazing body. This is an exercise that I urge my clients who struggle with loving their bodies to do daily.

Find your happiest memory. Now go back to that time and immerse yourself in the wonder of that memory. Once you’re fully immersed in the memory, take note of the role your body played in enabling you to have that experience. Mentally catalog your body’s role in the pleasure of that event until you feel your heart open in gratitude for your amazing body and self.

We don’t have to love everything about our body, just as we don’t love everything about our favorite human but the more embodied we are, the more we stand in our power as powerful creators and the more we can bring our soul visions into reality for the benefit of all.

Imagine how freeing it would be to be fully embodied, in love with your amazing body and self so that you can use your resources to bring your beautiful vision to the world. You can be if you choose it.

Loretta Ferruci

I help people who are sick and tired of hating their bodies create body love, health and freedom by ditching diets forever.

Twenty five years as a registered homeopath in private practice; studying many modalities and understanding the mind-body-energy connection has allowed me to fuse the physical, mental, emotional and energetic into a ‘toolbox’ of practical techniques and practices that transform, heal and empower.

I take the ‘fluff’ out of healing and personal development and keep it practical and real.

The body is the only part of us that is fully in the present and is the perfect tool to use to recalibrate our lives in ways that are nourishing rather than punishing.

When we love and accept our bodies, have an intimate relationship with ourselves, it transforms our relationships with others and the world.

www.lorettaferrucci.co.za