#5 Your first steps toward embodied living (with 7 simple practices)
So you're curious about embodiment. Maybe you've read about it, heard people talking about it, or you just know in your bones that living entirely in your head isn't working anymore.
Good. That awareness is the first step.
But here's where most people get stuck: they wait. They think they need to read more books, find the perfect practitioner, understand all the theory before they can actually begin.
Meanwhile, your body is right here. Right now. Already available. Already holding wisdom.
You don't need to wait to start listening. You don't need credentials or a guru.
Just begin.
Here are simple, practical ways to start embodying your life today. No mysticism required. Just you and your body, figuring out how to actually be together.
Practice 1: Notice your breath
Right now, as you read this, notice your breath.
Don't change it. Don't deepen it. Just notice it.
Is it shallow or deep? Fast or slow? Where do you feel it? Your chest? Your belly?
Are you holding your breath without realizing it? Most of us do this constantly.
Try this throughout your day. You can set a reminder on your phone. A few times a day, pause and notice your breath.
Over time, you'll recognize patterns. You hold your breath when stressed. You breathe shallow when anxious. You forget to breathe when concentrating.
Once you notice the pattern, you can work with it. When you catch yourself holding your breath, consciously release it. Let the exhale be long and slow. This signals safety to your nervous system.
Practice 2: Track sensation without story
Your body constantly sends signals through sensation. Tightness. Warmth. Tingling. Heaviness.
Most of the time, you either ignore these sensations or immediately jump to story. "My shoulders are tight because I'm stressed and I need a massage but I don't have time..."
Try this instead: when you notice a sensation, just describe it. No story. No judgment.
"There's tightness in my shoulders." "My stomach feels fluttery." "There's warmth in my chest."
You're developing interoception, the ability to sense what's going on inside you. Start small. Once a day, pause and do a quick body scan. Notice what sensations are present. Name them simply.
Your body will start trusting that you're listening. And when your body trusts you're listening, it offers more nuanced information.
Practice 3: Feel your feelings as body sensations
Emotions aren't abstract concepts. They're physiological experiences in your body first.
Anxiety is tightness in your chest, shakiness, shallow breathing. Anger is heat, energy, tension. Sadness is heaviness, a lump in your throat. Joy is expansion, lightness, warmth.
Most of us intellectualize emotions. "I'm anxious because..." rather than "I notice tightness in my chest".
For the next week, try this: when you notice an emotion, drop into your body and track the sensations. Where do you feel it? What's the temperature? The texture?
Stay with the sensation for at least 30 seconds. Breathe with it. Don't try to make it go away.
This is how emotions complete their cycle and release. When you feel them in your body, they move through. When you think about them, they get stuck.
Practice 4: Move with intention
Your body is designed to move. Movement helps process stress and regulate your nervous system.
Try approaching movement as a conversation with your body.
Put on music. Give yourself 5 minutes of completely unstructured movement. Shake out your arms. Roll your shoulders. Sway your hips. Make weird noises if you want to.
This isn't choreography or a workout. You're just letting your body move how it wants to move.
Notice what wants to unfold. Does your body want to be big and expansive? Small and curled up? Fast? Slow?
Follow those impulses. When you give your body permission to move freely, it will show you what it needs.
Practice 5: Reclaim pleasure
Pleasure is crucial information from your nervous system about what nourishes you.
When you're disconnected from your body, you lose access to pleasure. Everything feels neutral or unpleasant.
Start simple. Really taste your coffee in the morning. Feel the warmth of the cup. Notice the aroma. Let yourself have 30 seconds of pure enjoyment.
Feel the hot water on your skin in the shower. Notice how it feels good.
Put on a song you love and actually listen to it.
These tiny moments teach your nervous system that it's safe to feel good. The more you practice noticing pleasure, the more it expands in your life.
Practice 6: Pause before reacting
Most of us operate on autopilot. An event triggers us, we react immediately.
Try inserting a pause. Just a breath. A moment between stimulus and response.
Someone sends an email that triggers you. Before you reply, pause. Take a breath. Notice what you feel in your body.
You feel the urge to say yes to what you don't want. Before answering, pause. Drop into your body. Is there expansion or contraction?
This pause is where your body's wisdom lives.
Practice 7: Get grounded
Grounding connects you to your physical body and the present moment. When you're anxious or spinning in your head, grounding brings you back.
Try this: Sit with your feet flat on the floor. Feel your feet making contact with the ground. Feel your sit bones on the chair. Feel the weight of your body being supported.
Or stand. Feel your feet on the floor. Bend your knees slightly. Feel yourself held by the earth.
Take three slow breaths. With each exhale, imagine roots growing from your feet into the ground.
This teaches your nervous system to recognize physical support and safety. When you're grounded, your thinking clears. Your emotions feel more manageable.
What shifts when you actually start
These practices might seem too simple to make a real difference. Your brain will want to dismiss them as basic, obvious, or not deep enough.
That's your thinking mind feeling threatened. It's used to being in charge. It doesn't trust that your body has wisdom worth listening to.
Do the practices anyway.
Because here's what shifts when you actually start working with your body:
You develop a relationship with yourself that isn't based on analysis, fixing, or improving. You learn to simply be with yourself.
You gain access to information your thinking mind couldn't see. Your intuition gets clearer. Your decisions feel more aligned.
You build nervous system resilience. Anxiety doesn't disappear, but you can be with it without being consumed by it.
You find pleasure again. Joy. Aliveness. The capacity to actually enjoy being in your body.
You trust yourself more. You're learning to listen to the wisdom that's already here, even before you've figured everything out.
You don't need to be perfect at this
You'll forget to practice. You'll get caught up in your head. You'll go days without dropping into your body. You'll judge yourself for not being better at this.
All of that is fine. It doesn't have to be perfect. You're just gradually, messily, imperfectly building a new relationship with your body.
Each time you remember to pause and notice your breath, you're practicing. Each time you track a sensation without trying to fix it, you're building capacity. Each moment of pleasure you actually let yourself feel, you're rewiring your nervous system.
The practice is the practice. There's no destination where you've finally "achieved" embodiment. There's just this ongoing conversation with your body, getting richer and more nuanced over time.
Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.
Your body is already here, already wise, already waiting for you to listen.
All you have to do is begin.
