What is embodiment and why does it matter?

9 thoughts on “What is embodiment and why does it matter?”

1. Is it possible to change my personality and my affective states just by changing my posture? Is it possible to change my emotional well-being just by becoming more aware of my body- not as something that I 'possess' but as something that I am?

2. Feeling embodiment is super trippy. It is not hyperbolic to say that having the sensation of not just having a body but of being a body is really psychedelic, both exciting and scary. We have this 1st person POV, forever, our two eyes from our head always facing one way at a time. It is the opposite of experiencing an out-of-body experience, but feeling a thrilling and terrifying sense of experiencing an in-and-of-body experience. In other words, we are not only the captain of the ship, we are the ship.

3. interesting…I had understood "the first person experience of the body" to be core consciousness, this what happens when I recognize myself as being the organism that is e.g. affected by an object or emotion

4. Thank you for the simple definition of it. very helpful as a starting point.

5. A beautiful summary of embodiment. And very relevant, in this increasingly manic world, as it's a most fundamental prerequisite for attaining inner peace. I think it works both ways – when we consciously embody, we find peace. When we consciously seek inner peace, we begin to embody more. The bottom line is presence, though, is it not? When we're totally present with what is, we're totally embodied. This goes further, too – into the realm of what's known as enlightenment, or awakening, which it seems is not a place we have to get to, but just the realisation of the state we're already in, when fully present with whatever is. And our full presence will always take place in association with embodiment. Thanks for the vid.

6. read merleau-ponty.

7. How is this embodiment involved with "Serene Impulse," a sort of meditation that is supposed to help people with glaucoma?

8. thanks Kate – about your question – how would not not think with the body? The whole nervous system is involved with thinking – Google "embodied cognition"

9. I like this talk. I understand how the body is a means for interacting with our environment. And how my patterns of being uptight are a circle of mind and body that feed on itself. I can break the cycle by coming back into the present moment and becoming aware of the tension (fear) that I carry. I can let go of that tension and change my sensing of the world–relaxing into the moment rather than white-knuckling it.

   thanks!

   Quick question: How do we think through the body–0:23?

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