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Unlocking Deeper Harmony: How Embodied Practices Transform Our Inner and Outer Worlds
For those of us navigating the complexities of modern life, the quest for harmony—a state of balanced flow between chaos and order—often feels like an elusive ideal. We seek alignment not just in our external systems, but deeply within ourselves. But what if the key to unlocking this deeper harmony lies not just in intellectual understanding, but in our very own bodies?
The 3-part Body-Mindedness seminar and learning journey, offered by IFIS revealed how living from our bodies can revolutionize how we show up and make choices. It consists of 3 Online-Live sessions of 2h and regular practicing between one session and another, followed by individual reflection and collective exchange of the learnings.
Why is body-mindedness relevant?
At its heart, body-mindedness challenges the common, yet often unconscious, assumption that our body and mind are separate. Our whole being is connected and responsive, constantly working to maintain balance and sustain life. Often, our body's subtle sensitivities react faster than our conscious mind, holding ways of knowing that can offer entirely new perspectives and possibilities for understanding and decision-making. When we learn to become more aware of our body sensations, habits, and patterns, we open ourselves to new insights, intuition, and a greater versatility in our choices. This deep connection between body and mind is fundamental to how each person shows up at any moment in life's unfolding.
The learning journey emphasizes that insight alone doesn't necessarily lead to action; truly integrating what we know requires the body. We often carry "bunches of stuff" in our bodies —resistance, fear, old ways of reacting—that influence our responses, from the fear of public speaking to the subtle anxieties that manifest physically . By consciously engaging with our bodies, we move from being driven by these deeply held ways of being to actively working with them. This path of uncovering who we are unfolds through three key practices: grounding, decision-making via the "third way," and self-witnessing.
The Three Pillars of Embodied Practice
1. Grounding: Reconnecting with Your Internal Compass
The very first step is a simple, in-the-moment body scan, designed to build a mindful connection with your physical self. Participants learn to observe their posture, weight distribution, tension, breathing patterns, and facial expressions . This simple act of noticing, without judgment, helps us feel more connected to how we are "in this place right now".
Real-Life Insights from participants:
- One participant noted arriving feeling "very well grounded," attributing it to "regular practicing," highlighting that this doesn't happen "automagically" but is a result of consistent effort. This emphasizes that it's less about the specific practice and more about the consistency of practicing that leads to resetting our inner compass and greater inner strength.
- Another shared a powerful insight about organizing "personal logistics to function well" and "be in my body". They realized that creating "precondition for practicing is the actual practice", and that "I take that ownership of being with myself and organizing my space the way I wanted to have and then within that I can do a practice". This underscores the importance of "simple elegance" in self-support, making practices easily accessible (ideally in under 10 seconds). This active ownership transforms one into "the practice" itself.
- A third participant realized how "autopilot" can be "so strong yet transparent," and how a conscious effort is required to shift from merely experiencing unpleasant feelings to creating new possibilities. This moment of "sensing into myself is not a mind driven process" but an immediate check-in with the now, connecting to the "evolutionary potential of the now". This renewed relationship with the body forms the basis for inner harmony, allowing for authenticity that from a place of realness and ownership.
2. Decision-Making: Discovering the "Third Way"
Building on grounding, the seminar guides participants through a process for navigating either/or situations—the common trap that often leads to unsatisfactory outcomes. By really feeling each choice in their bodies through vivid imagination, and then exploring a "midway point," participants can discover new possibilities or other viable options that their conscious mind hadn't considered. This practice allows our bodies to tell our minds what's truly going on, learning to trust choices that come from both body and mind. While some found this aspect less immediately integrated, its potential to broaden decision-making is clear.
Real-Life Insights from participants:
Participants initially recognized that their perceptions of the either/or situations were strongly shaped by emotional states and cognitive biases.
Several participants described the discovery of the third way as "liberating"—a sense of accessing new possibilities that they hadn’t seen before.
The ability to step outside habitual thought patterns and see new options enhances decision-making autonomy.
Bodily Integration in Decisions: Instead of over-relying on mental analysis, participants trust embodied signals to guide them.
3. Self-Witnessing: Cultivating Agency and Perspective
The third session introduces self-witnessing, which involves observing oneself from a "broader view" or "stepping back to see ourselves". This practice allows the "subject" (the self experiencing) to become an "object" (the self being observed). This "helpful distance" provides a different perspective, enabling one to "work with your ego, not just be worked by your ego" and fostering true agency.
Real-Life Insights: from participants
Participants demonstrated the effect on their sense of agency beautifully by recounting highly stressful periods, including external demands and personal anxieties. Their detailed sharing revealed multiple moments of "self-witnessing"catching themselves in emotional states, noticing their body's non-compliance with their plans, and reflecting on these experiences. This allowed messages from their body to surface, even when their head didn't initially understand, leading to the ability to make decisions differently.
Interested to join the next edition of the Body-Mindedness Learning journey? Please let us know and drop us an email at bettina [dot] geiken
ifis-freiburg [dot] de (bettina[dot]geiken[at]ifis-freiburg[dot]de)
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