Feminine Embodiment: Somatic Moment by Moment
Feminine embodiment practice, in theory and application, is done one day at a time, moment by moment. Somatic practice is about witnessing the movement and the internal experience and awareness of the movement. Every discomfort that emerges with each practice, even the everyday necessary self-care practices, whether it's brushing one's teeth, taking a shower, or taking vitamins, must be worked through in the moment. This is where the power of somatic practice comes in. As we witness our bodies in the moment and experience what it feels like in that moment, we are also able to experience in the moment transformation. This transformation comes through acceptance of what is.
I witness the feelings that emerge and I see myself and the thoughts and internal movements that emerge. When I don't want to do this, I see and understand that it's a desire to disembody and check out of my experiences; to dissociate. To flee from the physical reality. While this may sound like a bad thing, I don't apply judgment to this statement. Dissociation has benefits, but somatic practice helps to balance the negative effects of dissociation and also helps us to experience embodied self-awareness.
When you're used to patterns of self-neglect and dissociation, the only way out is to work through it in every moment with every resistance and then to be present with the pain and grief that emerges when you consciously choose to embody. As a guide of mine, Daniella Matutes, says "to move is to feel". This (feeling) can only happen when we slow down enough to notice the experience of the movement. Those patterns don't just magically go away in one day. It is a repatterning that must occur over a period of time where devotion is applied toward embodied self-care. The nervous system transforms from dysregulation to regulation as the new patterns overwrite the old.
This is the way feminine embodiment works its magic. Layer by layer, moment by moment, bit by bit, we stay with ourselves, lessening the occurrence of self-abandonment, we witness as we do the work. Slowly over time with devotion and practice, transformation occurs.