Embodied.Berlin

So often we know a lot about ourselves, about what we want to change and what are we longing for. We reflect on our behavior, work on our limiting beliefs, get new insights and deepen the view. And while we understand so much about what we want and how things should be, nothing change in the way we act. Why is it so?

The answers are in our body. Our fears are in our body, our limiting beliefs are in our body, our emotions, experiences and perception of ourselves and others are in our body. What we try to change by changing our mind is often much easier and accessible when we pay attention to our body. The more space we can create within and around us, the more energy can flow through us, no matter what kind of emotions or circumstances we are dealing with.

When we learn to listen to our body and to connect its wisdom to the intelligence of our mind, we begin to experience that we are not the problems to be solved, but the worlds to be experienced. We experience ourselves and the world around us as sources of inspiration and joy. Which doesn’t mean the fear disappears, but there is enough space to dance with all of it.

On a cold November day when the days are short and the darkness enters the day early, I went for a walk to catch some light rays and to watch a magnificent blue of the winter sky.

I walked along a busy, loud and dirty highway wondering if this was something I really wanted and if this might be much better to turn back and have a hot tea at home. Suddenly I saw a gate and entered an area which turned out to be a cemetery. My original plan was to go to a park, but I took a wrong street and this was where I landed.

When I entered the cemetery, a loud and dusty way disappeared and I found myself in a totally different world: silent, peaceful, and warm. I was watching gravestones and reading the names, dates of birth and death. I was imagining how people lived their lives, who they were, what they worked, whom they loved, how they died, finally finding their peace here at this ground.

Suddenly it occurred to me what a huge gift it is to know that we will die one day. What an act of grace to have the certainty that each journey has an end. Even if the end is always is the beginning of something new. But there is an end and it means that whatever we do, however we live, whatever decisions we make and what turns we take, we will finally end at peace.

I felt a huge relieve as if a heavy stone was falling off my shoulders. I felt that there was no way to live my life „wrongly“ and I have the permission to live my life fully. I felt joy and lightness in my body as if I was flying on this cold November day, filled with warmth and sun inside.

To embrace death is to embrace life. To embrace the end is to say yes to the journey.

I created Embodied Meditation for people like me who spend the most time in their mind: analyzing, evaluating, thinking through, figuring it out. For people who find it challenging to feel their feelings, to sense their bodies, to hear their own voice and act with integrity in the middle of noise. 

And while Eastern Meditation Practices focus on bringing one from the ground to the top, on overcoming the physicality and raising above, Embodied Meditation brings me from my head into my feet, into my body, down to earth. It encourages me to use my senses in order to feel and have a direct experience, and to use my mind to become aware of my experience.

Embodied Meditation is about moving. I need to move in order to connect to and feel my body. Sometimes it is big and expressive, sometimes it is subtle and small. My experience is changing as I move, and I learn to move with my experience instead of holding and getting stuck in it. By following the movements of my body I learn to trust and to see the bigger picture, to go beyond the obvious and to connect my body intelligence and my mind. To have the whole experience, to be whole. 

Embodied Meditation is about opening my senses, becoming aware of my experiences, moving forward and growing. It helps me to find peace and to feel joy. Joy of being alive, of being creative, of being myself.

Body is a place of awareness. Body doesn’t lie.

My body tells me what I am really feeling at this moment. Is it a yes or a no? Do I trust? Does it feel right? Usually, when I don’t feel anything in my body, I am numb: out there in my head, creating stories and strategies of how to get something or to become someone who I think I should be.

When I pay attention to my body, I become aware of what is really going on at this moment. What experience I am going through. What is true for me at this moment. 

Body is a place of awareness. A place of knowing. A place of inner wisdom and intelligence. The paradox is that I can only discover myself when I let go of the need to control and to know. When I trust the bigger intelligence in my body and follow my rhythm. When I trust the moment and am open to receive. This can be a joyful or frightening experience, but this is where I meet myself and my own truth. 

For some people joy can be as frightening as anger or sadness for others. But by avoiding to feel our body we avoid our truth. We don’t trust ourselves and our senses, but instead look for appreciation and truth outside.

Embodied Meditation creates a space to be present and to listen to what is true to you. To give full attention to your own experience. To trust your wisdom. To bring your energy into motion.

Becoming aware of your body is a compass on a journey to your true self.

Oh my! This is probably the bottomline of the whole Embodied Meditation. I am practicing it every day and this is still my biggest challenge. I spend a lot of time in my head, holding on to how things should be. 

Yesterday I woke up and I had this image of dropping myself into my body. Each time I would think of how things should go, I just let myself relax into my body and feel what is present in the moment. This is what I discovered during the day:

It is unbelievable how much time I spend during my day waiting for things to happen exactly the way I want them to be… No comment here.

It is really deliberating to have no expectations. This way I cannot be disappointed and I don’t need to hold on something or someone, but instead have space to breathe.

I can get curious again about what will happen next. There is plenty of space for something unpredictable to happen and to be surprised.

There is a synchronicity happening, things just follow their own rhythm and fall into place, without my doing. 

I enjoy everything that is happening during the day with more presence and freedom. Everything can, nothing must.

All my non-expectations are exceeded. When I let go of how things should go, they go much better than I could have imagined. 

I felt productive, joyful and peaceful at the end of the day. I realize how much more is possible when I let go of control and get present.

Want to try it? 

Ich war wirklich damit nicht einverstanden. Noch vor wenigen Tagen badete ich im See und lag im Schatten, weil die Sonne zu stark schien, und jetzt sollte es auf einmal vorbei sein? Endloser Dauerregen, trüber grauer Himmel, frierende Hände, triste schwarz-blaue Winterjacken… Ich war mürrisch und kratzbürstig, die Welt spiegelte es mir wieder. 

Trotz der Kälte und der Unlust, mich vom warmen Sommer zu verabschieden, ging ich zögernd auf die Straße. Plötzlich wurde mein ganzer Körper von Freude erfasst. Alles strahlte mich an, die roten Beeren an den Büschen und Bäumen, das Spiegeln der Sonne im Parkteich, die kleinen Kinder, die Kastanien sammelten und vor Vergnügen lachten. Die Luft war frisch und angenehm kühl, jemand in der Ferne spielte Saxophon und ich fühlte die pure Freude, ein Teil dieses Herbsttages zu sein…

Ich fühlte die Freude in meinem Körper, die Verbundenheit mit der Welt. Und wieder einmal erinnerte ich mich: Das Leben ist kein Problem, das gelöst werden will. Das Leben ist ein Mysterium, das gelebt, mit allen Sinnen erfahren werden will.