How to Embody Your Practice And Create Your Life
By Juan Pablo Escorcia.
2:00am. Nairobi, Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta airport. 4 hour lay-over on a trip from Harare (Zimbabwe) to Amsterdam. There are just so many things you can do when you are exhausted and with time to spare in an in-between land. After finishing my book and arranging all the contacts, pictures, videos and notes I had in my mobile phone, I found myself in a really uncomfortable chair with more than three hours of waiting ahead of me.
So, I started looking around. The waiting room was packed with people that tried to sleep or tried to find something to do to keep them busy, but most of them, like me, just found the waiting too long and looked really uncomfortable and impatient.
Then it happened: the land crew announced that our flight would be delayed at least two more hours…
Don’t Re-act, Create!
Everybody (including me) got really annoyed. Some people started to complain, even to fight with the crew and among themselves. Children cried and we all entered a downward spiral of anger and resignation. At this point is when I became aware that to be able to cope well with the uncomfortable situation, I needed to move away from “re-acting” and start creating a new context to cope with a situation I could not control or change. I needed to use what I´ve learned in my Yoga, meditation and Biodanza practice.
I started by focusing on my breathing, on the sensations I had in my body, on the conversations that I was having with myself, and realized that I was trapped in the downward spiral and emotions like anger and despair were taking control. But then I also realized that although there was nothing else for me to do but wait, I could decide how I face the delay. That although I was exhausted and angry, I had the power to choose what to embody. As soon as I became conscious of my inner state and decided to consciously embody flow, creativity, balance and presence, my mood changed and my mind calmed down. The situation outside was still the same, but my inner situation had drastically changed for the better.
We all constantly face situations that confront us with our inner resources. You may find yourself in a really full U-Bahn on your way to work, having conflicts with colleagues at work, finding it hard to deal with marital issues, or being put to test by your children. All these situations require from us that we act, but depending on what you have inside, on your inner resources, you could either re-act or create. You can either profit from a difficult situation or be caught up by it, feeling incapable to deal properly and ending up frustrated and weakened because of the outcome. These situations and many more are common for the majority of us that live in postmodern times. Situations that surprise us and drive us outside our comfort zone. Situations that require that we make decisions and act fast and swift. All you need is to learn how to embody empowering contexts that support your wellbeing when driven out of your comfort zone. But how?
The Missing Piece of Conscious Creation: Embodiment
First and most important by becoming aware of our ability to create. But this awareness state is not enough by itself. It needs to be followed by the ability to embody that what we are creating. Currently there are a lot of authors that focus on how to consciously create, but many people that learn about this subject still have a lot of problems believing they have this power because although they visualize the future they want to create, it doesn’t happen as they want to.
I believe that most people who face this problem are missing one important step for creation: to consciously embody what they are creating. I say “consciously” because we are always creating and embodying even though most of us don´t do it in a conscious way. For example, when I see people walking down the street I perceive what they are embodying by looking at the way they are moving, their posture, the gestures on their faces and alignment of their joints. By doing that I have a glimpse of their reality just by seeing them walk. The importance that our body has to create our reality resides in the fact that we cannot run away from it and unlike our mind, our body always tells the truth.
Thanks to my life path I’ve learned some of the skills needed to travel outside my comfort zone, create my reality and embody empowering contexts. Below I would like to share with you some of the strategies I´ve found to consciously embody our creations.
Strategies for Embodiment
1. Discipline & Perseverance
First we require discipline and perseverance. If you like yoga, this means showing up in the mat regularly with a clear purpose and intention you want to embody. If you like to dance (consciously), it means to attend (regularly) to workshops and frequent teachers that use dance as a ritual of creation. Techniques such as Biodanza, 5 rhythms, authentic movement, teach how to use the energy generated through movement to create reality, heal and evolve. If you like to meditate it means to do it on a regular basis with a clear intention and focus on what your body is feeling when you enter meditative states. If you are into shamanism it all about attending ceremonies that expand your consciousness and connect your physical experience (body) with the living universe…
What is important is not the specific technique, but to regularly practice in order to learn how to understand the language of your body (its sensations and feelings) and its importance to bring the visions you want to create to every cell. Of course the emotions (that are also felt in the body) you feel while practicing are also key to support the embodiment of your vision. The important thing here is to comprehend that training your body is as important as training your mind and your emotional awareness to be able to embody creative contexts. These three domains (together with the spiritual) constitute our coherence.
2. Awareness, Acceptance & Detachment
Trying to be more specific, besides discipline and perseverance, embodying creations need form us to cultivate presence of mind and body, emotional awareness, acceptance, and detachment. I’ve also found that others skills like introspection, balance, flow, ability to connect with others, openness, joy of movement (and/or stillness), and focus are also key to be able to embody and create reality.
What Am I Embodying Now?
The challenge that most of us have is to bring what we practice on the mat or while dancing, or meditating, etc into our daily lives and especially when we are taken out of our comfort zone. The true spiritual warriors are recognized there, when pushed to the limit.
Any kind of spiritual/physical regular practice, combined with an introspective view and the conviction of our power to create are really important for us modern-day humans. That long night in Kenya I learned the importance of answering two questions that have been with me ever since that may also resonate with you: what am I embodying now? And, what do I want to embody?
The Author
Juan Pablo is a life coach, Biodanza teacher, real life yogi and entrepreneur. He is currently living in Berlin where he delivers trainings, workshops, and sessions related to human consciousness. For more info on his work please visit: www.7sessions.de
Events
On June 5th to 7th Juan Pablo organizes a Weekend of Joy, Rhythm and Bliss with dance, yoga, coaching massage, sufi whirling and argentinian body percussion and much more!
Also check out his event series Biodanza: Poetry in Motion that takes place every Tuesday night from May 3rd till June 23rd, 2015!
Photo Credit: Jessica Polar via Unsplash (title), Juan Pablo Escorcia
