Embodiment: Walk your talk

I’ve just finished a remarkable 6 week journey with Julie, a virtual assistant from Toronto. Reading her feedback spurred me to write this blog about how embodiment in coaching is what makes the difference from having cool insights or good intentions, to walking our talk. For this post, I will use the terms “somatic” and “embodiment” interchangeably.

We've all had those "aha" moments in our lives – those profound insights that light up our minds and ignite our desire for change. Yet, normally, these revelations remain fleeting, never transforming into real, sustainable personal growth.

Understanding the power of embodiment in life coaching

Whether you’re a total newbie, or enjoy using healing modalities to make shifts in your life, somatic life coaching creates a space where you can make shifts in your body-mind and get to walk your talk by embodying those shifts for real, week by week with your coach holding that space for you.

How?

We recognize the premise that the body holds physical and emotional imprints from past experiences, influencing our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. We can then address this by:

1. Bringing Awareness to the Body

Somatic coaching helps by gaining awareness of your body's sensations and responses. This heightened awareness helps you connect with your emotions and inner experiences on a deeper level. This embodied wisdom then guides you by providing visceral insights into your reactions, feelings and thinking. With this embodied wisdom, new choices can open up.

2. Grounding Insights in the Body

Once you've had an "aha" moment, somatic coaching helps you ground that insight in your body. This means not only understanding at a mentally but also feeling it on a physical level. For example, if you’re working on setting healthier boundaries, somatic coaching can help you feel the sensation of where strength and assertiveness live in your body and use that felt sense when you assert your boundaries, embodying your boundaries from the inside out.

3. Release Physical and Emotional Blocks

Somatic coaching is a super star when it comes to addressing the blocks that can hinder personal growth. Through embodied coaching, you can identify what’s getting in the way and bring kindness and curiosity to your stuck places. Often times through this sort of practice, as we let go of the narrative and story and trust our body’s wisdom, the hold they have is reduced, allowing for more space and freedom.

4. Create a Practice for Integration

It is not just about understanding your insights but also about integrating them into your daily life. Embodiment coaching can help you create your own practices that help you to embody who you want to be “being” in life . This practice might involve breathwork, EFT (emotional freedom technique), or embodiment practices (can range from meditation to foraging) to anchor your insights in your body. Julie recognized that by practicing feeling into her body, she was able to stay on track with her intentions of the day “ I was taking action in my life and moving things forward. Things were starting to happen. It was exciting and I had no fear around it, or at least any fear that was present was quickly brought to my awareness so that I could observe it and not get swept away by it.”

5. Accountability and Support

We all could use a coach! It’s amazing to collaborate with someone help you stay on track with your intentions and commitments, ensuring that you're consistently walking your talk. This support can be invaluable, especially when you’re faced with challenges or setbacks.

“I truly embodied the knowing that I am empowered and can accomplish anything I set my mind to. Being able to work collaboratively with Sarah, rather than trying to figure it out on my own, was instrumental in helping me to make discoveries and experience significant life-changing shifts.” - Julie

6. Sustainable Transformation

The beauty of somatic coaching is its capacity to facilitate lasting transformation. It's not about quick fixes or temporary change; it's about creating a deep and lasting shift in how you approach life. Embodying your growth through somatic coaching can lead to lasting, meaningful change.

During our completion session on week 6 as well as reading Julie’s comments gave me the amazing feeling of this stuff really works! Recognizing walking our talk is a continuous practice and having a coach checking in every week certainly creates the structure to have you walk your talk, even with life’s limitations and humbling moments.