This is an online book outlining one tried and tested way to work with the body as an intelligent, self-optimising living organism. i.e. to inhabit it (be embodied in it) in a way that recognises and makes most use of its innate biological intelligence.
The biological, organic, living BODY (and not the mind) is the ground for everything we think of as human. Every experience, action, even every thought one way or another relates back to the physical body. And your body is a sentient biological entity that actively wants to communicate with the cognitive self - but can only do this on its (i.e. the body's) terms.
A good quality relationship with the body is also a prerequisite for a good quality relationship with the environment. The body we walk round in and the so-called external ecosystem / biosphere are a continuum. Each human being is a living system that contains living systems, and that lives inside living systems. And the view of a human as a separate (and separable) entity is a profoundly misleading illusion. [2]
The approach I describe and the supporting theoretical basis has several distinct (but related) applications:
It also has more therapeutic applications suited both either self-help and/or use in a treatment setting:
The Earth has been organizing living systems for billions of years. We can learn a lot by simply living into her natural patterns again.
Joe Brewer [3]
This book is for everyone, because - as will be described - overwhelm and consequent (often low level, invisible) dissociation are universal and endemic in Western cultures. When dealing with embodiment - at some point the forceful mindset that underpins our very colonial culture ceases to work. Here I have presented one tried-and-tested way of directly co-working with the body's internal innate intelligence - by applying its own rules. The outcome is gentle, organic, very effective, constitutes a valuable life-skill - and is complementary to and supportive of many other ways of embodying.
What good does it do us to have descriptions that leave the spirit and heart cold - dead descriptions of dead Nature? At the very least they must be archetypal, as Nature herself, if they are not to be mere vagaries of personalized description. Nature must be the vessel for ideas, and the soul must become the vessel for Nature.
Novalis (The Poet’s Realm, 1796)
References & Notes
