How to know if you’re cut off from your body

Even as embodiment professional, I find myself losing touch with my body regularly. Hardly surprising really given the world we live in – so I should probably cut myself some slack. What I do find helpful is noting certain things that indicate it’s time to log off, get my yoga mat out, or just slow down and feel for a moment. Usually the journey is from noticing I’m not noticing, to noticing discomfort, and eventually … noticing the relief in coming home.

So what are the red lights? Here are some indicators of (temporary) disembodiment:

  • I notice that I’m not noticing my body (true as a definition of state disembodiment but let’s start there)
  • I’m brutalising myself with overwork, treating myself as an industrial machine
  • My breathing is tight and irregular
  • My body aches from tension (especially back, shoulders and belly) or is exhausted. This can feel like coming back to a resentful angry child who has been left alone too long
  • I’m rushing. It is possible to be embodied fast, as in martial arts, but rushing has its own feel
  • I have a hot “electric” feeling in my head and face.
  • I’m eating low quality food, especially when not hungry
  • I’m hurting myself in subtle or less subtle ways in order to feel
  • I have numbness to strong stimuli like loud music, strong tastes etc
  • There’s a subtle overall feeling of contraction and limitation in the whole body, like being in a cage; loss of natural expansiveness
  • I’m ungrateful
  • I’m treating others as sex or success objects – means to ends, not ends in themselves
  • Alcohol consumption may be an issue for others too

Thank you, AnTonya, for the idea for this post.

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