Episode 07 Embodiment: Exploring the Mind-Body Connection

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

notice, body, hands, embodied, feel, embodiment, happening, somatic experiencing, scrumptious, grounding, breath, exhale, exercises, part, grounded, nervous system, energy, aware, breathing, feet

SPEAKERS

Juliette Karaman

Juliette Karaman  00:01

Welcome to the scrumptious woman with Juliette Karaman. This is a sacred space, where we embark on a profound journey, reinventing the most intimate relationship in life. Relationship with yourself. We look within uncover and reclaim the territories of relationships, intimacy, sensuality, kink, spirituality, embodiment, communication, parenthood, and grief. Through this podcast, we challenged ingrained beliefs and address taboo subjects. Awareness truly is the first step towards self love. Welcome once again to the scrumptious woman, and get ready for an adventure as we dive deep into your essence. Together we will receive reveal, rewire and restore the secrets to living a more scrumptious life. Are you ready? Let’s begin. Hello, my love’s I am thrilled to be with you. And today I wanted to talk to you about embodiment. And you may have heard this term flying around in the coaching world flying around for the last 10 years or so you’ve heard a lot about you may have heard a lot about somatic experiencing. The Soma means the body and just what does it even mean to be fully embodied? Right, we hear this term and we’re like, quite sure what it means. mean. So my colleague and I opened our academy which is called the embodied Leadership Academy. And really where it is that those of us who lead do that through an embodied way, you may have heard from about the practices top down. So when you’re really thinking about your answers, when you experience them really in your in your thought, matter. And then another approach to feeling things into to awareness is bottom up approach. So that’s really to come back to the soma to come back to the body. Somatic Experiencing is very, very big, and it has been for the past 1015 years. And we’ve also noticed that oftentimes people that have had a traumatic experience have had an event happened to them, still recall that event, and then are slightly stuck, and we were stuck Emotionally, it brings some emotional charge. And although we can, from top down, like when we talk to psychologists, when we talk to counsellors, when we talk to talk therapy, that is all the top down approach, we talk about what happened, we will come to some awareness we will come in and notice our patterns, but it doesn’t involve what the body the body loop back right the the feedback from the body. And this is often where, where, or this is where we’ve noticed and research has shown that the body really is very important. That’s on their core, we have all these these incredible psychologists and therapists and long term experts that have really noticed this mind body loop. And I’ve worked with with several of them Peter Levine, Gabor Ma Tei. And they’re all real experts and what they do, and they’ve dedicated their lives to learning about the nervous system, the automatic and the old parts or branches of the nervous system and how that affects intense experiences in our memory of it. So, embodied meaning feeling, your body, meaning that you have done or you have practised something. So many times you have gotten information so many times that it has just become a habit. It’s created a new neural pathway. And that has become a habit it has become embodied in you. And your you’ll notice that the leaders that you may follow, they all have a feeling. They all create a feeling of safety in you. And oftentimes, the first step towards becoming an embodied is actually to pause, it’s like, let’s just take a breath. And notice where that breath is going in your body. If it’s reaching your upper chest, it’s going slow, slightly slower, lower down a bit slower and lower down your midriff. Perhaps your belly is expanding. I’m just become aware of your breath. I know that these days in schools, they’re also bringing in a lot of mindfulness, and a lot of breath work. And breath work is beautiful. And I’ve also noticed where some people go into deep into breath work when they’re not quite ready for it when their nervous system isn’t quite as regulated yet. So one way they go, you can already tell that my body is starting to breathe a little bit slower. The exhales are longer. And this is your body’s own way of regulating you. Just before I had bee in my space I or Wasp in my space, I’m allergic to wasps, I don’t get freaked out anymore. But still, there’s a little part of me that tightens. And just now by breathing out longer than the inhalation my autonomic nervous system was coming back on board, it might have been a slight freeze there. And it can be so subtle that we’re not aware of it. Yeah, I got up I tried to close the window thought you know, try to find the worst thinking out it’s fine. And yet, I skipped over the part. We’re actually there was a tightening in my chest, tightening in my my hips and my sacral. And just now by talking about breath, noticing where my out breath is longer than my in breath. That is where it has clicked I’m like, Oh, I actually wasn’t a bit of a phrase. And that is the subtlety of embodiment. That’s the subtlety of being able to track yourself. Now there are some beautiful, beautiful people that you can follow on Instagram and on on Facebook, but a lot of people on Instagram a lot of people on on the internet, of course, taking you through these exercises. And one of the really, really, really deep ones is one that I’d like to do now if you but I want to actually intro it a little bit and also give you some time. But if you are driving or if you’re busy, make sure that you bookmark it come back to this one. Because although it’s very subtle, it can definitely have a massive effect on you and it can can, you know just it’s good to be careful with it to to give yourself some time afterwards. So for the next three to four minutes, if you’re driving pull over, if you are busy with the kids or if you’re cutting of your listen of you’re putting stuff in the oven, just go ahead and actually stop that or stop this recording. All right. So I want you to now take a moment for yourself. This is gonna last about four minutes. So if you can be in a space sitting down. I’m gonna recommend you to sit down to do a quick check in with yourself. You don’t have to close your eyes. If it doesn’t feel right to sit down. I want you to concentrate on your hands. Take a deep breath in through your nose. Put your hands up. Exhale through your mouth, letting the exhale be longer. And then again, inhale through your nose hold it on top and then exhale through your mouth. I want you to put your attention on your hands. And notice if you are feeling a A sensation first of all.

Juliette Karaman  10:04

For me, there’s like tingling going on, and it’s quite warm. So I want you to notice if there’s a sensation if it’s still if it’s static, if it’s moving, and then what the temperature is. Is it cold? Is it warm? Is it lukewarm, is it boiling. And now I’m going to introduce you to sound gold Vu. And it’s almost like a fog horn that goes off. Remember, you have these big boats, and then they have a big fog horn there. So if you just put your hand on your belly, a little bit like on your belly button, and then the hand like your thumb is on your belly button and the hand is below that. Now I need to just listen to mind first, and then afterwards, I’m going to ask you to do along, okay. So just put, keep your hand there, I noticed what happens to your body when you listen to my.

Juliette Karaman  11:30

vibration of this actually will help move certain things through your body. So just notice what that felt like. And now I’m going to invite you to do the same we’ll do this two more times. So take a deep breath in through your nose. And then make the view sound all the way from your belly.

Juliette Karaman  12:14

So I’ve come from your chest, but then have gone all the way down to your belly. Because if you listen to this one, huh, that’s very high, right that’s up my chest. That’s all the way down I can almost like you’re basing your, your pelvic area and just notice what happens to your hands if they become more electric have they become warmer, have they become warm, colder. And if any of your parts of your body wants to shake or tremor, you may notice that part of your jaw is starting to quiver a little bit or you might have one of your eyes that is slightly spasming to allow this to happen. Now that you are completely safe, this is completely okay. Notice your feet as well your extremities I want you to remind yourself that you are safe. Whatever you have passed through is in the past you have already survived it yet your body doesn’t always now be able to continue your breathing matters if it’s maybe a bit more shallow or a bit quicker than before. And that is where your breathing lands in your body now are you getting more blood more oxygen and to yourselves

Juliette Karaman  14:19

usually people start breathing a little bit deeper here all right, and then one last time. Take a breath in. And then together let’s do this all the way from your gut.

Juliette Karaman  14:56

Again, just being present What is happening? What are your cells doing what’s being rearranged for you right now although this exercise is very simple, it is massively effective it’s one of the exercises we often use in somatic experiencing. And again, I want you to place your attention on your hands and on your feet on your extremities. Notice they might be more clammy, they might be colder. Can you feel where your fingers stop and where the air around you starts again I want you to wiggle your toes a little bit, feel the floor underneath your feet

Juliette Karaman  16:15

notice what’s happened in your body, you might, your neck might have moved a little bit, you might feel more opening in your neck

Juliette Karaman  16:35

I’m really become aware of more breath. More opening in your body as you can now breathe in a slightly different pattern. Now that is one of the embodiment exercises one of the somatic experiencing exercises, so that we really can get in touch with what is happening. Another way to be embodied and if you feel like you’re yourself, like you might be very empathic, you might be a very sensitive person. So you may have been in a party where a lot of people and you become slightly overwhelmed and you don’t know what’s happening. But you need to get out of there. I don’t know if any of you have ever experienced that. But it’s like, gotta get out of here. And that is actually your body telling you that you’re not grounded. A lot of people are like, What do you mean with GROUNDED GROUNDED is we can feel the earth energy and we can just feel that you’re actually in your body, you’re not just in your minds and then that thoughts are constantly swirling around in your mind or, or you might just not feel very present. That’s also one way that you can feel the somebody people are talking to you and you’re kind of like a bit spacey way see. So one way that I love to tell my my clients is imagine that you have zippers in your hands, your palms of your hands and in the soles of your feet. When you get like this, just place your hands and your feet you place your hands on your desk if you’re working on something metal or wood wherever, whatever surface you have, just place your hands there and place your feet on the floor. And then with every breath, just imagine that you are sending energy through the zippers that you’ve unzipped in your hands and your feet. Imaginary is a person and you’re sending that energy back into the world back into their back into the universe. So often we forget that we’re all energetic beings. Take a moment and just exhale and send all that energy back. I remember being at a Dr. Joe Dispenza retreat last summer this time and we met this gorgeous young man or young adult and he was high as a kite after six hours of meditation every day. Because that’s you if you meditate a lot or if you’re energetic. This is what can happen right you can just become really disembodied and Hein and not saying that it’s bad. It’s just something but they don’t always give an instruction leaflet for don’t always warn for Sarah I remember having dinner with this young guy and my friend and I both looked at him and said You know what grounding is? He’s like, no. So I taught him the hands and feet trick. And then I also said, like, on the way here to the restaurant from, from the auditorium, did you trip over anything that you bump into a tree or people or anything’s? Yes, I nearly smacked my head a few times, like great. And that’s often one way to kind of realise how disembodied we are. So I told him to go outside, if he can be in nature takes take shoes off, put your feet in the ground. Those are really earthing grounding things. You’ll see people hugging trees, because trees actually emit a lot of energy and they feel super grounding. Another way is to be around people that are very grounded, their energy will also just bring yours down, we co regulate each other. That’s what we do over our nervous systems. Another way is to be around a pet. Dogs are notoriously good for grounding. Especially a little bit older dogs, I would say, if you’re around a puppy, there’ll be quite high for. But if you’re around, I have a whippet who’s massively grounded, and when, until she goes into her nervous shaking, but most of the time, she’s massively grounded. And that then grounds me co regulating our nervous system. Another way to really ground yourself and to start feeling more embodied is or bringing yourself back to the body is by eating grounding foods. So that is no sugar, cutting out all sugar, no caffeine, sugar, and alcohol often aggravate it. So root vegetables, healthy salads, things like that really sweet potatoes, lentils are often things that bring the autonomic nervous system back on board. So now you might understand why this term embodiment, the somatic experiencing why it’s so important and why people pay a lot of attention to a lot of people have actually moved through some intense health, health scares by becoming much more in tune with their body, much more aware of what’s going on. Anyway, I hope that these few exercises really helped you. One way to do one last one to anchor this in is I’d like you to take your right hand and place it on your left shoulder, squeeze that left shoulder three times 123. And now I want you to draw it across your breast across your chest, all the way to your hip on the other side on the opposite side. Hold it there and then bring it down to your knees and let it go. Now to do the opposite hand, so your left hand across your body and your right shoulder, squeeze it 123 and then drag it across your chest to your opposite hip. Hold it there for a moment, we carry a lot of emotions and our hips. Take a deep breath in, exhale and bring it all the way down with quite a bit of pressure down to your kneecap and then just let it go. This is to the cross body movement is really good to wire in your left and right brain hemisphere that can get a little bit scrambled when we are dysregulated. This my loves is just the start of becoming more embodied becoming more in touch with what’s going on, on the inside of you versus what’s going on around you. And when you become more in touch of what’s happening in your body. What’s happening in your thoughts what’s happening in your emotions. You become more aware of yourself and that is the most intimate relationship you have. So becoming more intimate with yourself is becoming more aware that them in turns. In turn really helps you become a different person and all of a sudden the exterior of you hold the other things in your life or start falling back into place. Try it and let me know how that goes for you. Thank you for joining the scrumptious woman podcast. I appreciate you being here as time is your most precious commodity. If you enjoyed these insights, please hit the like and subscribe button. By doing so you’ll stay connected. Visit feel fully u.com for a wealth of resources, tools and guidance to support your journey towards living a more scrumptious life. Follow me on Instagram under the handle Juliette Karaman, French spelling with double T Karaman ka-ra-man, Facebook again, Juliette Karaman now don’t keep this magic to yourself. But share this podcast with anyone who you feel will benefit from this energetic exploration. Spread the wisdom ignite their inner fire and empower them to embrace their true selves. Together let’s create this ripple effect of transformation and inspire others to embark on their own journey of self discovery. Thank you for being part of our vibrant community. Stay fully you and continue to radiate your unique essence and all that you do