Embodiment and Wellbeing
Everything you'll ever experience happens in your body.
Everything that you’re ever going to experience or do will happen in your body.
Every hug you’ll ever give - embodied.
Every laugh you’ll every share - embodied.
Every brilliant idea or great meal you’ll ever have - experienced in your body.
(We might take a moment and consider that materialist science cannot identify where ideas come from; regardless of the answer, you have them being through your body.)
There is clear and compelling evidence that your experience of your life is shaped by your relationship to and the state of your body.
This is More|Better, the substack companion to the Better Than Fine podcast. They’re on building a well-being lifestyle after overwhelm, burnout, and frustration. I’m Darlene Marshall, wellness coach and wellbeing educator, with 15 years coaching in the fitness and wellness space ~ I’ve got over a dozen certifications, a Master’s in Applied Positive Psychology from UPenn, been quoted in the NYTimes, Business Insider, and Washington Post, and I write curriculum for the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM).
So often we’re told that when we want to work on our wellbeing; that is to be happier, more productive, have better mental health, or “work on yourself” we’re told to turn to the mind. Meditations where we watch our thoughts. Journaling exercises about writing your own obituary, meant to hone us in on our values. 5 year plans and gratitude lists. All from the neck up; ignoring that 80% of the vagus nerve’s mind/body signal goes “up” from the body to the brain. It’s time to flip that model on it’s… well, head!
Want wellbeing? To feel better?
Want to understand yourself and your life more fully?
Or just want things to suck less?
Start in the body.
Research supports that movement, sleep, and a healthy gut micro-biome make you more likely to feel positive emotion, have better self control and introspection, improve relationships, and even have more meaning and purpose. Unfortunately, we’re all too busy being fed a steady stream of messaging on how to lose weight and look hot. Perhaps worse, wellness and self care being monetized by influencer marketing only adds to the traditional fitness marketing mess.
There’s another way.
15 years ago when I dipped my toe into becoming a fitness professional I was taught there are 3 kinds of goals: aesthetic, performance, and health. As a personal trainer I was taught to program my clients based on one of those 3 goal types and that my clients (and myself) should always have some goal to program for. As someone with a chronic illness, health was my entry point to fitness, so that made sense to me. Yet, as I shifted my lifestyle and my symptoms were under control, I felt the pressure for a new goal. I went for what I’d been taught: shouldn’t I be thinner, more lean, and able to do more physical feats. Often when chasing those arbitrary goals I’d get hurt or develop some unhealthy patterns with food.
It wasn’t until much later I came to see a gaping hole: wellbeing.
A Body for Wellbeing
Self care as a foundation for wellbeing is by no means new. Esoteric traditions around the world and throughout history have created systems of self care as the foundation for connecting more deeply with ourselves (yoga, anyone?). Yet in this moment where we’re overwhelmed with information we also see many people struggling with the basics. We don’t need more of what, we need support in the how.
I teach a popular corporate workshop called Self Care for Uncertain Times and participants are often surprised the workshop isn’t 45 minutes of me telling them what to do and I’m not dropping affiliate links to products and supplements. In fact, the entire workshop is built on giving yourself credit for what you’re doing right and implementing the stuff you already know what to do. Demographic data tells us most people aren’t doing the basics - getting good sleep, eating vegetables, and moving their bodies - so why pile on more!?
If you want to feel better…
If you want to show up in your life for what matters most to you…
If you want to learn how to listen to and trust your intuition and nervous system…
If you want to grow your emotional intelligence, heal from trauma, or otherwise show up more regulated and happier in your life…
Start in the body and learn how to take care of yourself more deeply.
Doing so will lead you to a more authentic, satisfying, values-driven life because you won’t be shutting down or tuning how how uncomfortable you are.
(The inverse is also true - uncomfortable and dissociated people are easier to control.)
If I could be helpful with your wellbeing this season, find some time on my calendar. Consultation is always free.
