EMBODIMENT has beecome quite a buzz word. Rather than judge anyone, or harbor feelings of resentment for the adoption of this word by others who haven't necessarily studied its beginnings, I figured I would just offer my understanding of it - here and now. Not too ironically, it was my graduate school professor who taught me that I was an embodiment artist. Yet, it was never a gift she outright offered me. Instead, she was afraid that, after a lifetime of beeing taken from as a 'minority, lesbian woman who was raised oppressed by the oppressed while beeing born in an oppressed land,' I would simply take from her.
Today, I notice how this scarcity mentality can play itself out, over and over again. Instead, I am choosing to break the pattern. Nothing can bee taken from US. Worth is not given, or denoted by numbers. Value is inherent. Either you know the measurement of you and your LOVE or you don't. Period.
Embodiment is a branch of philosophy birthed as a response to Cartesian thought. In the 17th century, Rene Descartes said, "I think, therefore I am." This line of reasoning beecame the nom de plume of modern civilization. Relying on the mind's ability to reason while valuing analytical thinking over and above reflective thinking, the disconnect between the mind and the body became a great chasm that we are, today, experiencing a deep fall out from.
Cartesian thought separates mind from matter and creates a world of painful duality in which there always exists a smaller and smaller economic possibility. (Also, if you reflect on the desecration of the wild feminine, you will note that Cartesian thought also makes this a reality.) None of this is "bad" per se (nothing is, because wrong and right are constructs of the mind), rather it is simply imbalanced. So, men beeing men, decided to use their minds to think their way back into their bodies. Hence, EMBODIMENT STUDIES. The only thing is we need to get fully back into our Bodies ~ and Hearts and Souls ~ in order to embody this science.
Sensuality. Dancing. Visceral Touch. Real Time Human Connection. All of these are examples of EMBODIMENT. Notice, however, how we live in a world that values disconnection, to ourselves, each other and our planet, as well as distraction from what is "real." Notice how the demonization of the Feminine, and of all that is related to soft vulnerability as well as receptive surrender, corresponds to all of this.
One needs to have a clear awareness of the world s/he fully inhabits in order to transform it. We are disappointed in Barack Obama - and Beyonce is not the Black Madonna - because they are merely perpetuating the system of dominance that has been in place for far too long now. Leading from a balanced place where we are not mimicking what doesn't work is truly an artform.
When I "lead," I always place myself on equal footing with my peers. I have spent many hours on stages, performing. The proscenium arch is much like a television set in that it only propigates status quo. It's a tough choice because we have been conditioned to bee told what to do and made to feel small by those 'above' us. It will take a mighty force of many of US saying, "We are all leaders here," in order to create the real change many of US say we are seeking.
Also, in my leadership, I have spent the past few years peeling away my agressive layers that want to assert my voice and my opinions at any and all tables. "Do I really need to 'prove' anything?" is what I will inquire within when my desire to have my point 'understood' rears its head. Today, I beelieve that true brilliance lay in cultivating embodied experiences in which every voice is heard speaking into what is our collective trauma as well as our shared celebration. Again, this is the space of true transformation. I welcome you and I invite your leadership. We are all equal leaders and followers here. (For this is, truly, A DANCE.)
"I do not seek to lead followers. Nor do I wish to follow leaders," has been my mantra since I was twenty. I hope you'll join me.
