Embodied Healing Explained: Solving The Body-Mind-Spirit Mystery
You have embodied on Earth at this time to heal by awakening consciously to the memory of yourself as soul. Your healing comes and is completed when you see the light of your soul and know that light to be who you truly are.
Robert Schwartz, author of Your Soul’s Plan: Discovering the Real Meaning of the Life You Planned Before You Were Born
Embodied Healing Deep Dive
Embodied healing is a term that’s widely used in healing circles, but its depth and significance are often overlooked.
It goes beyond just a trendy phrase.
In this blog post, we’ll dive deep into what embodied healing really means by exploring both the concept of embodiment and the essence of healing itself.
Here’s a video I made about the deep subject of embodied healing:
If you prefer to listen to audio podcasts, the BioSoul Integration Podcast and this episode can be found wherever you listen to your audio podcasts:
What Does “Embodied” Mean?
To truly understand embodied healing, we first need to explore the idea of being “embodied.”
The body and mind are often seen as separate entities, but they are, in fact, one and the same.
While we usually think of the mind as the domain of thoughts, it’s essential to realize that thoughts, emotions, and sensations all arise from the body.
Our thoughts are often composed of images and internal dialogue—words that play in our minds like a running tape.
But where do these thoughts come from?
At the root of it all is Life Force energy, which arises from the body.
This energy fuels emotions, images, and the self-talk we constantly engage in.
When we become aware of this spectrum of energy—how it fuels our emotions, thoughts, and body sensations—we are “embodied.”
Being embodied means having awareness of the energy and sensations within our bodies, which form the foundation of our emotions and thoughts.
How We Become Disembodied
The process of disembodiment starts shortly after we are conceived.
About 2 to 4 weeks after conception, the foundational layer of our nervous system, what I call our “primal brain,” comes online.
The primal brain senses into the people and the culture around it, adopting deep nervous system patterns from them.
Those that we encounter may have judged or rejected certain parts of themselves, sequestering the energy associated with those parts of their being.
To survive and gain acceptance, we too learn to push away parts of ourselves.
This self-rejection manifests in the physical structure of our bodies.
Muscle tension and posture play a significant role in how we wall off certain emotions or aspects of our energy.
Over time, we lose awareness of these parts of ourselves, becoming “disembodied.”
This disconnection limits our emotional range and influences our thoughts, behaviors, and how we interact with the world.
Essentially we end up experiencing the world through the hurts, traumas and accidents of those who came before us.
What is Healing?
Healing, at its core, is about becoming whole.
The word “heal” comes from an Old English term that means “to make whole.”
Embodied healing, then, involves reintegrating the fragmented parts of ourselves—the aspects we have pushed away—back into our being.
Life is constantly nudging us towards this wholeness by presenting us with situations, people, and circumstances that push us to come into contact with those unembodied parts of ourselves.
There is a constant friction between life’s push for integration and our resistance to feelings that have been deemed unsafe to feel.
This friction shows up in our bodies and lives as suffering.
Embodied Healing: Integration of Mind, Body, and Spirit
Embodied healing means bringing awareness to the full range of sensations and energy in the body, allowing them to integrate into our lives rather than pushing them away.
This process reconnects the mind and body, helping us heal on a deeper level. It allows us to reconnect with our wholeness, fostering greater emotional depth, authentic thoughts, and behaviors that align with who we truly are.
In embodied healing, awareness is key.
The more we become aware of the energy that arises in our bodies and its manifestations, the more easily we can move through the process of integration.
Life naturally guides us toward healing, but we can accelerate the process by cultivating mindfulness and awareness.
How to Practice Embodied Healing
Engaging in embodied healing doesn’t always require elaborate techniques.
Life is already guiding us toward healing through our everyday experiences.
However, there are ways to support and amplify this process:
Mindfulness and Awareness:
Practicing mindfulness meditation allows us to strengthen our attention and focus, enabling us to become more aware of the energy and sensations in our bodies.
As spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle suggests, having part of your attention always resting on the sensations in your body is one of the most life changing commitments a human can make.
Bodywork and Therapies:
Engaging in integrative techniques like BioSoul Integration, Network Spinal Analysis and Somato Respiratory Integration, or somatically oriented psychotherapy techniques like EMDR, Brainspotting or Parts Work, can help us integrate the physical, mental/emotional and spiritual aspects of each of us.
These modalities focus on the body’s structure, emotions, and thoughts, working holistically to bring more awareness and integration.
Combine Modalities:
Combining different approaches to address both the body and the mind is an option to bridge the body/mind gap.
Cognitive behavioral therapy might address the mental aspect, while massage or yoga can focus on the body, for example.
The Triad of Change
Dr. Donald Epstein, creator of Network Spinal Analysis, introduced the concept of the Triad of Change: perception, behavior, and structure.
To achieve embodied healing, we must work on at least two legs of this triad.
Focusing solely on one aspect, like perception (thoughts) or structure (the body), or behavior (the actions we take or don’t take) won’t create lasting change.
We have to address at least two of the three legs in order to collapse old patterns and integrate new ways of being.
The Ultimate Embodied Healing Guide
Embodied healing is a journey toward becoming whole, a process of integrating the parts of ourselves we’ve pushed away in the process of creating survival patterns in our nervous system.
Life is constantly guiding us in this direction of embodied healing, and by cultivating mindfulness, engaging in body-centered therapies, and working on the Triad of Change, we can move toward greater embodiment, wholeness, and alignment with our true selves.
This integration allows us to express our soul’s gifts more fully, leading to a more fulfilling, authentic life.
If you were intrigued by the concepts I talk about in this blog post, you’ll love my book, If It Didn’t Hurt: How To Resolve Your Pain And Discover Your Life Purpose.
Click the link to read the first chapter instantly for FREE.
Exploring the Embodied Path: A Peek Into My Online Course
I be remiss if I didn’t mention my embodied healing online course called “The Embodied Path Online Course: Eight Steps to Expressing Your Soul’s Essence, Purpose, and Calling.”
As the name suggests, there are eight basic exercises that are at the heart of the course.
The structure involves six simple yoga poses.
But these aren’t intense strengthening poses.
While it’s important to build core strength, we often forget the need to also cultivate deep relaxation as part of the process of embodiment.
These poses are based on that idea.
When the nervous system is in defense mode, strengthening exercises can create more protective armor.
Instead, the focus is on gentle movements, promoting ease and relaxation in specific parts of the body that are connected to our survival brain.
Click the link above to check it out.
I look forward to helping you express more life,
Dr. Jay
About the Author Dr. Jay Uecker
Dr. Jay is the founder and owner of BioSoul Integration Center in Louisville, Colorado. He’s a chiropractor, a hands-on healer, an in-person and online soul integration coach and the author of If It Didn't Hurt: How To Resolve Your Pain And Discover Your Life Purpose. For two decades Dr. Jay has been helping people navigate their healing journeys. Over the course of that time he’s worked intimately with thousands of people. Those who are most drawn to Dr. Jay's work are those who are seeking to integrate and embody their soul's essence and their soul's gifts so they can share them with others. Life will keep nudging us in that direction, anyway. BioSoul Integration helps to speed up the process and smooth out the rough spots created by the innocent and unconscious resistance that lives in our primal brain and nervous system. Click the link to get your Personalized BioSoul Integration Guide.
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