Frida Kahlo & Embodiment

We all have those days when we don’t feel 100percent, and a workout is just not in the cards. The next best thing, when that’s the case, is to get embodied. Perhaps that means sitting on the floor, or maybe closing your eyes and focusing on your breath. Maybe it translates as intuitive stretching, or resting in Shavasana. It’s meeting yourself where you are and honoring that place. I call this embodiment. 

In many ways, embodiment is synonymous to grounded-ness. They are both calming. They both link us to ourselves. The one big difference is attention is on the truth of yourself right now in embodiment, rather than on one’s connection to a foundation/location, but like grounding, embodiment is a valuable action step and it can be done even when we can’t do much physical activity.

I think the artist Frida Kahlo mastered embodiment. She was injured in a bus accident, causing a great deal lifelong chronic health challenges and physical limitations, but that hardship became an opportunity to get embodied. She inhabited herself so fully, and there’s so much beauty in that, I think…don’t you? 

This year, I’ve received many emails from women struggling with an injury, chronic illness or lingering pain. I’ve received emails about vertigo and knee replacements and migraines, and about postpartum depression and bunions and insomnia. Real women with real challenges, feeling a bit helpless, and on the sidelines. You are not helpless. Sure, you might be finding yourself unable to jump and squat and sweat, but you can always get embodied. Sunset Stretch, 10minute guided meditation, Kundalini Glow and 3 Wellness Affirmations might have potential for “on the sideline” days.

I always say movement is medicine, but embodiment is also a form of medicine. Embodiment is not “chump change.” It is actually very significant – it keeps us moving towards empowered wellness.