Conscious embodiment is a process, not a destination. Most of us will probably never become fully consciously embodied - but we can get very close. It's especially hard for trans and gender-expansive people, because our bodies have so often been places of both inner and outer conflict.

Are you aware of what's happening in your body right now? What are the sensations in your body? If you feel a specific emotion, like anger, or sadness, or even joy, do you know how that feels in your body?

Why consciously embodiment?

If we aren't consciously embodied, we don't always know what we're feeling, so we can't communicate that effectively, or investigate what might be behind a feeling. If we aren't consciously embodied, it's hard to approach erotic connections with full awareness. Ultimately, we miss out on embodied joy!

How can we become consciously embodied?

Conscious embodiment is something we can approach with practice. The practice of being compassionate with ourselves is a good start. When we can learn to be compassionate with ourselves, it's easier to approach our bodies with compassion and curiosity. It means we're less likely to suppress messages our bodies send us. We won't allow negative self-talk about our bodies persist, leaving more room for us to experience our bodies.

Exploring our sensations

As our compassion for ourselves grows, we can begin to explore our sensations. What are we feeling in our bodies. What arises and how long does it last? If we are deeply feeling an emotion - where in our bodies is it? What qualities does it have? We can learn what our bodies feel like.

Experimentation is key to conscious embodiment

Once we have more compassion for ourselves, our experience and our bodies, we can begin to experiment. We can experiment with different kinds of physical activities, erotic touch, or food. We can try on different kinds of things (packers, binding, etc.) to help alleviate our dysphoria. Experimentation with our bodies, coupled with curiosity and compassion means that we will be more consciously embodied.

Finding joy

Joy is an embodied feeling - usually an all-body experience. Most people have several ways that they feel joy in their bodies. One way to learn more is to experiment with re-living experiences you know were joyful, and investigating what your body feels when you re-live that experience. The more we are embodied, the more access there is to joy.