32823478 - young woman with her arms wide spread is enjoying in the sunny summer day

Every year, I choose a theme or key word to help me focus my energy. I print the word big and bold and put it on my mirror and above my desk.  This year I chose EMBODIMENT.

Before I settled on the word, I made a trip to the dictionary to see if it was the word I was looking for.  Embodiment/embody included the following:

  • to give a body to (a spirit)/ incarnate
  • to make concrete and perceptible
  • to cause to become a body or part of a body/ incorporate
  • to represent in human form or to personify.

Yes, this is what I’m aiming for:  embodiment of health, joy, my shamanic path, creativity, writing and just as importantly embodiment of being fully human.

Where are you on the embodiment scale?   If you’ve got it down and are owning all that you are good for you!   If you are “kind of, sort of” embodying your special talents, the artist, writer, healer, loving self, and those oh so pesky parts of you you’d rather not admit you are struggling with, you are not alone. Some transparency:

  • I embody my path shaman and healing path when I am with a client or leading a ceremony but then in daily life, I often forget those tools for myself.
  • I am a talented writer but the degree to which I own that varies based on the day and project I am working on.
  • I know what healthy eating and exercise is and yet my actions are often different from what I know.

I’ve got my fair share of work to do.

Beating myself up for any of this is futile. I am a complex, powerful and yet fragile human being.  I am a beautiful spirit that is much more than my fear and ego will often allow me to admit.  And you are too!

Embodying all that we are doesn’t mean we have to be perfect; in fact, it means just the opposite. For the times we slip up and forget, for the times we set impossible standards, and for the times we just want to pull the covers over our heads, we can be be kind to ourselves. We can hold both our shining talents and our human frailties as part of this journey of being human.

We do not learn a new skill by thinking about it; we learn by practicing.   So I’m practicing being bolder with myself–claiming those talents and owning my “not-so-together” side.

When we embody all we are in this moment, it naturally leads to an expansion of what is possible.   When I wrote From Scared to Sacred, I was terrified that sharing myself openly would subject me to ridicule.  Instead, what I found is that is opened me to connection.

The world feels turbulent right now.  We can’t wait till we have the illusive “it” all together to contribute.  Who really has that anyway? No one I know.  Some of our greatest leaders and artists were very flawed humans and yet they contributed great things.   We have to move out of the mindset that we can’t embody all that we are in the world until some illusive condition is met.

Our world needs real. It needs authenticity.  It needs compassion.  It needs courage.  It needs vision.  It needs your “secret sauce” of life.  Will you join me in embodying that?

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2 Thoughts on “2018 The Year of Embodiment”

  • Thank you for this, Carol. Your words speak to my heart and were perfect for me to read today. Thank you for your authenticity and transparency. Your honesty and vulnerability is beautiful and empowering. <3

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