You might be wondering, what is Ecstatic Embodiment? For me it simply means enjoying being me as much as possible. I enjoy being in my body. I enjoy thinking and daydreaming. I enjoy having a full spectrum of emotions. I enjoy doing things. I love having me-time because I enjoy being with myself. I also enjoy being myself with other people. Getting into this physical, mental, and emotional state and staying there, at least some of the time, takes some serious intention and effort. If you want to try I hope I can help!
The most important practice for feeling ecstatic embodiment is feeling and expressing gratitude. We do this sometimes in our authentic relating practices and sometimes as our meditation in my class. I also like to write down things I’m grateful for as a journaling exercise. You can do this even if you can’t do any of the other practices I teach.
The fact is, life is a fantastic gift. This existence is absolutely unbelievable. Just realizing how unlikely it is that an organism could have evolved that is capable of self-reflection, and that I (ME!) am one of those, takes my breath away. Meditating on this, or how lucky I am to live in the twenty-first century, or to live in the USA, or any number of things is something I really have to do on a regular basis to counteract the natural tendency to focus on the negative. It’s a constant tug of war. I have to give the positive side more attention than the negative side or I will lose.
I know that this way of thinking can be taken too far and turn into “toxic positivity”. I’m not advocating ignoring or denying that bad things happen. Feeling and expressing negative emotions is part of authentic relating, which is one of the things I practice. The question is whether I am doing so within a larger context of optimism or pessimism. If I see problems as learning opportunities or act as if things happen for a reason (even though I’m agnostic as to whether they actually do) I can get through difficult things much easier and faster.
Some of the happiest people in the world are the ones who have the least and some of the least happy people in the world are also the richest. I really feel for people who are in constant pain or abusive situations. They have to fight the hardest to find happiness, but just because it’s hard doesn’t mean it isn’t worthwhile. I just hope I can reach out and give some encouragement to someone who needs it.
