Embody your boundaries

Connecting into your inner wisdom (that talks to you in embodied ways) allows you to get clear on what boundaries are needed and how to live your boundaries.

Being embodied means knowing your body's different signals and what those signals feel like physically. When your inner wisdom talks to you in an embodied way, you feel physical sensations in your body.

For example, anger and frustration are guideposts that a boundary and value have been violated by you or someone else. But before you can even label the emotion, you experienced a physical sensation somewhere in your body. And learning what that sensation is and what it means gives you a heads up when something is amiss or when it’s aligned.

For many of us, over the years we’ve disconnected from (or ignored or overriden) these messages our body sends. Connecting to your inner, embodied wisdom is essentially the work of bringing awareness and reconnecting to the felt sensations of your body. As you strengthen these connections, you deepen your understanding of where you need boundaries – at work and at home.

As we set embodied boundaries, we begin the reclamation process. Reclaiming our bodies for ourselves. For our pleasure, our creativity, our values, and the impact we are here to make in the world as worthy beings.

Everything is interconnected between the body and mind. But we have been trained, socialized, or prefer a dominance of the mind, which often leads to intentionally and unintentionally disconnecting from our bodies. Somatic work can help us reconnect. Somatic work are practices or interventions specifically geared to healing at a body level. Here the practice of unlearning the patterns and beliefs that led to this disconnect means you learn to tap into your inner wisdom in order to reconnect to your body.

Somatic work is one of the biggest game changers for the clients I work with. Here’s a somatic exercise to try.

Activity: Mine your frustration

When you do breath work or a simple self guided body scan, the focus is to increase or create somatic awareness, which simply is the ability to name the sensations in your body. 

This practice of awareness grows your capacity to notice and separate the emotions and thoughts of your mind from the felt sensations of your body. It’s the practice of separating sensations from identity. Instead of “ I am angry,” it’s “here’s something I’m noticing in my body right now” or “I am feeling agitation in my stomach that feels hot and twisted.” 

First: Feel into /connect your body. Do whatever practice settles and grounds you. Intentional breathing or body scans are two options. 

Next: Think of one thing that feels frustrating or an area of your life that is least satisfying. 

Now, tune back into your body and see if you can feel where that frustration lives. In your chest? Stomach? Shoulders?

Gently ask that area of your body where that frustration lives a few questions. What do you need? What boundary do I need to set to get you what you need? What change, even so slight, can I make to ease your pain?

Honor whatever arises and do it.

If what arises feels too big or too overwhelming to tackle right now, just do a small piece. It will help grow your comfort and awareness.

Try it and let me know how it goes!