Embodied Practices
March 18 @ 1:30 pm - April 22 @ 3:00 pm
Let’s Be Fully Alive!
You’ve probably heard about mindfulness, but maybe not bodyfulness. Understanding how we connect to our bodies through embodied practices will be a 6-week exploration at the Interfaith Center for Spiritual Living. We will be using Hillary L. McBride’s book, Practices for Embodied Living, to explore embodiment. It is an invitation to: Be Here Now.
Join Rev. Sharlyn Menard for weekly practices from McBride’s book that help us understand our bodies and how we relate to them. There is no need to purchase the book unless you would like to, as Sharlyn has developed materials based on the book for our use in each session. The sessions are on Tuesdays from 1:30 – 3 PM, starting March 18 thru April 22nd . Text Julia at 206-683-2786 with RSVP or questions.
Week 1: Exploring Embodiment
Life happens in and through our bodies. We will check in and get curious as we look at how our bodies
tell the stories of what we have been through and who we come from. We will do some simple exercises
and do some journaling.
Week 2: How We Become Disembodied
There are many stories in western culture that make it difficult to be in our bodies. Using the three
pathways, mental, social and physical, we will discover how they have shaped our experiences. More
exercises to build our bodily resources to get unstuck.
Week 3: The Body Overwhelmed
This week we will look at how we can heal the body from stress and overwhelm. Exercises on boundary
skills, comfort and care, breathing, play and expression, nurturance, and release and grounding give us
the tools to learn to be safe with ourselves.
Week 4: Feeling Feelings
This week’s focus is on getting to know the emotional body. Using seven basic emotions of anger,
disgust, sadness, fear, desire, joy, and excitement we explore the emotional body through discussion and
exercises.
Week 5: You Are Not Broken
This week we will examine how we might relate differently to pain, illness, and injury. By looking at our
beliefs about pain or discomfort we explore being present to pain or changing the cycle. Lots of
interesting depth and compassion to dig into with this exploration!
Week 6: Holy Flesh
This final week we look at reconciling the spirit and body divide. The cultural landscape is permeated by
inherited theological paradigms urging us to control and disavow our bodies to get closer to the sacred.
By exploring this with exercises and some embodied prayer time we can hopefully say, “My body is a
landscape of interconnection.”
Rev. Sharlyn Menard is a retired person on a journey to make her life and those who travel
alongside her more joyful and embodied.