So, you had a great embodiment session and a lot of stuff came up. Maybe you confronted some old limiting beliefs about prosperity, maybe you grieved a deep loss that went unrecognized as a child, or maybe you just saw clearly for the first time what you really want in life (versus what you were told to want). All of these realizations can be profound. All of them could change your life.

But will they?

Embodiment Sessions can be incredibly transformative, but I find that if the aftercare of the session is neglected, the power of an embodiment session to recalibrate actions in daily life is lost. The insights diminish with time, the sense of internal unity and joy gets depleted with the daily grind, and the old patterns of pain or frustration or depression or stuck-ness reemerge.

This is because the other reality of Embodiment Sessions is that they are gentle. You never “have to” change. You are never compelled to overhaul the old patterns to accommodate the new insight. You can very easily slip back into what was always done before.

The power of the Embodiment Coaching Session is not in leveraging change into your life, but rather in opening the blinds of your internal space, so that you can see clearly what you really feel or want or know about a given topic. Whether or not those blinds stay open, is up to you.

How do you keep those blinds open (and maybe open the windows too)?

I’ll give you a list of ideas below, but the essence of Embodiment Aftercare is this: do anything that helps you keep building the relationship of trust and care that was nurtured during your session. This could be as simple as washing your hands under warm water and really luxuriating in that sensation for the rest of the day or it could be as complex as setting aside a week of afternoons for hikes through your local woods. And there are literally hundreds of options in between.

Here are some other atypical self care items to pick and choose from, with an estimated timeframe to help you know what will best fit in your day:

1) Take a step outside your outermost door. Deeply notice what’s around you. The smell, the sounds, the feeling of the air. What or who do you see? How does it feel? Soak in that spot completely for at least a minute and recognize how precious and fleeting it is. Even if the basic elements around you are familiar, the specific combination of feelings and presences in this moment are unique and you are part of it. Take another 2-3 steps and observe again. Then, go another 2-3 steps and do it again. Keep going as long as you like, or go back to your regular routine, taking this heightened awareness with you. (10 min)

2) Smell Something. We’ve all heard about stopping for the roses, but what about everything else? Stop and smell the lilacs too, or the resin of a pine tree. Stop and smell the sunshine (yes sunshine has a smell), the grass clippings, the mulch your neighbor spread yesterday, or anything else. Smell is a powerful anchor back to our physical experience, so any smell can bring us back to our bodies, although the more natural and less chemical the smell is, the more likely it is to lead to better health and self-care.

3) Eat Slowly. One of the easiest and most overlooked ways to take care of ourselves is to simply slow down our consumption. This could be applied to any type of consumption, but let’s focus here on the value of eating slowly. What happens when you take your normal lunch break and slow it down? So, instead of wolfing that plate of food down in 15 minutes, maybe it takes closer to 19 or 20 minutes? Can you slow it down so that it takes 25 or 30? Like smell, taste can also anchors back to our physical experience and help us notice what our body likes or doesn’t like, where we feel comfortable or uncomfortable. When we slow down and turn up the volume on our physical sensations, we get more information on our moment-to-moment experience and can adjust our actions to better match our actual desires.

4) Close your Eyes. In Embodiment Sessions, one of the most effective ways we have of sensitizing to the body is simply by closing the eyes. Because visual input tends to dominate our brain’s activity, closing the eyes also creates mental space, in which, your mind can more easily perceive and receive the sensations of the body.

5) Put down your Devices. As much as possible, after an embodiment session, resist the urge to numb through digital media. This is especially important if anything troubling came up during the coaching session. It can feel so easy to manage discomfort with binge watching, or doomscrolling through social media. It can be very tempting to go shopping for the next six months of birthdays online or to escape down a rabbit hole of conspiracy theories. Try not to do this. These activities are DIS-embodying and separate you once again from the feelings that are needing your care. If you are struggling to manage the discomfort after a session, reach out! I am here to support you. You can also load up on as many of these self-care practices as possible and then, schedule another embodiment session within a few days.

There are many more typical self care items that are very useful too:

6) Journal or free write your feelings

7) Take a Bath

8) Go for an extended walk outside

9) Meditate

10) Engage in Energetic Movement

Neither half of the list is better or worse and any practice that grounds you in your physical experience and delights you is an excellent candidate for your personal aftercare routine. Get creative with things (literally)! Maybe a pottery class or watercolor painting or brushing through your child’s hair or kneading bread dough or weeding your garden is the best aftercare for you. The essence of aftercare is how it keeps you connected with your body, not the activity itself.

Lastly, it’s important to remember that Embodiment is not a one-and-done process. It is an ongoing unfolding that interacts dynamically with your unfolding life. I recommend one Embodiment Session a week for most people, with variations towards more/week or fewer, depending on the person’s life goals and current processing needs. So, in addition to the above list, I also recommend scheduling your next embodiment appointment, so that you have your next supportive container lined up and ready to receive you.

If you feel ready to enter an extended coaching container (multiple sessions set up over a period of 6-8 weeks), contact me directly with a little explanation of your goal(s) and availability and we will make it happen.