Thoughts on Embodied Cognition

This started with a piece I wrote recently in response to a post on “Embodied Cognition” that went to an e-list of women who took a training with Laura Shannon.  The training was in Women’s Traditional Ritual Dances, and we were taught how to be aware of the wisdom that is passed through these dances.
Actually I think ALL cognition is embodied.  There is a book, Focusing by Eugene Gendlin, that talks about knowing truth because you feel it in your body.  The best example is trying to remember something like: “Who gave me that book?  Was it Susie?  (No) Catherine?  (No) Tim!  Yes!” and how did you know it was Tim not Susie?  Because something happened in your body.  For me it’s like a relaxation from tension, sometimes there’s even a sense of “connect,” like a ball into a baseball glove.  For a long time I paid attention to it carefully — I’d be struggling with some issue in my journal and suddenly come to a conclusion or resolution, and I’d write in my journal Ah! The body shift!
When I started doing Somatic Experiencing (Peter Levine’s method of healing trauma) I immediately had to learn to pay much more attention to my body.  In my first session, the practitioner said “Are you comfortable?” I said yes and she said “how do you KNOW you are comfortable?  What in your body tells you that?” Paying attention to my body I notice that I’m relaxed and my breathing is easy.  Then she says “Would you like a footrest for your feet?” I’m sitting on a couch and my feet don’t completely reach the floor.  I’m not aware of needing anything but I figure why not try it.  She put a cushion under my feet and suddenly I felt more solid and grounded.  My mind didn’t know what I needed, but my body knew for sure when I got it.
I’ve been doing S.E. for about 8 years, with five different practitioners, and it has brought about a lot of healing, and also understanding of my symptoms.  I have become very appreciative of the wisdom of the body, and learned to pay close attention to what it’s telling me.
Teaching dance I have found that the dances are held in my body, not my head.  Sometimes I can’t remember how a dance starts, but if I put on the music, my body will start to move and o yes, it goes like this.  When I used to play a guitar, I found that something similar happened.  If I forgot the chords, I could start singing the song, and then find that my fingers started making the correct chords.
One experience I had long ago — I was in my thirties — puzzled me for years until I got to Somatic Experiencing.  I had been working with a gestalt therapist.  I think she must have regressed me somewhat, I remember that I was sitting on the floor with my eyes closed.  She moved a cushion over the rug toward me, saying “This is your mother.” My body scrambled to get away from “her” before my brain had time to think.  I was amazed — I knew I didn’t respect my mother, but I didn’t think I was afraid of her.  In Somatic Experiencing we learn that the body knows what it needs to do, and a lot of the work in the sessions is keeping the neo-cortex out of the way so it doesn’t override the body.