{"id":239,"date":"2010-03-27T16:18:11","date_gmt":"2010-03-27T16:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/?p=239"},"modified":"2013-09-14T15:31:17","modified_gmt":"2013-09-14T19:31:17","slug":"embodied-cognition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/?p=239","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts on Embodied Cognition"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/a>.\u00a0 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.
\nActually I think ALL cognition is embodied.\u00a0 There is a book, Focusing by Eugene Gendlin<\/a>, that talks about knowing truth because you feel it in your body.\u00a0 The best example is trying to remember something like: \u201cWho gave me that book?\u00a0 Was it Susie?\u00a0 (No) Catherine?\u00a0 (No) Tim!\u00a0 Yes!\u201d and how did you know it was Tim not Susie?\u00a0 Because something happened in your body.\u00a0 For me it\u2019s like a relaxation from tension, sometimes there\u2019s even a sense of \u201cconnect,\u201d like a ball into a baseball glove.\u00a0 For a long time I paid attention to it carefully \u2014 I\u2019d be struggling with some issue in my journal and suddenly come to a conclusion or resolution, and I\u2019d write in my journal Ah! The body shift!
\nWhen I started doing Somatic Experiencing (Peter Levine\u2019s method of healing trauma) I immediately had to learn to pay much more attention to my body.\u00a0 In my first session, the practitioner said \u201cAre you comfortable?\u201d I said yes and she said \u201chow do you KNOW you are comfortable?\u00a0 What in your body tells you that?\u201d Paying attention to my body I notice that I\u2019m relaxed and my breathing is easy.\u00a0 Then she says \u201cWould you like a footrest for your feet?\u201d I\u2019m sitting on a couch and my feet don\u2019t completely reach the floor.\u00a0 I\u2019m not aware of needing anything but I figure why not try it.\u00a0 She put a cushion under my feet and suddenly I felt more solid and grounded.\u00a0 My mind didn\u2019t know what I needed, but my body knew for sure when I got it.
\nI\u2019ve 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.\u00a0 I have become very appreciative of the wisdom of the body, and learned to pay close attention to what it\u2019s telling me.
\nTeaching dance I have found that the dances are held in my body, not my head.\u00a0 Sometimes I can\u2019t 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.\u00a0 When I used to play a guitar, I found that something similar happened.\u00a0 If I forgot the chords, I could start singing the song, and then find that my fingers started making the correct chords.
\nOne experience I had long ago \u2014 I was in my thirties \u2014 puzzled me for years until I got to Somatic Experiencing.\u00a0 I had been working with a gestalt therapist.\u00a0 I think she must have regressed me somewhat, I remember that I was sitting on the floor with my eyes closed.\u00a0 She moved a cushion over the rug toward me, saying \u201cThis is your mother.\u201d My body scrambled to get away from \u201cher\u201d before my brain had time to think.\u00a0 I was amazed \u2014 I knew I didn\u2019t respect my mother, but I didn\u2019t think I was afraid of her.\u00a0 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\u2019t override the body.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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.\u00a0 The training was in Women’s Traditional Ritual Dances, and we … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,19,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-circle-dance","category-interesting-link","category-somatic-experiencing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}