Conscious Embodiment was developed by aikido teacher Wendy Palmer as a way to bring some of the “goodies”from aikido to people in daily life and as a way to study some of aikido’s subtler features away from the speed and power of martial arts. That’s my take on it anyway, and it’s a lot like the Holistics classes I lead and embodied leadership work I do with business.I’m not long back from the delicious treat of spending four days training with Wendy Palmer in the UK. The first two days were hosted in Wiltshire by Paul King and the rest of The Beyond Partnership family. The theme here was visibility and invisibility – no, not ninja tricks – but how we show up in the world. As ever with Wendy Palmer’s work the learning was profound, humorous and practical. A highlight for me was the “success” game that involved feeling your reactions to getting what you think you want…
The sumptuous town hall was a wonderfully spacious but not spacey venue (to steal a phrase…Wendy LOVES space) . Here a few other good one-liners from Mrs Palmer:
“The body learns through exaggeration and contrast.”
“If reading the books were enough we’d all be enlightened.”
“Be noble, awesome and shiny” (from Saotome Sensei)
“You throw rubbish away but buy compost” (from Chogyam Trungpa)
“You can lead someone to water, you can drown them, but you can’t make them drink”
“God can only come and visit you if you’re not there”
If you’d like an introduction to conscious embodiment I recommend this nicely illustrated, straightforward document.
There was also some interesting discussion of Spiral Dynamics in the evening, on which Beyond run courses. In fact their whole brochure of events is pretty salivatious 🙂
The next two days in London were hosted by John Watters of Living Leadership on a boat club on the Thames. Here Wendy’s work was integrated with Barry Oshrey’s (pictured left) Systems Theory. T
his work suggests that much of what we do and think is not determined by us as individuals but by the social systems we are part of. The workshop was highly experiential and very quickly we were thrown into roles of either “tops”, “middles”, “bottoms” or customers – in a simulated business environment dealing with real money, 13 minute days.
his work suggests that much of what we do and think is not determined by us as individuals but by the social systems we are part of. The workshop was highly experiential and very quickly we were thrown into roles of either “tops”, “middles”, “bottoms” or customers – in a simulated business environment dealing with real money, 13 minute days.So why was the embodied work incorporated? Well, because as normal head knowledge isn’t enough. Under pressure people don’t rise to the level of their mental understanding but sink to the level of their embodied practice. After the first exercise I noted smugly that I was the only customer to get the job done – this is surprising as the other people had more experience than me and were at least as smart. What they didn’t have was a total lack of regard for the rules (traditions) and a background in awareness disciplines that enabled them to notice and manage unhealthy habitual/systemic patterns under pressure. After two days with Wendy and John all aspects of the system were vastly improved. This time as a bottom I just smugly noticed that the customer I was assigned was just the first to complete and reported total satisfaction 🙂 On a personal note, I was interested what roles I was reluctant to be assigned (top/middle), my love of the freedom of being a customer and my tendency to rebel in healthy and unhealthy ways as a bottom. Being a bottom was particularly challenging on the surface as you were restricted in your movement and asked to give up your shoes – a symbolic gesture of lowered status and resources. In other systems labs there are major differences in other areas such as the food you are given which represent the equity of society and “totallt freaks people” as the catering staff mentioned. Interestingly being a top became the least attractive job – lonely and stressful – though being a middle torn between worlds wasn’t much more attractive!
Becoming aware of systems (bottom right quadrant in Wilber’s model) was a revelation on akin to a fish realising there is water. I had the same feeling some years ago after becoming aware of the body (top right) and culture (bottom left). This workshop was as integral and professionally delivered as one I’ve ever been one. It was a real pleasure to experience and see others from a variety of backgrounds get it and grow. Highly recommended.
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The black and white picture I’ve added for fun and shows Wendy Palmer, George Leonard and Richard Strozzi Heckler back when they ran a dojo together in Tamalpais California. These teachers along with Paul Linden of Ohio are in my well 
researched opinion the world experts in aikido “off the mat” in particular and embodiment in general, working today, and all a major influence on me.
researched opinion the world experts in aikido “off the mat” in particular and embodiment in general, working today, and all a major influence on me. ………………..
Business So What? If you’re not taking systems and the body into account you’re only getting a partial picture and will be loosing money as a result
Aikido So What? Your art is good for much more than twisting wrists