What is Embodied Movement?
Quick shoutout to my parents (and Jane Austen!) for an unusually generous inheritance in brand naming. Embody by Emma was, frankly, a layup.
The irony? Being able to “embody” movement is probably the most difficult part of any practice. Actually feeling what we’re doing, while we’re doing it is a skill most of us were never taught.
Instead, we learned to show up and check out…
My friend Catie’s entire fitness philosophy is “just show up.”
Celsius at 5 a.m., early-bird reformer class, sprint home, shower, log on.
By 9 a.m., she barely remembers she worked out at all, which, to her, is the whole point.
And it’s not even Catie’s fault. The modern fitness industry has trained us to treat exercise like a checklist: close the rings, hit the milestone, earn the badge, post the proof. Feeling stronger, calmer, or more connected to your body is secondary to the optics of having done it at all.
Here’s the thing: exercise on autopilot isn’t discipline, it’s disconnection. When your body is on the reformer, but your brain is on a different planet, your workout is just muscle memory with caffeine.
What does movement on autopilot actually cost us?
When your attention checks out, your body still moves, but it doesn’t learn. You can blast Eye of the Tiger on a run, power through the discomfort, and call it mental toughness, but what you’re really doing is muting feedback. Tightness, imbalances, fatigue are all quietly brushed off until one day it’s not so subtle anymore. Cue the injury you “never saw coming.”
And it doesn’t stop there. A wandering mind doesn’t just miss injuries, it creates them. When you’re not paying attention, your body defaults to the path of least resistance. Stronger muscles work overtime, weaker ones clock out, and everything functions…just not evenly. You think you’re building strength. You’re actually just building imbalance.
Add in scrolling between sets or taking a Zoom call mid-class (yes, I’ve seen this happen!), and you leave the workout tired, but not regulated. Your nervous system never properly downshifts, so the workout checks a box but skips the part that actually makes you feel better.
So… what’s the alternative?
Embodied movement is the practice of noticing what your body is doing, and how it’s responding, while you move. You’re working with your body instead of overriding it and hoping for the best. Instead of pushing past signals, you work with them.
When you stay present, the priorities shift. Awareness beats performance. Sensation matters more than the outcome. Regulation becomes just as important as intensity. Not because you’re doing less or avoiding challenge, but because you’re actually listening to your body’s cues.
You’re tracking your breath, your effort, and how your body feels in real time, so the movement that integrates, not just exhausts.
Here’s how to tell if you’re moving with awareness:
Autopilot movement feels like:
Zoning out mid-pilates class, mentally running through your five meetings, your macro math for the week, and whether your best friend is secretly mad at you, all while nearly falling into the reformer carriage
Counting reps so you don’t have to think about the reps
Forgetting to breathe until someone cues it
Staying after class for an extra five minutes because your smart watch tells you to
Chasing a PR on a random Tuesday and walking away with a mystery injury you later Google
Checking the clock every 30 seconds
Outsourcing energy to caffeine
Leaving class with no recollection of the exercises, just vibes
Embodied movement feels like:
Adjusting your effort based on how you actually feel that day
Choosing intensity intentionally, not automatically
Stopping one rep earlier, on purpose
Letting your breath set the pace instead of the playlist
Getting curious instead of trying to “win” the workout
Noticing which side of your body is doing more work
Taking a real pause between sets instead of filling it with your phone
Ending a workout without immediately checking your stats
Finishing movement knowing how you feel, not just that you finished
To truly embody movement, is to release hold on the outcome and embrace the work itself.
Release the metrics, the milestones, the proof. Embrace the quiet discipline of paying attention while you move.
This space, and my work as a teacher, exists for this exploration: in movement, in discipline, and in all the places we’ve been taught to hurry past instead of inhabit.
The work begins where attention settles.
