I used to think that if I understood something, I would be able to change it.

I’m a scientist. I like understanding things. I like figuring out how things work, finding the missing piece, making sense of something that didn’t make sense before.

And knowing things is useful.

But at some point I realised that intellectual knowing isn’t enough.

It needs integration.

You can know that you should set a boundary and still find yourself saying yes.

You can know that you need to rest and still keep working.

You can know that you want something and come up with a hundred reasons why you shouldn’t have it.

You can understand exactly where a pattern comes from and still find yourself doing the same thing again.

I know this because I’ve done it myself.

For a long time, when something wasn’t working in my life, my first instinct was to think about it.

What is the problem?

What is causing it?

What should I do differently?

How can I fix this?

And sometimes that works.

But sometimes thinking harder just gives you a more sophisticated explanation for why you are still stuck.

What helped me was learning to include my body in the conversation.

Not instead of my mind.

Together with it.

Because your body is constantly giving you information that you cannot get through thinking alone.

You might notice tension before you consciously know that something feels wrong.

You might feel excitement before you can explain why you are drawn towards something.

You might feel yourself contract when you are about to say yes to something you actually don't want.

Or you might suddenly feel more energy when you talk about something that matters to you.

That information matters.

And this is where embodiment became so interesting to me.

I didn’t need less intelligence.

I needed more information.

I needed to stop treating my body as the thing that carries my brain around and start listening to what was happening there.

Because sometimes you already know something.

You just don't know it in words yet.

And sometimes the next step isn't to think about it even more.

It's to notice what is happening in you.

Intellectual knowing isn't enough.

It needs to become something you can actually feel, experience and live.