Embodidelics: A New Perspective on Psychedelics for Eating Disorder Recovery
Have you ever considered the somatic dimension of psychedelics? Let’s explore "Embodidelics," a term I created to shine a light on the body’s role in the psychedelic journey — and its potential to transform the healing process, especially in eating disorder recovery.
What Are Embodidelics?
Embodidelics emphasizes the somatic aspects of psychedelic experiences. While “psychedelics” means "mind manifesting," this term often overlooks the body's role in the healing process. Shout to Dr Ben Malcom who also coined a term with a similar sentiment: “psychosomatodelics”.
The embodied experience in a plant medicine journey includes:
Physical releases: Tears, shaking, sweating, or even vomiting.
Energy in motion: Moving through and processing unmetabolized emotions.
Postural changes: Shifts in the body that reflect inner transformation.
Unlike the mind-centered focus of traditional psychedelic interpretations, "Embodidelics" highlights the profound ways the body participates in the healing journey.
Psychedelics and the Body's Manifestation
The body holds unmetabolized emotions, sensations, and ancestral memories. In an embodidelic journey, these layers are processed, creating space within the body and mind.
How the Body Supports Healing:
Emotion Processing: Emotions (or “energy in motion”) are digested and released, leaving space for inner clarity and alignment.
Mind-Body Synergy: As the body processes stored tension, the mind gains access to deeper insight, values, and perspectives.
Grounded Preparation and Integration: Embodiment practices help expand the body-mind's capacity for resilience, strengthening the results of psychedelic journeys.
Eating Disorder Recovery: A Journey of Nourishing the Soul
When I speak of eating disorder recovery, I often think of it as a return to nourishing the soul through the body.
The Body as a Compass
In recovery, the body becomes a guide, helping us:
Recognize cues that point us toward safety and connection.
Replace reliance on external rules with internal clarity.
Access a deeper sense of alignment and self-trust.
As we strengthen our connection to the body, we also reconnect with the Earth, recognizing that we are not isolated beings but part of an interconnected web of wisdom and life. It is through our embodied experience that we heal and transform.
Your wise body carries ancestral knowledge, memories, and gifts passed down through generations. When you honor this wisdom that resides in the body, recovery becomes not just about healing the self but an embodied reconnecting with a larger sense of belonging.
This deep interconnection can offer a profound sense of orientation — helping you find your path and feel nourished by a life shaped by embodied knowing.
Words Shape Perception
The terms we use influence how we view healing. The words we use reveal what we see and the lenses through which we interpret the world.
While “psychedelics” centers the mind, "Embodidelics" shifts the focus to the body, revealing the importance of somatic preparation and integration in any transformational process.
The body is inherently involved in the psychedelic journey; and as energy in motion (aka emotions) moves, layers drop, space is created, and the mind can then access higher levels of thought, authentically aligned values, clearer perspective and attuned perception.
It's interesting how changing the word from psychedelics to Embodidelics immediately reveals another aspect to the journey, and indicates that part of preparation and integration should also then include embodiment practices to train the body-mind to grow its capacity and resiliency.
What words do you use to describe your psychedelic journey? How do they shape your perception and understanding of the experience and the healing it offers?
Embodidelics invites us to expand our view of psychedelics and recovery, emphasizing the body’s role in healing. Whether you're navigating eating disorder recovery or exploring plant medicine, consider how reconnecting with your body can open new doors to clarity, trust, and soulful nourishment.
What does the term "Embodidelics" spark in you? How does it shift your understanding of healing and transformation?