{"id":19375,"date":"2020-02-19T11:58:58","date_gmt":"2020-02-19T11:58:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/embodiedfacilitator.com\/?p=19375"},"modified":"2024-11-28T09:04:06","modified_gmt":"2024-11-28T09:04:06","slug":"verbal-mistakes-to-avoid-when-teaching-embodiment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/embodimentunlimited.com\/verbal-mistakes-to-avoid-when-teaching-embodiment\/","title":{"rendered":"Verbal mistakes to avoid when teaching Embodiment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>These are the most common verbal mistakes I see people in this field\nmake:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Giving<br>possible outcomes and metaphors, rather than clear methods, e.g. \u201cEmpty your<br>mind\u201d, or, \u201cHave a mind like water\u201d, versus \u201cBring your attention to the<br>physical sensations of breathing\u201d. This is known as non-operational language,<br>as the clear method is missing and it forces people to guess what you\u2019d<br>actually like them to do!<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Starting<br>instructions with, \u201cJust . . .\u201d This is a common verbal tic, which minimizes<br>the task, which may not be easy or trivial to your participants.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Use of<br>foreign, \u201cspiritual\u201d or anatomical\/scientific jargon, as a way of claiming<br>status; it often makes things less clear.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Using an<br>annoying breathy spiritual \u201cyoga\/dance voice\u201d or even a different accent! Just<br>speak normally! More broadly, practice use of tone matters, as this conveys<br>your own embodiment.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Use of<br>\u201cgood\u201d, \u201cnice\u201d and other value judgements, which suggest certain options are<br>better than others (assuming you don\u2019t want to do this). For example, \u201cnice and<br>deep into the stretch\u201d, implying that it\u2019s somehow better to go deep than not.<br>Value judgements may be inherent in word choices such as, \u201cCollapse the chest\u201d,<br>which sounds bad compared to, \u201cFlex the upper spine\u201d!<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Asking<br>questions such as, \u201cWhat happened in your body?\u201d That frames people as passive<br>victims of their own bodies. A better question that encourages personal<br>responsibility would be, \u201cWhat did you do in your body?\u201d.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Telling<br>participants what they are seeing\/experiencing and not letting them spot it for<br>themselves, for example, \u201cYou are feeling relaxed\u201d. Letting people spot it for<br>themselves teaches them self-observation and responsibility for their own<br>bodies.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Not giving<br>a reason for an exercise. This encourages blind faith, as opposed to healthy<br>questioning.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Forgetting<br>to ask permission when touching. Or alternatively, asking but not really being<br>okay with a \u201cno\u201d. This creates compliance. The ethical way is to gain explicit<br>verbal consent, or at least a non-verbal indicator.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Use of<br>demands. Obviously, this is disempowering. I do not believe it is always<br>necessary to make it explicit that a request not a demand is being made \u2013 e.g.<br>by saying, \u201cplease\u201d (!), \u201dI invite you\u201d, \u201cif you like\u201d or by giving options,<br>but it is a good idea to do this sometimes especially early on with a group.<br>Tone conveys a lot but what is most critical in the request-demand distinction<br>is how you treat anyone who doesn\u2019t agree to your request!<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Use of<br>\u201cwe\u201d when no agreement is made. This is an example of \u201cforced teaming\u201d, as<br>opposed to gaining consent. For example: \u201cWe are doing X now\u201d (also a fait<br>accompli).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cNext<br>you\u2019ll . . .\u201d This is another example of a fait accompli. Again, it removes the<br>chance for participants to give consent. Instead, you could offer alternatives,<br>support people who choose to not follow your lead and actively teach students<br>to say \u201cno\u201d.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Some of these may seem like nit-picking and I\u2019m pretty picky about this\nstuff to be fair, but these are more important than they may seem. That being\nsaid, it\u2019s your embodiment that matters most and I\u2019ve seen great teachers give\nterrible instructions, but with huge love, so they landed well. Others say the\nnicest things but filled with venom! Intent, tone and how things are received\ntrump the exact words, and there are times when I would break many of these\nrules, so it\u2019s situational too (for example in some cultural contexts, where\ntoo much choice may actually make people feel anxious).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading has-ast-global-color-0-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-d7e513873c0f0addc28b5473c77657c7\">Interested in Spirituality? <\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/embodimentunlimited.com\/spirituality\/\">Find out more on our Embodied Spirituality course<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>These are the most common verbal mistakes I see people in this field make: Some of these may seem like nit-picking and I\u2019m pretty picky about this stuff to be fair, but these are more important than they may seem. That being said, it\u2019s your embodiment that matters most and I\u2019ve seen great teachers give [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19380,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"give_campaign_id":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[184],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-micro-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/embodimentunlimited.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/embodimentunlimited.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/embodimentunlimited.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/embodimentunlimited.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/embodimentunlimited.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19375"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/embodimentunlimited.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105567,"href":"https:\/\/embodimentunlimited.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19375\/revisions\/105567"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/embodimentunlimited.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/embodimentunlimited.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/embodimentunlimited.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/embodimentunlimited.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}