Exploring, Embodying, Enacting: Transforming Through the Experience of Integrating the Body in Learning
Open AccessThis phenomenological study explored the experience of integrating the body in learning from the perspective of coaches and trainers who had a deep understanding of the relevance of the body for learning, growth, and change and who engaged in body-oriented practices. The challenge addressed by this research is the need to understand how our volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) environment triggers our autonomic stress response, which can limit our ability to deeply learn and effectively engage with the world. This study enhances the dialogue to provide clarity on the complex nature of integrating the body in learning.Findings and conclusions emerged from the experience of eight coresearchers in response to the research question: What is the experience of integrating the body in learning? Coresearchers’ experiences illustrate that integrating the body in learning creates the potential to change the trajectory of people’s lives. Learning to learn more effectively is one of the most powerful ways of thriving in our VUCA environment marked by accelerated and continuous change. In this environment of disruptive change, it is essential for leaders to cultivate the capacity to shift from reacting to the past and instead proactively and resourcefully create the emerging future. Connecting with the body creates the opportunity to change by choice, leading to enacting rather than reacting. This study affirms the value and relevance of interpersonal neurobiology for furthering our understanding of the relationship between embodied practices and awareness, cognitive functioning, emotional balance, limbic resonance, and attuned communication. Coresearchers expressed difficulty finding words to share the essence of their experiences of integrating the body in learning, illustrating Caldwell’s (2014) assertion that we have yet to find distinct language to do so.
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