Introducing SOMA

A New Embodiment Practice From Theory of Enchantment

"Consider how completely your sentient body is entangled in the crowd of creatures and elemental forces that enfolds you. Consider how thoroughly your organism is dependent upon these other lives: how your flesh is nourished and sustained by the plants whose leaves or fruits you ingest, by the other animals whose muscles you may eat, or whose milk you may drink, or whose carefully laid eggs, firm the chocolate cake you nibbled on last night.

And ponder, too, how your life sustains others in turn.

- DAVID ABRAM

There’s been plenty of talk about what’s going to happen now that President Trump has issued executive orders banning DEI programs in the Federal government. My company Theory of Enchantment has always maintained an above-board, Kingian approach to inclusion and belonging, rooting its principles in the belief that all human beings are sacred and worthy of dignity, respect, and compassion. This is the beautiful promise of our nation, enshrined in the motto, ‘E Pluribus Unum: Out of Many One.’

Treat people like human beings, not political abstractions. Criticize to uplift and empower, never to tear down or destroy. Root everything you do in love and compassion. These are three rules I’ve taught over the past six years and I’ve had the great privilege of helping many companies and non-profit organizations build a culture that reflects these.

But now I am excited to go even deeper. I’ve built a 6-week cohort for individuals that roots the mindful principles of Theory of Enchantment into the heart, lungs, spleen, and guts of the human being.

SOMA is a new embodiment practice I’ve been developing for a while now. I practice it myself and it’s helped me sustain a greater sense of presence and openheartedness through the ups and downs of my life. Its increased my sense of belonging — which was never just a matter of memorizing definitions or practicing meditative mindfulness techniques. While those are important, they’re basic because belonging is ultimately a felt sensation that starts in the body.

We feel we belong when we are porous, open, present, and rooted in our bodies. Whether we're walking down the street, picking up our child, working on a project, or drinking a glass of cold water, when we are present in all that we do, we bring a sense of ease and peace to anyone who crosses our path.

But dis-ease is all around us. Notifications ping our smart phones constantly with news of war, natural disasters, and political strife. We are inundated with this and are, as a result, almost always in a perpetual state of fight-or-flight. This mood pervades our thoughts, speech and action.

Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt once wrote that our gut reactions come first and strategic reasoning second. But if our guts are out of balance from being in a constant state of hyper arousal due to fears stoked by the news cycle, and if our breath is always shallow, and if we’re constantly disassociating by mindlessly scrolling on social media, our gut reactions will be out of alignment. And that misalignment undermines our capacity to be good citizens.

There is a better way.

If we learn to slow down, track the natural rhythms of our nervous systems, and actually take deep breaths, (serious, lol) we can restore our sense of inner balance and harmony we’ve lost. And if we do so in community, we can force multiply the effect outward to help heal our nation.

So I’m inviting you to join my 6-week cohort where we’ll be training to do just that! We launch Saturday, March 1. Together, we’ll learn how to track the natural cycles of our automatic nervous systems, recognize when we’re going into a state of threat and learn how to bring ourselves back to calm.

We’ll learn how diaphragmatic breathing and vagus nerve practices can help us co-regulate, and we’ll reset our relationship with social media so that it’s balanced and healthy. And we’ll have a fun time doing it too!

If you’d like to join the virtual cohort, know that this will be a super supportive community space with no prior embodiment experience needed and to help with accessibility, I’m offering sliding-scale pricing: You can pay between $600 and $1500 for the 6-week program.

Also, just a heads up, I’m limiting the size of the cohort to twenty-five people so if you’re not able to join this one, don’t worry, I’ll be running many this year. If you have any questions, you can email my team at info@theoryofenchantment.com!

I hope to see you at SOMA!

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Schedule: We will meet on zoom for 90-minute virtual sessions biweekly (every other week), beginning Saturday March 1 and ending Saturday April 5. We will meet each Saturday at 1pm EST.

Practice:In between our meetings, you will be invited to practice short spurts of daily diaphragmatic breathwork (3min), chanting (3min), and autonomic nervous system tracking. This should take no more than 20 minutes a day, max. You will also be invited to significantly reduce your social media usage.

You will need a pen and notebook for the duration of this cohort.