The Embodied Path
Telling the Story of Your Body for Healing and Wholeness
“Soulful and wise, this meditative volume illuminates.”
Our bodies have a story to tell. When we turn toward our bodies with curiosity and reverence, we honor those stories, embrace our inner dignity, and make space for more agency. Sharing our bodies’ stories helps us feel seen so that, little by little, society’s limiting master narratives can shift so that more bodies feel safe and beautiful and have a sense of belonging.
“A book that encourages compassion and kindness for all bodies.”
The Embodied Path tells more than twenty body stories, woven together with Ellie Roscher’s own body story and insights, to do the essential work of resistance and repair at the individual and communal level. The book includes the story of a woman who sees her hijab as an extension of her body, a front man in a funk band who views his entire body as his instrument, a quadriplegic woman who became a lawyer to advocate for herself, and a transgender man who underwent a gender transition after birthing two children. It also includes profoundly simple, beautiful stories of broken bones, motherhood, sickness, and healing toward wholeness.
For anyone interested in creating more capacity for compassion for themselves and others by doing the internal work to contend with privilege and trauma, The Embodied Path invites readers to join in the process with discussion questions, writing prompts, and breath and body practices. The work is simple but not easy, yet the benefits are lasting and profound. Our bodies are always talking to us, trying to get our attention. Our work is to unfold, to listen, and to claim the truth about our beautiful, storied bodies.
Related Resources Available
You can use this journal on its own or in conjunction with The Embodied Path. Writing prompts in this journal fall into two major categories. Some are emotional writing prompts, which help us process through stuck-ness in our feeling bodies to live into flow. Others are prompts will aid you in creating and claiming your body story.
The Embodied Faith Study Guide
Go back to the God who created our bodies very good and Jesus who centered the restoration of bodies. This study guide can be used by individuals, couples, small groups, or large groups. You can plan a retreat around the themes or form a study group that meets weekly or monthly.
The Embodied Path Curricular Resource
This curricular resource is designed for classroom teachers to use in conjunction with The Embodied Path. The work includes reading a few body stories as examples, talking about the act of crafting and sharing your own body story, and then inviting students to craft their own body story.