Boots on the ground
“Grammarians would describe the use of “boot”, in the phrase “boots on the ground”, as a case of synecdoche - a figure of speech where the part represents the whole.”
On January 30, I hosted a workshop entitled Embody 2022—the purpose of the session was to set our intentions for the year through our senses. By using our senses to create images and metaphors for our intentions, we can recognize our body’s reactions to the language we use to describe them, and genuinely realize our goals for the year.
Yes, it was the end of January and yes, I’m offering it again at the end of February, but as I shared in this blog last week, 2022 gives us plenty of restarts. We have still have time to figure out what the year is all about.
So what’s 2022 all about?
I asked the workshop participants to journal on a few questions:
What desires would become more real and possible for you if you attached a sensory image to it?
Where are you struggling to connect an experience to an idea?
How can making your intentions concrete help you refine them?
These are not questions anyone can answer about all her intentions and sensations in 90 minutes on a Sunday afternoon. Besides, the nature of this approach is to actually use the senses—to engage in tasting something delicious while thinking about what the metaphor of delicious means to the year.
I decided to start with my sense of touch—that weighty and tactile reality of the world around me. As I thought and wrote about it, the sense of touch I feel most strongly is the feel of pounding the pavement, of my body in motion.
Some people may use the feel of crisp winter air or a loved one’s kiss or a fuzzy sweater as their driving metaphor for touch. I chose walking—boots on the ground—committed, present, all in.
Don’t just say you’ll do it, do it!
With 2022 in mind, I walked the dog and considered how walking made my body feel and what thoughts, intentions, and memories that physical sense brought up.
For me, walking feels freeing and gives me a sense of control over my own time and place—I think about backpacking through Europe and long runs with my audiobook. I can go anywhere my feet will carry me, and the time it takes me to get there (wherever there ends up being) is not up to traffic or weather or other people. It’s just up to me.
And lately, I have been experiencing some significant pain when walking. I don’t think it is a coincidence that the freedom and empowerment I so enjoy has become more difficult for me in the last year of pandemic limits and setbacks.
I want my freedom back—I want 2022 to feel moving, energizing, and self-directed.
My intentions as realized through my body are both real and metaphorical (but, to tell the truth, I am not that great at telling the two apart).
A metaphor has a vehicle and a tenor. The vehicle is the thing itself: walking. The tenor is its characteristics: moving, energizing, self-directed.
In 2022 I want to use my body more—get out and walk—because by doing so I feel motion, energy, self-direction. And through that lens, I will better recognize what my body is telling me it wants.
Through this process, I have set intentions to
use my body—schedule and allow opportunities for physical movement.
create freedom in my day by consciously ending my workday at 3 pm M-Th and eliminating all work activities on Fridays and Sundays.
prioritize writing, blogging, and business development.
So the next time I feel my to-do list overwhelming me, I will remind myself that one intention for 2022 is to move my body and free my mind from what feels out-of-control and toward liberation. Perhaps I can employ the vehicle of my metaphor and take a 10-minute walk outside or just stroll up and down the hall. Or I can invoke the tenor and exercise my own power to direct my day—move things around on my to-do list, feed my energy with a more purposeful task, or eliminate/delegate activities that undermine what I want from this year.
With practice, I will learn to take this action and create this feeling before I feel the stress and distraction.
I will embody my intentions, not just imagine them.
Give yourself a break!
If it’s not convenient right now, allow 10-15 minutes sometime this week and engage one of your senses:
light an aromatic candle
nibble a bit of chocolate
admire a painting
listen to a soundtrack
walk around the block
While engaged in your sensory experience, what comes to mind? Don’t force it—what does that candle or chocolate make you think about? What memory, sensation, or action pops up? How can you connect the physical action and the ideas—the vehicle and the tenor? What metaphor for your 2022 does the sensation inspire?
Not sure?
Join me for another Embody 2022 workshop on Sunday, February 27 @ 3pm. We will work together to find our metaphors for 2022 and hold time for you to journal and discuss your intentions for embodying the (still) new year.
The 90-minute Zoom-based workshop is $22 and includes guidance, community, and materials.
