Turbine welcomed 5 start-ups into its Incubation Programme at the beginning of this year. One of the various services provided to them during this one-year Programme is access to monthly workshops by top experts in the industry.
Last month, Turbine kicked off the first workshop on “Entrepreneurial Embodiment” by Stephanie Maurel. The 3-hours workshop explained the importance of embodiment in an entrepreneur’s journey.
Following the workshop, our team had an interview with the facilitator Stephanie to know more about the subject and her experience of working with Turbine & its start-ups.
What is Embodiment?
Embodiment is a term of complexity and depth. For now, to explain in its simplest sense, embodiment could be described as: the “how” we are in our bodies. The body is a huge part of who we are, and yet, it is often ignored. For much of the time, many of us see the body as a thing that is a taxi for the brain. This is a state of being disconnected from the body self. We could call this dis-embodied. Being in embodiment then, is related to being in our bodies “as” as a body. It’s a subjective experience of the body. As humans we are governed largely by our nervous system, which does not includes not only our head, but the body too. Thus embodiment is the science, art of, and practice of being with our body and mind as one interconnected system. We could look at this as a type of intelligence.
Our embodiment affects the way we stand, walk, talk and act. So we can never be free of it. We are either consciously aware of how we are presenting ourselves in, and reacting to, the world, or we are not. Another way to look at the topic of embodiment training and facilitation is then: making the unconscious conscious, and then attaining some degree of competence in how we manage ourselves in the world.
How do you think Embodiment can impact and support an entrepreneur in his journey?
Developing an embodied intelligence will provide the opportunity to explore the aspects of: self-awareness, self-leadership, social awareness, and social leadership. All vital aspects of being an entrepreneur.
We are in fact, all unconsciously embodied, meaning that the body is involved in everything that we do. This impacts the entrepreneur’s thinking, perception, mood, relationships, and ability to grow in their business.
For the entrepreneur (and anyone else for that matter) to realize that what they think and do and feel happens at the level of the unconscious mind before it reaches the level of conscious awareness, is to realize that everything happens through the level of the body first, and the mind second. It is then easy to understand that the body is a mechanism for perception, emotions, actions, and relationships. And thus, it’s also the most direct way to change these things. Saying to someone:” change your mind” or “think differently”, can be quite abstract. It begs the question “how”? Saying to someone “stand or move differently”, is much more concrete and more doable. It makes leading themselves in their business then more about a bodyset than just a mindset.
In using the frameworks and techniques of embodied facilitation, the entrepreneur can approach topics like confidence, leadership, stress management, communication skills with deeper awareness and a more sustainable and powerful impact.
How was your experience of working with Turbine and its start-ups?
I found it exciting working with the enthusiastic start-ups who are entering the business world. I find that the start-ups of Turbine are young, fresh with zeal, and open to new and innovative ways of doing things. This enabled me to introduce embodiment safely, powerfully and skillfully to support them in directing themselves and their businesses towards success.
Turbine has incubated more than 20 start-ups since the launch of its Incubation Programme. This 12-months Programme is open to anyone who has a scalable business idea with clear milestones and the ambition to scale & raise investment.
