The Wakeful Body: Somatic Mindfulness as a Path to Freedom

by Willa Blythe Baker

A highly practical and approachable guide to somatic meditation with easy practices for accessing the body's inherent mindfulness, from an expert in somatic meditation. Tap into the wisdom of the body with down-to-earth practices like "Surrendering to the Breath" and "Befriending Feelings" that allow the body to become the source of mindfulness. Willa Blythe Baker introduces meditation practice as the cultivation of a way of being, rather than a way of doing. It is a way of being that is self-aware, self-compassionate, and embodied. This way of being is not limited to practice on the cushion or on the yoga mat--somatic mindfulness is available at any moment, activated by attention to the body's wisdom and its teachings.Discover the three layers of embodiment, from the earth body of flesh and blood, the subtle body of sensory experience and emotion, and the awareness body of consciousness. The three parts of this book explore these layers through turning attention to the physical, energetic, and mental dimensions of human experience. By diving deep into the body, readers will find that they already have what they need. Concentration, wisdom, compassion, kindness, and joy are waiting there.

Genres: Nonfiction, Self Help, Spirituality, Buddhism, Mental Health, Meditation, Psychology

207 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 23, 2021

About the author

Willa Blythe Baker is a teacher, author and translator. Her most recent book is The Wakeful Body (2021, Shambhala Publications/Penguin Random House).

Willa has been practicing and teaching meditation and yoga for over 35 years. Her studies have taken her to Nepal, India, Tibet and Bhutan, and drew her into a life of monasticism and retreat for over a decade. She now lives on a pond in central New Hampshire near Wonderwell Mountain Refuge, a retreat center she founded.

Her previous books include Everyday Dharma (Quest Books 2009, published under the name Willa Miller), The Arts of Contemplative Care (Wisdom Publications 2013, published under Willa Miller) and Essence of Ambrosia (Library of Tibetan Works and Archives 2005).

Reviews

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once I got past the fact that the author completed two long retreats, each of them 3 years, 3 months and 3 days in duration, where she spent 9 hours a day in a box meditating (Eesh!), I marvelled at the clarity and usefulness of the author’s information for non-Buddhist people like myself who are simply interested in ways to become more embodied.

[Adrian Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

as a chronic perseverating intellectualizer, i do need to be taught how to remember i have a body. thus, i appreciate that there are lots of exercises in this book (the vast majority of which i haven’t tried…YET!). but the simple, introductory grounding exercises, body-awareness/scan, and gentle vase breathing (teased not explained) have already been transformative. plus i do t’ai chi now which is, as she would say, meditation in motion.

con: for a book who’s subtitle says “…as a path to freedom” i was hoping for more, say, political awareness or discussion. i think there’s a very deep and interesting nuance in the “accepting of the Now by not wishing/hoping for some fictional other moment/world”. how does one pair this “radical acceptance” with radical politic? how do you choose when to fight for change and when to accept the present state; inversely, how can you accept the present state in an effort to create a different better future state? pairing this buddhist/somatic philosophy with a book like Solitary, and the spiritual journey Albert Woodfox makes in his 40+ years of solitary confinement, would make for an interesting examination of this particular nuance.

[Sevval · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book in a bookclub. We did some practices. Without practices book is hard to engage with.

[Healthypedia · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Wakeful Body is a practical guide to somatic meditation, offering straightforward practices to tap into the body's natural mindfulness.

In the hustle and bustle of today’s fast-paced world, the pursuit of inner peace and self-awareness has become an ever-elusive endeavour. For many, the practice of meditation and mindfulness offers a sanctuary amidst the chaos, a path to reconnect with the present moment, and a means to unlock the wisdom within.

This review delves into a book that tackles the profound subject of meditation and mindfulness, offering a unique perspective on these transformative practices. The Wakeful Body by Willa Blythe Baker ventures beyond the conventional realms of meditation, shedding light on the intricate connection between the body, consciousness, and the art of being fully awake.


Author’s background

Willa Blythe Baker, who holds a doctoral degree, serves as a Buddhist instructor, writer, and translator. She established the Natural Dharma Fellowship in Boston, Massachusetts, and established its retreat centre, Wonderwell Mountain Refuge, in Springfield, New Hampshire.

In this role, she leads programs, fosters community, and leads group retreats. In the 1990s, she undertook seven years of secluded monastic retreat, which resulted in her being granted authorisation as a Buddhist lama.


What is the book about?

The Wakeful Body by Willa Blythe Baker challenges the notion of meditation as a lofty, ethereal pursuit and instead advocates for a grounded, somatic approach. Central to the book’s philosophy is the concept that our bodies are always engaged in a form of meditation through the act of breathing, governed by the autonomic nervous system. By recognising this inherent meditative quality within ourselves, Baker encourages readers to yield to what already exists but may be concealed by the demands of daily life.

The book offers a range of exercises, anecdotes, and historical insights into Eastern thought and meditation traditions to guide both novice and experienced meditators. It serves as a valuable companion for daily meditation practice, helping readers strip away accumulated physical and spiritual impurities to uncover their core essence.

Overall, The Wakeful Body invites readers to become more conscious and aware of their body, mind, emotions, and nervous system, fostering kindness and curiosity. The book is particularly recommended for individuals dealing with PTSD or physical traumas, as it explores the body’s role in maintaining awareness and storing past experiences.


Three key takeaways from The Wakeful Body

1. What is somatic mindfulness?

The book introduces the idea of somatic mindfulness, where attention emerges from within the body rather than being controlled externally. Baker emphasises that the body is naturally mindful, and instead of taming the mind’s distractions, this approach encourages surrender and trust in the body’s innate awareness. Through practices like focusing on the breath and allowing the body’s sensations to draw attention back, somatic mindfulness offers a refreshing perspective on meditation. It highlights the reflexive nature of meditation, where attention turns inward to observe the inner landscape, ultimately leading to a more embodied, nonconceptual, and self-aware experience.

2. The art of pause can bring a sense of tranquillity and comfort into your everyday life

Baker introduces the concept of the art of pause, which emphasises the importance of incorporating moments of mindfulness into our daily lives. She shares an experience from a monastery where mindfulness bells rang throughout the day, prompting everyone to pause and be present in the moment. Initially sceptical, the author gradually appreciated the practice as it interrupted the rush of thoughts and brought attention to the body and senses. The author suggests finding your own ‘mindfulness bell’ in everyday life, a sound or cue that prompts you to stop, enter a state of being and fully engage with the present moment. These pauses help disrupt habitual thinking, allowing the experiential body to come alive and enriching our daily experiences.

3. Posture, breath and stillness – three major components of meditation

The book offers a nuanced perspective on cultivating a meaningful meditation practice. The book underlines the crucial role of posture, breath and stillness when practising meditation. Posture is not just a physical stance but also an invitation for the heart and mind to settle into a state of ease. Proper posture, with an upright and balanced spine, facilitates the circulation of energy and promotes mental clarity.

The breath is a fundamental anchor for the mind, a powerful tool to calm the mind’s conceptual chatter. It is explained that focusing on the breath activates the embodiment circuitry in the brain while diminishing default-mode circuitry, possibly reducing tendencies toward depression and anxiety.

Finally, Baker introduces the concept of stillness in meditation. It likens the mind to a muddy river and meditation to a clear vase placed in that river. Over time, the sediment of thoughts settles, and clarity emerges. It encourages patience in the waiting game of meditation, where stillness gradually finds you, even amidst movement and exhaustion, leading to profound glimpses of awakening and a deep sense of clarity in the nonconceptual space.


Strengths and weaknesses, according to readers’ reviews

Strengths:
• Suitable for both beginners and experienced practitioners, offering valuable insights for all.
• Offers a rich array of exercises to tap into the body’s wisdom, enhancing meditation practice.
• Sparks inspiration and resonates with readers, motivating them to recommit to mindfulness practice.

Weaknesses:
• Some readers find the book burdensome due to the extensive inclusion of personal anecdotes, making it challenging to extract the wisdom it offers.


Best quotes from The Wakeful Body

“An absolute separation between mind and body was first introduced and enshrined by the French philosopher Reneé Descartes, who famously asserted a somatic dualism, that mind and body are inherently and completely separate. His work, which remained influential in America and Europe well into the twentieth century, sparked a debate about the relationship between body and mind that continues today in the fields of philosophy, religion, and the sciences. Is it any surprise that many of us carry a version of this dualism when we come to a contemplative path?”

“To tame our distracted, scattered attention, we turn it toward an object – the breath, for example. At first the mind will not stay focused for long. It bounces away, distracted by a thought or an idea. Or the mind sinks into torpor and forgets entirely what it was doing. What was it we were doing? Oh yes. Then we coax the mind back again to the breath. This happens over and over, a process called placement and replacement.”

“Another powerful metaphor for meditation from the Buddhist lineage is the ocean. The body is still and grounded, like the ocean floor. Our breath rises and falls like the swells on the ocean’s surface. Attention, like an anchor, holds us steady, even while thoughts swim around the edges of our mind like schools of fish. Sense experiences swirl around us like the ocean’s current.”


Final takeaway

The Wakeful Body by Willa Blythe Baker offers a unique perspective on meditation and mindfulness that is both accessible and transformative. Baker’s background and experience as a Buddhist instructor and lama shine through in her teachings. While the book has a few weaknesses, such as excessive use of personal anecdotes, its notable strengths encompass its inclusivity, practical exercises, and its capacity to motivate and deeply resonate with readers. “

This book is recommended for individuals seeking to deepen their meditation practice, especially those dealing with trauma or physical challenges, as it explores the body’s role in maintaining awareness and healing.

[Lily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read a fair amount on Buddhism, mindfulness, meditation, but this somatic sense of mindfulness really clicked for me in a way nothing before has! It inspired me to get back into a practice and the ideas within resonated with me quite a lot.

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mindfulness is a hot topic these days, but many overlook or lack awareness of the importance of the body in cultivating mindfulness. While our minds can wander to any place or time, the body is always present; it is a great teacher on the path to sustained present moment awareness - mindfulness.

[Hisgirl85 · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars. I will want to relisten to this doing the practices, but it was a nice, soothing read through. I did attempt some of them, though being mobile and engaged in tasks while listening to audiobooks made the exercises difficult to just stop and do.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The process of reading this book is in itself an experience of slowing down - of presence and wakefulness.

[Chanda Scobee · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The body is not an obstacle to awakening. The body is a pathway to awakening."

"The Wakeful Body" is one of those rare books that doesn’t just talk about mindfulness, but gently invites you into it. Willa Blythe Baker blends Tibetan Buddhist wisdom, neuroscience, and somatic practices into a beautiful, grounded guide to presence that feels both deeply spiritual and refreshingly practical. It's deep, yet simple.

She writes with clarity and calm, breaking down the experience of embodiment into three “bodies”: the flesh body, the energy body, and the awakened body. This framework gives language to subtle inner experiences in a way that’s accessible but never watered down. She explains, "Embodiment means we don’t just understand the teachings— we feel them, we live them, we become them." It gave me the science I needed behind some of these things to be able to understand them enough to release to them in experience.

For a period of time in my nervous system regulation journey, I found myself trying too hard and not understanding enough about what I was doing to effectively do it. Being neurodivergent, it's extremely difficult to surrender to breathwork and being present in the body at times, so I require a lot of information in order to be able to experience these things in a more "correct" way. Essentially, "Spiritual bypassing is what happens when we try to rise above the body, instead of rooting down into it." This book finally helped me to understand the struggle that was happening within me in this process, and I find that reading books like this help me in my journey of meditation and restoration.

What stood out most to me is how trauma-informed and compassionate her approach is. The practices are gentle and never pushy. You really feel like she trusts the reader to move at their own pace. I found the variety of practices to be very accessible- from more in-depth, detailed exercises to simple breath counts and awareness. I think these add an extension to the book that make it more of a tool than just information.

This book is a balm for anyone trying to come home to themselves, especially if you’ve spent time dissociated or over-identified with your mind, chasing logic to make sense of your experiences and how they have affected you. Reading it felt like taking a deep, necessary breath and helped me to better connect to my breath.

It's perfect for:

- Mindfulness or meditation practitioners

- Individuals healing from burnout or disconnection

- Fans of somatic therapy

- Anyone craving a more present, embodied spiritual life

[Joseph Hirsch · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Waking down” sounds a little buzzword-ish, more a matter of paronomasia than something that promises wisdom. The Wakeful Body, however, takes this clever wordplay as a starting point rather than an end, to make its central point: that meditation is not a matter of elevation, ascending to some higher, rarified plane of the mind. It is a matter of going down—to ground literally and into the body, the somatic and tangible, as much as the metaphysical.
It's difficult to sum up any philosophy that involves as much intuition as intellect, but one point the author makes may help illuminate the whole of her method. When we are concentrating on breathing, we needn’t find a rhythm or attempt to establish our own. The body is always breathing, with the autonomic nervous system providing a steady and unwavering point of focus. It is something to which we can always return, or use as a starting point, when floundering during meditation.
In other words, the body at some level is always meditating. It’s simply a matter of yielding to what is already there, but isn’t always apparent because the workaday, petty, and prosaic dealings of life obscure it from us.
The Wakeful Body pulls back the accreted layers of physical and spiritual pollution we all accumulate, to find the pure core beneath that. It offers exercises, anecdotes, and even some history of Eastern thought and various schools of meditation throughout the text to help guide the meditator, be they neophyte or experienced.
I used it over the course of the last several months, reading a section or two before beginning my daily meditations. Even and despite my lapses in practice (and concentration), I gained wisdom and succor from the book. Those more disciplined than me should no doubt get even more from it. Maybe I should read it again, and again.
Recommended, especially for those who have PTSD as well as physical traumas, whose bodies are mercilessly “keeping score” as psychiatrist Bessel Van der Kolk once put it.

[Carrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to the audiobook version and enjoyed the narrator's gentle, guiding voice.

Yet, it still felt more like a professional journal publication at first and I had a hard time keeping focused. I liked that there were meditations/practices throughout, but wish they were separated by either a different narrator, a tone or some music or something soothing in the background to separate them apart. I would have been more likely to try them. (They are also available online, so I may try those later).

Toward the end, I felt that this book was meditative in and of itself. The language felt more flowery and descriptive (or perhaps my own focus was better that day!)

In the end, I think that I wasn't ready for this book. My meditation practice still feels so new and much of the content of this book felt "upper-level" or more than my mind can handle at the moment. I am curious how a re-read will feel in a few years!

There was a lot of talk of equanimity, which is what I want in my life... so I just have to keep at it and keep practicing.

[Adrienne Michetti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a practical, useful book for those who want to better understand how to pay attention to your body, and all the lessons it has to teach us.

I really took my time with this because I wanted to learn all of the practicces. However, it became apparent within days that I would not be able to learn the practices in the time it would take to read the book. The accompanying audio guides (on Soundcloud) are a godsend. I've bookmarked them and will return to them again and again. But I left this book feeling like I wished this was a course. Or some kind of series.

Ms Baker's lifetime of knowledge and experience is difficult to distill into one book, but I so appreciate that she has written this. Her guidance and her kind, soft instruction is so welcoming and inviting.

[Aylward Martin, Jaya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Willa writes from both the depth and the breadth of her meditative training. Her decades of practice, her love of her teachers and lineage, and her own psychological early history are all woven into the threads of wisdom that lead the reader through the essential spiritual territory of a deeply embodied life of practice, transformation and freedom.

Teachings and practices are described with precision and clarity, but also with real heart. We feel we are sitting with Willa, sensing with her, being led into our own embodied experience and its liberating possibilities.

Highly recommended.

[Iselina Lindstrom-McCormack · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a 500-hr RYT and certified meditation/mindfulness coach with over 800 teaching hours, I read a great many yoga and meditation books. This is one of my favorites. Baker's concept of "waking down" into the body is expressed clearly and with an abundance of supporting evidence. The reader understands that the ideas presented are backed by not only years of practice, but also countless research sources. She details the process of "waking down" in such a way that readers new to the subject can easily follow along and with enough explanatory material that experienced readers remain engaged.

[Josy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book full of tangible bits on somatics, weaving personal experience and knowledge with philosophies and embodied practices. I‘ve been exploring somatics and embodiment for a short while now and re-encountered familiar concepts which got enriched by more insight and direct practices. A very compact book that makes it easy to follow along. Not a quick and heavy read but rather a slow and long one to allow the information to integrate - both in the mind but especially in the body. Thank you!

[Matt Ziegler · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m working through this book right now, and there are references to audio recordings of the practices at https://www.shambhala.com/WakefulBody... but I cannot access them there. Does anyone know if they have been moved or are available through another source? It would certainly be a helpful tool to have in learning this technique.

Thanks for any help!

[Paul]

This has some good ideas and exercises. To implement them will take some time, but hopefully worth it. Somehow the author's writing tone was calming. I enjoyed this, and recommend it.

Thanks very much for the free review copy!!

[Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely splendid! Can't recommend this highly enough, especially if you are interested in embodied mindfulness, which is called the spoke of the wheel of the dharma. I'm sure I'll read this many times—so many gleaming pearls of wisdom, matched with embodied practices to help us along the path!

[Cathy Ritter · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read a little bit of this book in the morning before starting my day. The writing and exercises within were a perfect way to ease into the morning. I’ll be returning to this book for inspiration frequently.

[Rachael · Rating 5 out of 5]

deeply connective, practical, insightful and of course, grounding. I admire Lama Willa’s methods of making the somatic practices of Buddhism more known to the west without diluting them. this has added a layer of depth to my embodiment and somatic practices and knowledge.

[Naomi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really interesting way of connecting the mind and body together and recognising the need to both know, and learn our bodies as we practice and explore mindfulness. Really insightful, and a book I will definitely return to again and again.

[Irina Elena · Rating 4 out of 5]

An extremely accessible and practical introduction to somatic awareness and its role in meditation.
It goes a little too woo-woo for my taste towards the end, but overall I think this would be an incredibly useful primer for someone struggling with hyperarousal and anxiety.

[Larson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is honestly one of the most inspiring books I've read. I've read so many books on understanding trauma in the body, but this one felt like an ode to the body and its potential. I'm a library girlie but I'm considering buying a copy of this.

[Mallory Mulzer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this. Meditation is something that has been a slow incorporation over time, and this book let me dive deeper into many aspects of meditation. A lot of Buddhist beliefs mentioned are very beautiful and I always find myself drawn to their messages. Good read

[Ada Mao · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s beautifully written with lots of insights. It can be a meditative experience itself just to read this book.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a treasure. The author explains difficult concepts in accessible ways, bringing in her own experiences. The practices help build understanding.

[Em Adamo · Rating 5 out of 5]

so helpful for getting in ur body… been on some dharma shit lately and reacquainting myself w my body and it fit perfectly into both things

[Alžběta · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book full of inspiration, practical advice and beautiful guided practices. Most enjoyable and highly recommended.

[Candice Tatro · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an amazingly rich book that dives deeply into meditation, the body and breath

[Norina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Without presence, we might very well miss our life.