Embodied cognition as a theory is older than "the last decade", and makes much wider claims than James (and is just plain wrong). Contrasting it in the subsequent sentence with much older observations doesn't do either justice.
A lot of Varela's ideas are considered in Spatial Computing VR/AR/MR also even refered to by some as Embodied Computing. XR works by expanding perception expectations (in the Lisa Feldmen Barrett sense) using an animated freedom to produce new experience but similar enough to be understood. The reasearch connecting visual processing in the hippocampus to emotional memory formation (visual thinking) is quite strong. XR and new interface formats are forcing us to look closer and explore the relationship between cognitive states and our understanding of embodiment/environment which certainly exists.