Accompanied by emerging trends in ambient intelligence and design for quality experience, embodied interaction [12] believes that the nature of human-computer-interaction is a process of meaning making and sharing through people's physical and social engagement. However, little research has been done on investigating the mechanism between embodied engagement and meaningful experience in the context of ambient media. Based on theories on embodiment, this paper aims to identify key factors of meaningful experience, and investigate the mechanism reflecting the relationship between engagement process and audience experience. Through examining theoretical literature, conducting experience tests, and analyzing qualitative data, we develop an embodied engagement model as a guideline for evaluating and characterizing audience experience with ambient media.1