Mind, Body & Spirit

"If there is right in the Soul,

There will be beauty in the person.

If there is beauty in the person,

There will be harmony in the home.

If there is harmony in the home,

There will be order in the nation.

If there is order in the nation,

There will be peace in the world." – Lao Tze

“Fundamentally, the word “health” comes from the root word “whole” (“Yoga Energy: Mind Body Spirit – Sadhguru “Huffpost Healthy Living”).  However, many of us from Western society only think in terms of our body when it comes to our health and fitness; being healthy means we are disease free and being fit means that we exercise our bodies to build strong muscles and healthy lungs.    But if we do go back to the root of the word “health” our medical health alone does not give us a sense of ‘wholeness.’  The term ‘whole’ takes into account our entire being.  If we are to take the concept of ‘health’ meaning ‘whole’ how can we not talk about our sense of wellness from within?

There have been many philosophers and scientists who have supported dualistic theories when it comes to mind and body.  According to 17^th century French philosopher Rene Descartes “I think, therefore I am;” Descartes wrote a thesis on mind-body dualism that established that he had a mind without needing to assume he had a body – “I understand the mind to be indivisible by its very nature, I understand the body to be divisible by its very nature, therefore, the mind is completely different from the body.”  A lot of western medicine seems to support Descartes theory of the body being a separate entity to the mind; ailments are physically and scientifically diagnosed and then symptoms are chemically or surgically treated.  Emotion is not recognized as a cause or a cure.

I think it is the eastern influence on our culture and developed theories on emotional intelligence and health that have influenced our culture and brought us round to the concept of ‘body-mind.’  This more unified concept argues that the body, mind, emotions and spirit are dynamically interrelated; each time a change is introduced at one level “it has a ripple effect throughout the entire system” (Wikipedia).  The belief of Body-mind theorists is that the body holds all experiences – both physical stress and emotional injury – so specific postural positions or muscle tension can bring back memories and emotions.  Body-mind therapy combines the strengths of “talk” therapy with body work, such as touch, postural alignment or movement education and exercise to increase body awareness, also known as mind-body or somatic therapy.  This therapy helps people become deeply aware of their bodily sensations as well as their emotions, images and behaviour.  Patients become more conscious of how they breathe, move, speak and where they experience feelings in their bodies (Wikipedia).  Suddenly there is a blur in the lines dividing mind and body.

In Yoga, when the term “health” is used, it isn’t in terms of either the body or the mind; it is only in terms of energy (Yoga Energy: Mind Body Spirit – Sadhguru “Huffpost Healthy Living”).  In yoga, if your energy body is in proper balance and in full flow, your physical body and mental body will be in perfect health.  Now the spirit governs our very health!

When we refer to our ‘well-being’ we are usually talking in terms of finding balance and nourishing all aspects of our life; our physical health through exercise and proper eating, our emotional health, finding success or a sense of importance through our occupation, a spiritual connection to our universe, being social and being connected to those around us, nurturing our intellect by gaining further knowledge of ourselves and our surroundings.  If this is true, there are many un-well beings among us.  As a fitness professional, I keep hearing about how time poor everyone is… people can’t spend time on their physical fitness because their work schedule is too hectic, some people sacrifice their physical fitness or their career due to overwhelming family commitments, there are people who train their body all the time but then over-stimulate it with supplements and pollute their bodies rather than nourish it through good nutrition… and then they are unwilling to enhance their education on the matter- or any other matter- because their time is so consumed with their obsessions and then the intellect becomes starved and once again the balance lost!  Many of us lose sight of our ‘whole’ health and well-being because we overindulge in one aspect of our life.

Fatigue is often a state recognised but never alleviated.  Many of us soldier on and endure the tired dragging of our feet and bodies.  Often there is admiration when we do this.  What we don’t stop to realise is that fatigue often comes when we overindulge in one aspect of our life and don’t nurture another.  If we are fatigued are we happy?  If we draw away from the centre of our well-being and focus on only select-criteria of what makes us whole, will we ever be satisfied with ourselves?  We compromise and neglect our energy constantly.

     Health and wellness are defined as being diseased free and having a functioning body.  What if the rest of our life is dysfunctional???  Are we well when we are fit to run a marathon but have no one in our lives to connect to?  Are we happy when our careers soar but feel like we are susceptible to a coronary when we climb a flight of stairs?  Is contentment found when we have the family of our dreams but our hunger for knowledge or our desire for career have been denied?  And if the wellness from within is not at a state we deem healthy, will our bodies just stand up and function as if this doesn’t matter???

So where do we focus our attention?  If we neglect our bodies we do run the risk of experiencing bad health and possibly disease… our body is our temple and should not be neglected.  There is much evidence that shows that neglecting our mind and our emotions can lead to poor health.  This once again puts our body, our physical and scientifically proven entity of who we are and what we represent, at risk… so our thoughts and feelings aren’t necessarily invisible…  I personally like the yogi philosophy of attending to our spiritual energy.  Yoga uses physical movement and mind connection to align our energy and bring it to a state of flow… and yet I can still see these three aspects of us – our mind, body and spirit- blurred boundaries and each aspect weaving through one another so that they interlock and make us whole again.