Thoughts on mind and body…

Many of us, particularly those of us from Western cultures, are in the habit of considering the mind and body as entities separate one from the other. Sir Ken Robinson, for example, in one of the most widely watched TED talks, describes an academic as an individual who employs the body to move their head from one meeting to another. In a less amusing example, this from medicine, mental illness is considered different, somehow, from physical illness, and the many aspects of care, coverage and chronicity reflect this. Has Descartes’s mind-body dichotomy outlived its usefulness?

The healthy, dynamic tension between the mind and body provides beings with a strong and rich functional foundation.  On the one side, we are our contemplative, cognitive, spiritual and moral selves; on the other side we are our oriented, balancing, physical selves. Like two sides of the same coin, we are each and we are both.

Partners for life, minds and bodies lie not in conflict but rather in combination, in equilibrium, in a balance of functional symmetry. The mind monitors, directs and influences the body’s every movement as the body carries, nourishes and protects the mind’s every moment. The dance of mind and body orients me to the space I inhabit, to my home and my family, to the community in which I reside, and to the mirror in which I see my reflected image.

Within the introduction to the 1973 edition of “Our Bodies, Ourselves” lies a foundational text not just of the women’s movement, but probably the self-help and personal healthcare movements as well: “Our bodies are the physical bases from which we move out into the world; ignorance, uncertainty – even, at worst, shame – about our physical selves creates in us an alienation that keeps us from being the whole people we could be.”

That is to say, the body itself has a major influence on what we believe about it. Remarkably, we generalize what we believe about our bodies to what we believe about our entire person: “My shape is inadequate, so I am inadequate.” “My looks are a liability to me.” And, too, “I am comfortable in my own skin.” “I am strong and healthy.” A person’s posture and movement often communicate, or betray, what they believe about themselves. So we meet a child who tries to protect his head by lowering it into his shoulders. A woman’s collarbones appear to curve out and around to defend her heart. A young man pushes out his lower jaw to appear tougher. After significant weight loss, and despite the fact that her body is now much smaller, we observe a woman who still scissors her arms far out from her torso as she walks because her brain does not know that her size has changed. I have seen all of these.

The word tensile, as in tensile strength, comes from the Latin tensere, meaning “to stretch.” Tensile strength is an engineering term that describes the ability of a material to stretch in accommodation of a force, and then to return to its original shape without permanent distortion or disfigurement. Steel is used extensively to build bridges and skyscrapers because of its tensile strength. Whereas the occasional gale-force winds that come whipping down the river valley will cause a bridge to bend in accommodation of those forces, the steel from which it is built can be expected to return to its original shape once the storm passes. Tensile strength is about bending without breaking. Can we use this knowledge to enhance the mind-body connection to develop further emotional and physical resilience? I believe we can.

Though contemplation is neither visible nor quantifiable, it is still accompanied by real change within the brain. Whether or not reframing a problem can be measured by the current limits of developed technology, it is still the first step to change, and it is real. For this reason, seeing things differently often becomes the first step to changing behaviors, choices, movements and patterns. This is mind-first change.

There is also body-first change: People in recovery programs have a saying that goes something like “It’s easier to act your way into a new way of thinking than to think your way into a new way of acting.” I’ve also heard it said like this: “Fake it ‘til you make it.” “Smile until you feel better.” “It’s not what you say that counts; it’s what you do.” “Your day will generally go in the same direction that the corners of your mouth point.”

Recognizing that the mind is an inextricable component of the body, and that the body is an extension of the mind, is a viable strategy for developing the resilience to become one’s best self, and to taking the first step to more completely occupy ourselves and fulfill our potential.

Many thanks to Ellen Shaw of New York City for providing the seed for this post.

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