What Does it Mean to Heal Mind, Body, and Spirit?
Welcome to our November Newsletter
In the following newsletters, we will continue to explore the meaning of the body-mind-Spirit connection and the importance of remembering all levels in an effort to maintain health.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO HEAL BODY-MIND-SPIRIT?
Each of the dimensions of our energy body has a purpose in our journey through life. And, each plays a special role in the developmental cycle that can be traced through the physical, mental and subtle energy bodies. As we go through life, energies come online with the particular life tasks we are presented. Navigating stages in our environment can be challenging, especially in our younger years when we are preverbal and don’t have the cognition to understand our surroundings. Energies can get confused and stuck manifesting in physical, psychological and spiritual misalignments. If not addressed, we carry these challenged energy patterns through to adulthood and habitually reinforce them with our behaviors and re-actions.
HOW CAN WE BEGIN TO RECOGNIZE MISALIGNED ENERGY PATTERNS IN OUR LIVES?
Simply speaking, each dimension communicates to us in a particular language. The body speaks through sensation, contracting or expanding our musculature. When we have physical experiences, it is through pain or pleasure that the body relates information. The mind speaks in thoughts that manifest in emotions and behaviors. When we feel angry, happy, sad, etc., the emotional body is telling us something and we react. The mind registers all experience and is the bridge between our physical and spiritual worlds. The highest dimension, the Spirit, speaks in silence through our imagination and dreams. When we are quiet, we allow ourselves an opportunity to get in touch with not only our individual inner wisdom but in also the larger more expansive, universal guidance and support that sustains life.
Energy has a hierarchy and a natural structure, and when all these dimensions are aligned, there is a flow that leaves us feeling connected and whole. And, when any part of the system is not in its natural process, access to an innate ability to self-correct and reestablish homeostasis is compromised. Crisis and pain is energies way of getting our attention.
It might help to imagine that the body is like the hard drive of a computer, the mind its programming and the Spirit the operating system. If any of these components are "offline" malfunctioning will occur.
WHAT IS NEEDED FOR OPTIMAL FLOW AND CONNECTION?
First, an awareness that we may not be welcoming and embracing all of “ourselves” into our experience. We may judge some parts as acceptable and other parts not. Perhaps we don’t recognize the needs of our body to eat healthily and on a regular basis. We may not allow ourselves permission to feel and express emotions because we deem them "difficult." Or, we may not leave time in our busy lives to have quiet, downtime. This avoidant strategy makes us not present and available for “what is” and in doing so we block our awareness. In addition, on a daily basis, our systems are assaulted by digital warfare. Phones, social media, and the news constantly disrupt our nervous system and are designed to keep us addicted and in a state of fear. We can often forget we have a choice. Chaos, overwhelm, and confusion becomes the new normal. As a society, we spend too much “in our heads” and not enough time in our bodies. This is most evident after we have a conversation with our boss or friend and ruminate about it for hours, even days after the conversation is long over. And, when we can’t sleep and settle down at night after a long day at work because we are "wired."
As a body psychotherapist, I can say that many of us go through life not being “present” much of the time.
HOW DO WE GET BACK INTO OUR BODIES SO THAT WE CAN LIVE IN PRESENT TIME?
With loving-kindness, we can begin to cultivate a practice of curiosity about the deepest nature of our beingness. Turning our energies inward with kind curiosity, without judgment or criticism, could be the antidote to not being available to ourselves.
AND, VERY OFTEN “GROUNDING” ONESELF WILL HELP.
Grounding or finding ones’ ground is the process in which awareness is turned inward and energies directed downward towards the earth. The ritual of grounding connects us to our personal energy field and activates the flow and connection between the lower and higher energies of the body and to the bigger energies of heaven and earth. Balance is restored and with it reorientation to the here-and-now and to reality.
After “grounding” people report that a state of calm washes over the body and a feeling of greater connectedness to oneself and the larger universe. Benefits also include enhanced mental and emotional clarity, reduction of stress, elevated mood, reduction of inflammation, and a general feeling of wellness. Balance.
Below are some online links for grounding meditations I hope you will try. If this method doesn’t appeal to you, another sure way to get grounded is to spend time in nature. Experiment finding your own way to facilitate inviting your energies to come back into balance. Your system will thank you!
I hope you found this newsletter helpful. I welcome any and all feedback.
With love and light,
Judy Choix
www.fullgestalt.com