This week I’d like to take a look at another key element when it comes to health. From what I can observe in our culture, we tend to think and work in health care in terms of compartments.
It’s important to have specialists, don’t get me wrong. However I think that thinking of the body as separate from the mind is not only unhelpful, it’s not healthy. We need to be able to recognize that the body can influence the mind and the mind can influence the body.
Fearful thoughts create defense physiology. A distressed body can support unhealthy thoughts. And yet we have hospitals that focus on the physical body and we have hospitals that focus on mental health.
If I were to ask you, what is the mind, what would your answer be? Some of you may consider that the brain is the mind. Many people would either identify the mind as the brain or at least associate it with the brain.
So how would you define the sea shore? Is it the land or is it the sea? Is it the water or the sand? The mind is really a shared ground between the brain and the body.
We know the brain (and the rest of the nervous system) to be about the flow of electrical and chemical energy. Whatever frequency that energy moves with determines the information that it carries.
The problem with defining the mind is that you can’t point to it like we can the brain. We can’t draw it and say that that’s what the mind looks like. You can’t dissect it out and you can’t do an X-ray or MRI of it.
Dr. Dan Siegel, psychiatrist and author, says that the mind exists in our bodies and between individuals in relationship, and that it regulates energy and information flow. The mind helps to create our subjective experiences and helps us to connect to the subjective experiences of others.
From my own clinical experience the part of the mind that is embodied, does not only exist in the nervous system, but in every tissue of the body. If our bodies are stiff and inflexible, our minds will be as well. If we’re stuck in survival mode, our mental perspectives will be as well, even if our lives are stress-free.
When it comes to the relational aspect of the mind, the aspect that exists between us and other people, this is where we can create boundaries to help define where we stop and others start. This shared space can be challenging to navigate and to even have a sense of.
Much like the seashore, because the relational mind shares its space with the embodied mind, we can learn to navigate our relationships through knowing our bodies. Awareness, breath, movement and energy can all be like sensors lighting up on our dashboard telling us to get closer, to stand our ground or to create more distance. Our bodies can tell us when and how to create healthier boundaries and healthier intimacy.
Having a mind and body that has integration is being healthy. A mind that can self-organize embodied and relational energy and information, linking different aspects together creates total health.