The Mind, Body, Spirit Connection

When God took a day or a million years or so to create the human body, he sure put a lot of amazing creativity into it. Some of that creativity is subtle enough that not everyone becomes aware of them, even though they walk around with all the componants of the project for the entire duration of their human existance.

Something that holds a great deal of reverence and fascination for me is the mind/body/spirit connection. On some level I've always been aware of it, but the first time I was fully conscious and grateful of it was when my kindly Doctor first suggested antidepressants to me. I spoke aloud some of my fears about medicating my mind- fearing that it was similar to smoking dope or snorking cocaine when what I needed was some sort of God revelation or healing.

My Doctor took his prescription pad, turned it over, and drew three conjoining circles. One he labelled "body", one "mind" and one "spirit". Then he indicated how when one circle is skewed, it pulls the other two out of alignment. (sort of like a chiropractic schtick). How, if I was treating a spiritual problem with a physical solution, the spiritual problem would still continue to exist and would still cry out to be addressed. With, or without antidepressants.

And that's one of the ways that these three componants befriend and look out for each other. If your brain or your spirit is not restful, it lets your body know. If you've not learned how to hear your feelings or your spirit,, your body starts acting up and yelling a little louder, in the hopes that all the voices will be heard. Maybe your back will hurt. Your head will hurt, or you'll need more rest than usual. It's because yourself is trying to tell you something.

This kind of thinking freaks some people out because it sounds beat-a-drum-in-the-woods-ish. But I believe that's because the credit is not going where credit is due: the creator. Somehow it's easier to say that people have depressive or anxious issues because they didn't get the answer that they were taught at Sunday School: Jesus. (Remember when you sat on the long bench in Sunday School, and half-listened, and when you heard your teacher's voice lilt in that "question' way, you just shot your hand up and shouted "JESUS!", 'cuz you just knew that would always be the right answer?) Problem is, I knew the answer, but I had little or no idea what that meant on a practical level. What it sounded like to me, was that you had better believe that was the answer, then squelch anything that felt awful because that meant you weren't believing quite hard enough. That you were obviously quite sinful or something, because shoving up your hand and shouting Jesus just didn't make anything better at all.

Now, I believe that it's all much more mysterious than we'd first suspected. It's not coincidental that Jesus spoke in riddles and stories to the complete conundrum of most of his listeners. Disciples included. It's all wrapped up in a tonne of mystery. Whenever I get anxious about 'believing all the right stuff", I think about all those religious leaders who followed the jewish laws and customs and ran the synagogues and did the animal sacrifices for all the church people of jesus' day. Turns out that Jesus called them weird stuff like "brood of vipers". And stuff about how they'd never make it unless they expected God to do it for them.

So, when I discover connections between my body, my brain, and my heart, I credit it to God. I figure he's the one who put it all together, so He's the one who gets the credit.

Recently, I've had a little help getting in touch with an emotion or two. Weirdly, it's always intimidating. You wonder if you'll turn into Sybil or something, maybe grow fangs or additional facial hair, or get one of those slippery beasts bursting forth from your bosom. Usually, it's only a slippery tear or two; nothing out of the ordinary at all. And that's not the brain/body connection after all. The connection is more practical than discovering that you have a slippery monster sharing your skin.

Your body begins to feel more fully inhabited. Luminous. Less foreign and frightening and less like a potential criminal that needs restraint.

The road to getting there is by tunneling down into your body and locating an emotion that you suspect is trying to tell you something. You hold it close, look at it in your hand, check for colour and a voice, and feel around to see where in your body this emotion makes its home. You stop trying to hide from it, you stop trying to make it go away. You "shake hands with the neighbors", so to speak.

Weird and wonderful stuff happens. Turns out that your emotions can teach your brain and your body a thing or two if you just listen. And you're not listening to a drum in the bush, sitting in the lotus position and emptying your mind.

You are listening to the amazing piece of machinery that your Creator made.

Hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Something to think about.