Self, Body, Mind Methods
Extreme breathing combined with extreme cold and extreme mindset. The fastest way to become present.
Discussion around the self, body, mind relationship is a primary basis of this website. The part we define as self is clearly the result of conscious awareness which can be considered as something separate from both the mind and the body in relation to self-healing. The notion of the self, body, and mind as three things is nothing new, and becoming aware of yourself as an observer in your life is integral to modern therapies.
Whether the conscious self is divine in nature or just the result of biological processes is beside the point. Perhaps it’s a little bit of both. It is generally understood that our body has a mind of its own. We fight with ourselves and hear internal dialog which can drive us mad. We seem to have both an “ego” and a “true self,” a good side and a dark side. There is both a seen and unseen nature of our very being, just like the universe itself.
The idea of self-awareness as distinct from the body and mind is a simple description of ‘the whole self.’ It gives us a way to separate ourselves from our suffering and to learn from it. This understanding represents our salvation from personal misery and a gateway to the healing of the body, mind, and self.
On TheBodyIsMind.com, we simplify discussion of the perceived seen and unseen interconnections within ourselves, when expressed in print, and refer to it as the self+bodymind relationship.
To consider the brain and the mind as one in the same is a very “last-century” concept which no longer aligns with modern systems of thought. In fact, the Institute for Individual and Group Psychotherapy says, “It is widely understood [in psychology today] that the body is the subconscious mind.”
“The brain and mind are both involved in consciousness and the terms are often used interchangeably but the brain and the mind are not the same. The mind permeates every cell of the human body.
More importantly, the mind ultimately has dominion over the brain.”
This modern understanding of the nature of our biology means the nature of self is not something which can be contained and explained only within the context of the brain. The brain is a part of the body, a part of a larger system. Therefore, to talk about the brain and body as separate things is absurd. What appears to be separate from both brain and body is the self. A conscious free will.
The Japanese have a word, Kokoro, which better describes the essence of the nature of humankind than anything which can translate into English. There is no single word to mean self+bodymind in English, and thus Kokoro is suitable for use when making reference to the whole person – including both seen and unseen aspects of a person’s identity.
Kokoro contains shades of meaning which can include “heart; mind; mentality; emotions; and feelings.” It is a Japanese word which is expressed in Chinese characters.
It all comes together for us with Self-Awareness at the top of a triangle, and Body-Awareness and Mind-Awareness taking the base of the triangle at both bottom corners, as represented by the image below. Because the Self is considered to be superior to body and mind, the Self is depicted at the top over both.
For folks who have lost all hope and have difficulty finding meaning in their lives, this triangle has collapsed inwards upon itself so that there can be no apparent separation of self from the bodymind. Learning how to create that separation again is the greatest lesson anyone can possibly learn in their lives, and this lesson is most often learned through suffering.
In this life, not one of the three corners can exist without the other. If you believe that there is no separate self from the bodymind, then who the hell is reading these words?
As the self collapses into the body and mind, the triangle above would eventually come to be represented by a flat line. The self would still be there but be crushed by a lack of awareness of self, at which point the self can truly cease to exist – mainly through death.
Knowing we are neither our brain, our body, nor our mind means we can plot a path towards wellness which doctors don’t normally talk about when they prescribe pills for everything which ails us. We can learn about our options like you’re doing now, which will empower us to take responsibility and new actions for our health.
Understanding the difference between the self and the bodymind is the key to self-healing. Yet we don’t need to comprehend the nature of our consciousness in order to make sense of our world. What is apparent is that there is an organized system of intelligent biology which keeps our body alive, and then there’s us. No one argues about having a sense of “self.”
Our self-awareness resides within the same framework and system shared by around 37 trillion cells. About 300 different molecules manage biological processes within an organic network which allows the cells of our bodies to communicate at the speed of light. Together, they work to build over 20,000 different proteins and write the long-term memory of our experiences into our DNA so that we can pass on lessons learned to our grandchildren.
We really don’t need to argue about whether self-consciousness arises from the Body and Mind, or even whether the ‘Self’ is something separately tangible or intangible. We only need to know and understand ourselves. But without having ‘Self’ represented by the top circle on the illustration, all we have is the age-old “mind-body problem” – and that gives us nothing but problems.
The reason we can’t think of ourselves as having merely a two-dimensional nature (body and mind without self) is that it’s a dichotomy. According to the Google dictionary definition, a dichotomy is “a division or contrast between two things that are or are represented as being opposed or entirely different.”
How could you expect to ever exercise free will or learn control over your thoughts and emotions if you can’t consider your SELF as something separate from the Body and Mind? When it comes to our health care, how we think about ourselves accounts for about 80% of our wellness. So having this perspective gives you command of your mind and body health.
This Self+Body+Mind Venn diagram helps us visualize why it’s so important to conceive of ourselves this way, and without needing to offend anyone’s religious sensibilities or beliefs systems. We just need to take ‘self-consciousness’ into consideration more often in our discussions around healthcare.
We can have good days and bad days. On bad days, it seems that our body is against us. Indeed, some of us even hate ourselves because of the way we feel. The constant need to cover up our pain fuels our addictions and self-destructive behaviors.
But once we begin to perceive a difference between ourselves and our body and thoughts, then we can start to exert some form of control over the relationship between our thoughts and our pain. It doesn’t happen, though, until we can make that clear distinction and start living and thinking within the new perspective that the body is mind and that the self is an independent conscious force.
This is where we learn that the body is the subconscious mind. Or, as Candace Pert wrote about three decades ago in her book The Molecules of Emotion, “…many memories are stored throughout the body. The body is the unconscious mind!”
The 20th-century education which taught us that the brain is the mind and that both the conscious and subconscious live in the brain is no longer our understanding. Therefore, it generally is a source of amazement to most folks outside of psychology today to learn that body and mind are one in the same.
Knowing this changes everything about our approach to healthcare and makes existing pharmaceutical medicine look quite archaic. Considering that pharmaceutical drugs are treated as toxins by our body, it means that when you take drugs, you are essentially poisoning both your body and your mind. Your bodymind.
The bodymind can take our self-awareness offline in dangerous situations. This happens whenever we experience painful physical or painful emotional trauma. It has been discovered, and as reported by Dr. Bessel Van Der Kolk, that even “when people remember their trauma, their whole frontal lobe goes offline. SO, the whole part of the brain that has to do with thinking, figuring things out, and telling you what’s right and wrong, goes offline. The speech center of the brain goes offline.”
In other words, your self-awareness gets bypassed. You are cut out of the loop.
Unless you can observe that your bodymind has a tendency to take over and bypass your intelligent self-awareness, then you would never have a clue that it happens to you during an argument, or when your pain flares up. Once you learn to become more self-aware of your emotions and thoughts, you can actually catch when it happens and eventually learn to prevent it. Without a self+bodymind relationship, you have no hope of gaining control over these mechanisms.
If you consider that your bodymind has intelligence which is shared but distinctly separate from your self-awareness, it means you should be able to find a way to establish a new or renewed relationship between your self-awareness and your bodymind. It means you shouldn’t feel stupid for talking to yourself; perhaps you’re talking to the intelligence you share with the 37 trillion cells which keep you alive.
In fact, learning to separate self from bodymind is the basis for many teachings and the concept has been around for thousands of years. You shouldn’t consider it as something which is new and untested. Some schools of thought even encourage you to take on the perspective of an observer of yourself: watch your thoughts and behaviors as though you were outside of the experiences and immune to their effects.
This is not a perspective you should expect to have as a result of reading this article. Instead, you should treat your life as an experiment, absorbing new information and testing it to find out whether it works for you or not. Keep whatever works, and scrap the rest. Take a few bits and pieces from here and there until you cobble together your own path towards whatever empowers you to believe in yourself.
Learning about our self+bodymind relationship is something we should expect to be learning from now until the day we die. It takes practice and observation. It requires self-awareness, body-awareness, and mind-awareness. It involves a restoration of our meaning in life, personal responsibility, and freedom of choice when it comes to our own self-healing path and personal wellness.
Don’t be surprised to learn that the self+bodymind relationship will require your patience. It requires learning compassion for yourself despite your circumstances. It requires reconnecting with your heart, and if you need some inspiration on how to do that, watch the movie: The Power of the Heart.
You’ll also need to learn forgiveness – for yourself and others, but mostly for yourself. As well, you’ll need to learn mindfulness and how to be less fearful of your emotions; know that your self-control will improve in direct proportion to your self-awareness. Somewhere along the path, you’ll need to somehow find gratitude for your life and for your existence. And we’re going to need to learn how to trust ourselves and our instincts again.
Of course, you’re going to need to learn awareness and discipline of where you put your attention so that you can stop thinking about everything you hate and spend more time thinking about what you really want for yourself. Finally, you’ll likely need to reinforce your grit and improve your attitude if you expect to have a better relationship with yourself.
Get over yourself and stop feeling sorry for yourself; it’s not going to be easy! However, all of this is possible and it starts with a desire to redefine your understanding of self. It means you need to be willing to learn who the hell you really are.
Are you your own friend, or your worst enemy?
What does it mean to you when you hear about people “waking up” or “being woke?” The concept of enlightenment is not something which should offend you or rub you the wrong way. Neuroscience has proven that we have an animal part of our brain which can override our logical thought processes. It has been referred to as our “lizard brain” or “reptilian brain” and is responsible for our “the fight or flight” behaviors.
This animal mind of ours is responsible for our most illogical behaviors, our addictions, and perhaps even our ego. It’s the reason we lose our minds, lose control, and have meltdowns when our anxiety and pain levels ramp up to steal away our attention. This animal mind can be partially blamed for conflict, war, and crime.
The technical term for this portion of our brain is the amygdala. It has been proven that the amygdala can take our self-awareness offline, completely disconnecting our faculties any time we experience external stimuli which triggers an emotional response. This can even happen when our minds start racing during bouts of anxiety or even when confronted with something as simple as an overwhelming number of tasks.
The ancient part of our brain has kept us alive for most of human history. Now, in a world civilization like the one we find ourselves in today, there’s less reason for us to behave like animals towards each other and every reason to learn how to love. Hatred may even come from the animal brain, but everyone agrees that love always comes from the heart.
Without learning to love ourselves, to understand ourselves, then there’s no possible hope that we could ever heal ourselves or experience relief from our suffering. It requires a change of mind and a change of heart if we’re going to take back control of our lives and learn to live with ourselves again.
By encouraging us to “wake up,” we’re encouraging people to be more aware. True awareness would imply having a conscious control over yourself at all times; this includes conscious control of your body, your mind, your reactions, your thoughts, your viewpoints, your opinions, your external influences, the strength of your bonds with family and friends, your expectations, your communication, etc.
Having that kind of awareness may be called “enlightenment” by some. Here at TheBodyIsMind.com, we believe that kind of awareness is vital to everyone on the path to self-healing.
If you suffer from chronic pain or illness, you should be doing everything within your power to improve your self, body, mind relationship. Even folks who have outlived a terminal diagnosis never give up the fight to live. And if you don’t think your life is worth living, then perhaps you might find some inspiration over in the Belief, Meaning & Purpose section on this website.
If you suffer from severe war-time-induced PTSD, it is absolutely vital that you deal with your trauma using 21st-century technologies such as floatation therapy, clinical ACT, clinical CBT, mindfulness, and biofeedback. It will be near impossible to rekindle belief in yourself and finding meaning in life without dealing with your trauma head-on. It’s possible to heal, but covering up the pain with drugs is unlikely to get you there.
This website can help introduce you to dozens of things you could be trying to help eliminate your nightmares and heal your PTSD. The godfather of psych drugs, Dr. Bessel Van Der Kolk, has this to say: “Turned out Yoga was a more effective treatment for PTSD than any medication any of us have ever studied.” Hear more from his discussion about how to detoxify the body from trauma.
If you aren’t receiving the care you need from the VA, you need to demand it. Ask for EMDR therapy, ask for clinical ACT or even biofeedback. These alternatives are available within the Veteran’s national healthcare system, so you need to ask.
If the only “care” you are receiving is a maximum prescription for every drug on the market, then you need to learn about the dangers of drug toxicity. Seek help from your primary physician or mental health providers to ramp down prescriptions and replace them with therapy and other forms of self-care which can help you get out of the hellish situation you find yourself in.
In fact, finding yourself again is the only way you can expect to find your mental health and physical wellness. The most practical way for that to happen is for you to take your health into your own hands and discover a self-directed path towards healing rather than relying entirely upon your doctor. They do not “know it all” by any means, so don’t rely too heavily upon anyone but yourself!
The promise of medical marijuana to help veterans heal PTSD may be a reason for you to move to a state where it is legal… so don’t dismiss that possibility. Also look into Ketamine and EMDR therapies.
Meet the Mighty 25: Influencers Supporting the Military Community in 2018
Every living person on this planet has suffered in one form or another. That’s part of the dichotomy of life; without suffering, how would we know joy and elation? Without pain, how could we be humble? Without learning from the school of hard knocks, how could we ever experience personal growth?
Your pain may not be optional, but your suffering is. Take a look out there in the world and if you look hard enough, you’ll see inspirational folks who have lost everything and still somehow manage to recover well enough to go out and make a positive impact on their world.
If you need some examples of people who have overcome all odds, check out multiple cancer survivor and author Anna Renault, or veteran Johnny Joey Jones who lost both his legs after an IED exploded under him and still finds it within himself to give back in a positive manner. Or read about Army veteran Tony Drees who survived the deadliest Scud missile attack of the Desert Storm war in 1991 and endured 74 surgeries before losing his right leg in 2018, now an inspiration to others through his work as a motivational speaker and life transition expert.
You, friend, can re-engage with life and learn to live with yourself again!
The fundamental basis of this website is that the journey starts with the seven steps offered as part of The Self-Healing Path. Find where you’re starting on the seven-step path, then visit the Ultimate Healing Guide and allow your interest to guide you.
Below are some additional resources to help you on your way.
Optimize.Me – The Ultimate Self, One Thought At A Time
https://www.optimize.me
Everyone Should Experience THE POWER OF THE HEART Movie
http://www.thepoweroftheheart.com/
A Seven-Step Prescription for Self-Love: Self-love is an action not a state of feeling good
https://www.psychologytoday.com/
How to Cultivate More Self-Compassion: Learning to be kind to yourself.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/
Why Self-Compassion Trumps Self-Esteem:
Researcher Kristin Neff reveals the benefits of going easy on yourself: less anxiety, less conflict, and more peace of mind.
https://greatergood.berkeley.edu
9 Ways To Have A Better Relationship With Yourself, No Matter What
https://www.bustle.com
Your Body and Mind Relationship, Revealed
https://www.huffingtonpost.com
Is Your Mind Separate From Your Body? How mind-body beliefs shape your choices and influence your health.
https://www.psychologytoday.com
Kokoro: The Japanese word connecting mind, body, and spirit is also driving scientific discovery
https://qz.com
Healing, Hope & Guidance for the Warrior’s Spirit from Britta Reque-Dragicevic
https://lifeafterwar.org
Mindfulness and Self-compassion in Returning War Veterans: Relationships with PTSD Symptom Severity and Functional Disability.
http://www.istss.org/
Meet the Mighty 25: Influencers Supporting the Military Community in 2018
https://www.wearethemighty.com/
Your Body Believes Every Word You Say: The Language of the Bodymind Connection
Revised and Expanded Edition Paperback – October, 2000
by Barbara Hoberman Levine (Author), Bernie Siegel (Contributor)
The MindBody Code: How to Change the Beliefs that Limit Your Health, Longevity, and Success
Paperback – September 24, 2013
by Mario Martinez (Author), Christiane Northrup (Foreword)
The Mindbody Prescription: Healing the Body, Healing the Pain
Paperback – October 1, 1999
by John E. Sarno M.D. (Author)
The Float Tank Cure: Free Yourself From Stress, Anxiety, and Pain the Natural Way
Paperback – August 6, 2015
by Shane Stott (Author)
Real Love: The Art of Mindful Connection
Hardcover – June 6, 2017
by Sharon Salzberg (Author)
Be Here Now
Paperback – October 12, 1971
by Ram Dass (Author)
The Mastery of Self: A Toltec Guide to Personal Freedom
Paperback – September 1, 2017
by don Miguel Ruiz Jr. (Author)
Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness
Paperback – September 24, 2013
by Jon Kabat-Zinn (Author), Thich Nhat Hanh (Preface)
Bodymind
Paperback – April 1, 1986
by Ken Dychtwald (Author)