Additionally, we already know 1) that the body intelligence can override our self-awareness, and 2) that our self-awareness can override the body systems which normally operate on auto-pilot.

For example, when we’re startled our body jumps in readiness to flee because our body intelligence can react faster than conscious thought. On the other hand, we can selectively take conscious control of our breathing, which happens whether we think about it or not. But many other autonomous body systems can also be consciously controlled.

We start with the assumption is that our intelligence includes the body, mind, and self-awareness together as parts of the whole package. Three inseparable parts, one unified whole. There’s nothing unusual about this concept, and it’s been around since the dawn of humanity. However, the eternal struggle between our self-awareness and our bodymind subconsciousness is the unseen relationship between self+bodymind we aim to define.

In the dictionary, the English definitions for the word “mind” make the subject very confusing. This confusion of our language has permeated into our culture, into our science, into our schools, and into our definition of self.

Dictionary definitions for mind include: the faculty of consciousness and thought; a person’s intellect; a person’s memory; a person’s attention; and the will.

The confusion is real. The jumble of the word’s meaning makes it nearly impossible to talk about the difference between self and mind. It’s chaotic to have such uncertainty about a basic word everyone uses to describe a facet of our existence. There’s no clear-cut answer to the question, “What is the mind?”

The definition of the word “mind” is so encumbered with multiple meanings it makes the word almost useless. It’s mystifying; a word which perhaps no one understands. We don’t understand it because there’s seemingly no good way to describe the mind which works for all schools of thought.

To put it another way, mind means something different depending upon the context. Why is that? Our language is that way for a lot of words, but none of such paramount importance. The fact remains, as we previously established, that the self, body, and mind are all one complete system of components which are inextricably linked, like Kool-Aid after being mixed.

The entry in Wikipedia says, “The mind is a set of cognitive faculties including consciousness, perception, thinking, judgement, language and memory. It is usually defined as the faculty of an entity’s thoughts and consciousness.”

So how can we talk about separation of self from thoughts if both thoughts and consciousness are part of the same mind? This is the dichotomy of life. Seemingly, nothing exists without its opposite. There be no good without evil, day without night, the seen without the unseen, or mind without body.

We consider the body is something that we have. We have a body. The mind is no different. If we think of these things as possessions, it becomes easier to talk about self as the owner. Easy, right?

Thus, we have paved the way to talk about self-awareness as separate from mind-awareness as distinct from body-awareness. We have enabled a method to discuss how self can affect the body and the mind, and how the body and the mind can affect the self.

If these three things – self, body, mind – are collapsed into themselves together as an inseparable glob for you, it’s really going to help to learn how to start opening these concepts into separate things again, especially for the purpose of analysis and contemplation in regards to your health. They are separate things which are part of a whole. Without any one part, there can be no whole. It’s simple math. You are self+bodymind.

We agree there are seen aspects of ourselves (our body) and unseen aspects of ourselves (our mind). People can see our body, but they can’t see our thoughts. The only means we have to exchange thoughts is through communication of one form or another. Interesting, then, that we can push each other around physically or mentally. Thus, there are seen and unseen forces too.

It is also said that 96 percent of the universe is made of stuff astronomers can’t see, detect or even comprehend. While it might be a stretch of the imagination, wouldn’t it be amazing if the human existence consisted of 96 percent unseen stuff we can’t describe or fully understand?

Consider if our existence were a balance of fifty percent seen material, and fifty percent unseen? This would imply that our mind, thoughts and self-awareness had as much to do with our experience in life as our body. This would necessitate we spend at least as much time cultivating the invisible part of ourselves as we spend working on the outside, right?

Thus, it’s not a “woo woo” thing to become more self-aware through introspection. It’s a requirement for relief from pain and suffering. Turns out that the Eastern cultures have been practicing self-awareness for thousands of years, and the West has not. It’s a dichotomy, another example of opposites.

Here’s another dichotomy for you: the only path towards self-healing and away from misery is through the bodymind, and there are as many paths towards self-healing and away from misery as there are people on this planet. The path towards healing is the path to find self. We each must find our own path, and the journey for each of us lies always in the direction of increasing self-awareness.

Since the best way to get at the mind is through the body, you may consider starting off with the Body-Awareness section of The Ultimate Healing Guide. Of course, mind-awareness and body-awareness are interconnected and one cannot be improved without improving the other. #TheBodyIsMind

We’re also able to talk about self, body, and mind without reference to religion or God; this does not mean we are espousing or discounting the existence of God or the value of religion to our culture. This website is not the place for that. However, there can be no denying that our culture and our thoughts have been heavily influenced by religion and politics, whether we like it or not. So, the good and bad from religion and politics are not being disregarded as much as being set aside to help prevent language and beliefs from getting in the way of our discussion about how the body is mind. Life is in you, and you are in life. Agreed?

The word “spiritual” has a connotation to be in reference to “the unseen” aspects of ourselves. If we can’t use “spiritual” without offending your sensibilities, then you’ll probably find your path somewhere other than this website. It’s our understanding that there are spiritual atheists. People are all over the spectrum and every possible combination of personality and belief exists because we live in an infinite universe of possibilities. The word spiritual also implies an unseen connection between people or groups of people, between states and nations. Then the word love comes to mind.

“Research on the biology and neurobiology of pain has given us a relationship between spirituality and pain. There is growing recognition that persistent pain is a complex and multidimensional experience stemming from the interrelations among biological, psychological, social, and spiritual factors. ” The National Institutes of Health – Spirituality and Religion in Pain and Pain Management

Other undeniable dichotomies exist within our world: the stark differences between the cultures of the East and the West, or the Past and the Present. Eastern cultures have embraced mindfulness practices for eons. And the mind-body connection was known thousands of years ago in Rome when Seneca wrote about the Healing Power of the Mind in his 78th letter to Lucilius back in the 1st century: 

If your soul be habitually in practice, you will plead and teach, listen and learn, investigate and meditate. What more is necessary? Do you think that you are doing nothing if you possess self-control in  your illness? You will be showing that a disease can be overcome, or at any rate endured. A man can display bravery even when wrapped in his bed-clothes. You have something to do: wrestle bravely with disease. Seneca, Moral Letter No. 78

Thus it’s bewildering that the “discovery” of a body-mind connection would come as a revelation or surprise to our Western culture. The mind cannot exist without body, and the mind permeates every cell of the human body. The brain is the awareness-processing command center and is a part of the body. And while self is also considered a part of the whole, it remains unseen and cannot be physically separated.

The self, however, can be perceived as being separated from mind through mindfulness practices. In fact, learning to separate self from mind is what mind-awareness is all about. We do not need to make reference to Eastern philosophies or religion when talking about the nature of self (although it doesn’t hurt).

One reason Buddhism fascinates so many people is that it’s one of the oldest schools of thought in regards to our two minds. Though why the idea of having two minds should be a foreign concept to us today, especially within Western medicine, is difficult to understand – considering we’ve known about conscious vs. subconscious since Freud popularized the concept with his development of psychotherapy.