up:: th.Mind

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20230220115357 | February 20, 2023
#form/6❋internalization

The Body is the Bedrock

The starting point for everything. It seems like for too long there's been a sort of "tyranny" when it comes to mind-body dualism, like there's a sort of assumption in Western culture that naturally, of course the Mind and Body are two separate entities.

But it doesn't seem that way for me. With books like The Body Keeps the Score or My Grandmother's Hands aimed at using bodies as a generative proactive place, rather than as a response-focused, reactive thing to be managed, we can see the dismantling of that sort of thinking.

Your Body is All You Have

If you think about it, every other externality in your life is outside of your control, able to be taken away from you by things that you have limited power over you. The one thing that is inexorable, however, is your bodily autonomy and the ownership thereof (of course, societal situations like American slavery and reproductive rights are different situations).

Fundamentally, one's body will of course change over time, and express itself differently in different circumstances; but it remains the only consistently available resource, one that can be depended upon to be present in every part of your life. This seems so… Obvious, but I think that it has important implications on the role of thinking. To my mind, it means something when I consider that until the day I die, my heart will be doing its best to pump for me, no matter my position; sleeping, waking, standing, sitting, running, walking, through grief and joy, through excitement and boredom. My lungs work, my heart beats, and I am considered alive.

What this means is that your body is equally present in all of your decisions, wants, desires, troubles, and successes. And as said before, it is not merely re-active; much of the time it can actually be quite pro-active, if you learn how to listen and tune in to it.