Three Part Harmony of Our Being

It's hard to be in our bodies. We find countless ways to escape...television, drugs, alcohol, work, sex, shopping, thinking about the past, thinking about the future...even religion. They all can be forms of escapism. And our bodies--well, we ourselves--are constantly trying to get us back in.

I'm lying here in bed, sick. My body aches, my head hurts and I feel like I could sleep all day. I feel like it's my body's way of saying "come back home." It's a way of forcing me to be in my body because I am feeling and experiencing discomfort. I can't escape it. If I try, it will most likely linger or get more intense. We're smart like that.

Being human, being embodied, is challenging. All that feeling, all those aches and pains, both physical and emotional are sometimes difficult to bear. It's easier to find something to take us out of all that. Or to imagine that if we suffer, we'll be rewarded later for it.

My belief is that we really are a three-part being: physical, mental, spiritual. Feeling, thought, energy. The first two are obvious and accepted while the third one is up for debate. Since our experiences inform our views, our filter of the world and thus our beliefs, I can tell you that for me, the third component is not in question. It is. And it is also my belief that all three must be integrated to be healthy.

It seems to me that our society is fragmented into those three extremes. There is so much information that would have you believe that your brain is everything...it is the center of all and if you can learn to control or work with that, see things through that lens, you'll be able to solve any problem. Other sources would have you believe it's God or some outside force...that if you just connect with that, believe in that, you'll be saved. The third element, the feeling or emotional element, gets less focus, but there are sources that would say it's all about feeling and what gets stuck in the body as a result of your emotional development or lack thereof and if you can discover, unlock those secrets you'll be happy.

What is overlooked is the way in which all of these elements work together. All perspectives are valid. If we look at illness as physical...that's true. If we look at it as emotional...that's true, too. If we look at it as spiritual or energetic, that's true. They feed off each other, they are reflections of each other...they are each other.

If we accept what science tells us, we know that energy cannot be created or destroyed. So when our bodies die, that energy goes somewhere...it exists without the body. I couldn't tell you whether it goes to the sky or into another body or whether or not it holds memories or impressions. I have my own ideas about that but really, I don't know. And I'm okay not knowing.

If we humans view the world through only a mental or spiritual lens, we are operating and using only the top quarter of our bodies. We are disconnected from 3/4 of our being. By believing that thought and logic and facts are the only valid way to learn, to interpret...well, that's our brain. All of our energy is focused there. By believing that something outside of us, something out in the sky or the air is the only way to exist or get information, it takes us out of our bodies altogether. Not only that, but it takes the power out of our own hands. Religion would have you believe that humans have no power, that earth is just a place to be endured or suffered until you can go to Heaven. No wonder we're so detached from our environment, our earth, and everything on it. We're not experiencing it because we're existing only in the top 1/4 of our bodies. And we're not feeling.

When I was a child, I used to be called "sensitive", "dramatic", "overly emotional". My parents are wonderful people so this is not a judgment on them--I just don't think they understood the depth of feeling I had. To be fair, I don't think most people did. I think because I felt so misunderstood my emotions just escalated in an attempt to convey how much I really did feel. All this did was enforce the "dramatic" label and take me out of my own body.

Looking back now, I think I experienced so much sensation, such intense feeling because my parents did not. And on a larger scale, the super-sensitive, emotional people of the world are somehow trying to offset the detached, strictly-logical people of the world because there is always a balance. Humans are living longer, overpopulating while certain animal species are going extinct. There are haves and have-nots. There are the desensitized and the sensitive and everything in between.

But emotions are a way of being in the body. Sometimes they can be so intense that we want to be anywhere but our bodies. I have had that experience before, the feeling of wanting to disappear. It is the feeling, the emotional component of our beings that is the least appreciated or valued in our world. It is a bad thing to make emotional decisions. It is socially unacceptable to express emotions outwardly. It is a sign of weakness to be affected by your feelings. Wow, no wonder I wanted to escape my body---everything around me told me that what I was experiencing was invalid.

To be fully in our bodies, energetically speaking, we have to be able to accept all aspects of our being. We have to let ourselves feel what is going on inside, let ourselves feel our own emotions (positive or negative) and take ownership of them. Even the ones we think of as ugly or dark. We have to accept our own humanity, which is more than a body and brain (though of course those are important parts). We are feeling, sensing beings, too. We are heart and soul. We are body, mind and spirit. Being authentic is acknowledging and living them all, simultaneously.