The idea of the integrity of the body and mind exists in our minds as a given. Nevertheless, the topic of relationships with one’s own body is one of the most controversial for a modern person, psychotherapist Tatyana Potemkina is sure.
In ancient civilizations, this contradiction was less. The Latin proverb “A healthy mind in a healthy body” says just that there is no physical health without mental health. Illness (according to Hippocrates) was considered as a disorder in the relationship of a person with the world around him.
With the development of civilization and Christian culture, there was an increasing separation of bodily and spiritual life. Reason has become the god of modern civilized man, and rationalization is one of the favorite defenses against spiritual trouble. With the decrease in the importance of physical labor, with the development of technology, and now the Internet and social networks, a person is increasingly turning into a “talking head”, and the narrative becomes more important than the bodily essence.
In this case, the body becomes almost an external object, an instrument for the mind, to achieve the tasks set by the mind. On the other hand, we often treat the body as a source of problems, with mistrust and apprehension.
Most modern women are constantly preoccupied with the topic of their own physicality – weight, appearance. Moreover, from all sides, intrusive advertising inspires us that success and prosperity can be achieved only by shining with eternal youth and having ideal proportions. Sometimes the battle to maintain or create a socially approved body becomes the meaning of life and consumes a lot of energy.
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- Learn to talk to your body
In medicine, the “objectification” of the body has reached, perhaps, its climax. Many internists treat the body, but not the person with his feelings and thoughts. They will gladly prescribe you a pill “for the head” or “for the stomach,” but the doctor cannot give you pills to “repair” your thoughts or emotions. This will have to be done on your own.
Meanwhile, the body is a reflection of our emotional state, the state of our soul, lifestyle, way of thinking, beliefs, values.
Any bodily manifestation – tension, a change in sensitivity, unusual sensations (for example, pain, cold, warmth, emptiness, bursting) or trouble can be called signals that the body sends to a person in response to the perception of what is happening to him and around him.
The signals of our body are a response to emotions that arise in us, not so much as a direct reaction to the events of life, but in response to our thoughts on this matter. The more destructive the emotions, the less they are adequate to the external event, the more clearly the signals sent to the consciousness by the body. Through bodily problems, the soul lets us know that something is going wrong in our life, that our thoughts or values and beliefs cause painful, destructive emotions (anger, fear, shame, resentment, despondency) and do not correspond to the true needs of our personality, our soul.
To be able to listen to your body, to understand its language, to be aware of the cause of the emotions that bodily signals cause, is an objective way to find your way in life, to understand yourself and the world around you.