We're Not Our Bodies, Or Our Minds

But We Should Still Probably Take Care of Both

A major breakthrough in my own self-healing journey came many years ago thanks to eastern philosophies such as Buddhism, Taoism and Yoga. It was the realization that I was not my thoughts, rather my thoughts were something I had. I’d long suspected, as many of us on any sort of spiritual path do, that I was not my body. My body is something I have, that someday I won’t have. It’s a physical thing, and I believe myself and everyone else to be, a spiritual thing.

Probably not as obvious, is the idea that we are also not our thoughts. If you feel a resistance to that statement, it’s your thoughts trying to convince you that they are in charge. I can promise you, after many years of meditation, and a handful of moments of actual silence, that our thoughts are just another thing, like our bodies. They don’t really define us, unless we let them.

The basic premise is that we are spiritual beings having a physical experience, and our thoughts and our bodies are the way we interact with the world. Our thoughts help us process what goes on around us, and they keep us alive and well(or unwell) in our physical bodies for as long as they can.

However, once we’ve understood that we are something even deeper than our thoughts, we start to see that we can take or leave our thoughts, change our minds, and find total silence when that best serves us. It takes dedicated practice, but not only is it possible to control your thoughts, it’s actually your natural state. Your true inner self, is in charge, your thoughts are a tool to be used for your benefit. This can come as a relief if you, like myself, often find yourself tortured by repetitive nagging or negative thoughts.

If we accept that we’re not our thoughts, and we’re not our bodies, it can seem pretty easy to want to disregard our minds and our bodies in search of a deeper truth. And people do. There are monks and yogis, living in caves and mountains, denouncing the physical and mental worlds to get closer to their spiritual self. That’s one way to go about it. However I’d argue that it’s not for everyone, and it’s most certainly not for me.

I actually really enjoy having a body, and having a mind. I like being alive, even though in my mid-thirties I still have bouts of deep depression. Generally speaking, being a human is a pretty fantastic thing to be. If a voice in your head is saying otherwise, try to remember, it’s just a thought, it’s a function of your mind and it’s not really who you are. You can choose to let those thoughts go, and instead connect to thoughts that nurture your inner self.

Anyway, my main point is this: even if we’re spiritual beings, we currently live in a physical world, and our minds and bodies can make that experience a lot more enjoyable. They can also make it a lot worse, but I find generally taking care of the mind and body equates to the mind and body taking care of you back. Who knows how long we’re here, we may as well be comfortable and happy more often than not right?

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For more on mind, body and spirit check out my books I Wanna Be Well and The Death of You