Body, Mind, Soul and Spirit
by N*I*N Sharyn Bebeau
Jesus said, “I am before the time of Abraham.” The everlasting spirit within him, and within all of us, the animating spark of life, is eternal. We are souls having the experience of being human.
Carl Jung, a profoundly wise man, traveled the world and found one ocean of collective needs and drives coursing through all humanity. Love and striving, loss and sadness - the same themes echo through all the people of Gaiea, from the African Pygmy to the American rocket scientist. Life force, consciousness, chi, a fountainous flow from the heart of God(dess) animates all humanity.
Mother Earth, Gaiea, is the bedrock of our existence. Summer, fall, winter, spring, morning, noon and night, the cycles of Gaiea unfold in a predictable rhythmic pattern. Likewise, the soul has its tides, its ripples ruffling our lives. Consciousness, chi, the animating spark, or whatever you would like to call it, flows through you and every part of your life. Inside you, it stimulates your innate tides, the highs and lows you encounter daily. Outside you, this stream rides upon the breath, subtly radiating a force that draws experiences into your life.
Imagine pebbles dropped in a pond, and the waves that reverberate out to the shores. The same pattern, repeated again and again, carries a message to the whole and to all of its parts. As the waters of life pour through us and our minds sparkle with consciousness, our body fluids flow freely, carrying air, nourishment and chi to every cell, and protectively washing away debris. If fear, doubt, pain or disappointment have dammed up the natural flow, then illness, boredom and helplessness can result.
Consciousness and its offspring, thinking intelligence, pour through the psyche and take on the style of the host. When you express your intelligence or take an action, life force emanates from you. Anger can sharpen it, and depression can dull it, but energy is being radiated and exchanged.
Consciousness always takes the form of the vessel containing it. The mind sees the world through its beliefs, whether pessimistic, optimistic, pragmatic or religious. Each belief is a lens that bends and perhaps distorts one’s view. Good luck, bad luck, misfortune and success: each lens reflects a different perspective on raw events.People bend the natural flow of energy to conform to their personal or collective beliefs.
Beliefs mold and control the flow of energy through the body. Fears, doubts and all such psychic debris are stored in your cells. Peptides, the messengers that carry information between the cells, mark your traumas in your body. The style of your walk, the tilt of your toe, the unique shape of you was formed by obstacles that curtailed the flow of energy moving through. Push on a sensitive spot and a memory pops out, often wrapped in an emotion.
The rippling tides surge through you, flowing outward as your moods and appetites, and drawing to you the vast array of experiences you log as your story. The same sublime intelligence shines from every cell in your body. It raises your arm, births a child, and makes your decisions. This same raw life force animates the birds on the wing and the frogs that sing. All that exists on this little planet is composed of earth, air, fire and water, plus innumerable mixtures of these four. All that lives was born, and will die - the threefold dance of life. Birth is the beginning; then growth, maturation, disintegration, and finally death.
The body and mind are vessels for the soul. Our world has long been whipped by warrior frenzies and a ubiquitous disregard for the sacredness of life, leaving a residue of suffering and epidemic distrust. The disappointments of forgotten ghosts still echo through our lives and puppet our causes. Hearts locked in retribution spit out endless regulations to limit others. Thus discontent is burned into our cultures, and sorrow becomes the common lot.
Taboos and traditions may offer restrictive beliefs which mangle and manipulate the expression of the life force. When narrow minds put fences around doctrine and pretzel people into conformity, the spirit shrivels. True, we need guidelines to direct our lives. However, hard and fast laws and controlling customs:
ignore the uniqueness of circumstances,
disregard intent,
discount emotional factors,
are blind to governing beliefs,
disdain natural hungers,
deny the environmental factors molding personality,
and restrict the psyche’s natural flow.
This leaves an energetic block, damming the flow and causing energy to accumulate. The accumulated energy becomes a magnetic force drawing experiences and people into your life. Releasing blocked energy in the body removes pain; opening the heart relinquishes loneliness; and surrendering to the Divine Source within you invites transcendence.
An open mind is healthy. Through it surges creativity. The natural flow vitalizes and fertilizes the mind with new ideas. The more consciousness is allowed to flow, the more adventurous and creative the mind. A natural intelligence illuminates the personality.
One ocean of life force, chi, or consciousness flows through body, mind, soul, and spirit. All parts of us echo a set of tides. Breath, body and consciousness are intimately entwined. Changing one sends ripples out to the others which automatically conform. To change one automatically changes the other. Fear in the mind strangles the throat. Trusting life, oneself, and others opens the heart and constellates opportunities. And a deep breath softens it all. Slow breathing lowers your heartbeat and calms your emotions.
Health and wholeness are the quest of our time, a hard won prize in this time of change. The collective soul of all humanity pours through every level of our being. We are one interconnected human race, part of one interdependent biosphere of ecological harmony, so easily disrupted and so terribly neglected in the race for power and possession.
Wellness is a receptive mind, a supple body and a holistic spirit which feels connected to all that lives. When we tap into Source, support life, make life-affirming decisions, and work to discharge all the toxins we have inherited, we find ourselves on the road to wholeness, carving a path that others can follow.