Listening to The Mind or The Body

 

I am sure all of us at some point of time encounter this dilemma in life. For a long time I always listened to my mind lot more. Giving it lot of space, importance and weightage in everything I did. I felt that being competitive and clever meant nurturing the mind, growing the mind and fostering the mind in multiple ways. Hence all the investment in life went into upgrading and cleaning up whatever baggage, resources belonged to the mind. There are also times where I felt less than or inferior to some counterparts and colleagues around me. So all that I did was how do I really improve my intellectual and academic rigour.  It gave me lot of pride in how I was an entity. I nurtured this part of myself for very long time.

Sometime back I went to the mind and body lab called Bindu offered by Sumedhas. It was here that first time I got in touch with my own identity of a person through the body simultaneously. I got in touch with those parts which I hated, parts which I have ignored and parts which were left behind. It was a very intense experience to discover that the body also is very precious part of the self which I have ignored for a long long time.

Then I also went to Vipasana retreat. Here is where I also got in touch with the equality and balance that is required in our mind and hearts about mind and body. Each sensation in the body creates a response at the mind level and it is important that we are able to bring about an equilibrium at the physical and mental level.

So what is it that most of us end up doing in life? For some looking good, presenting oneself good, speaking good and creating a good impression in the world is the primary pull.

For others feeling good, confident whether fat or ugly is the inner voice that one listens to.

So what is that you end up listening to? It is impossible to bring about the exact balance between the demands of the mind and demands of the body. But for every demand there is a price to be paid or gains to be achieved. I need to reflect for myself what is the final outcome of my orientation doing to myself.

When one goes through a disease disorder which pulls one into various directions of only looking at the body. One gets utterly sacred that if one does not do that the disease will take over and one will have to die an ugly death.

 But one also realizes that to be physically healthy the mind also needs to be mentally able, stable and in charge.

Hence, I struggle between two callings The Mind and The Body. What is it that you listen to? They can never be equal. Every life situation throws up different pulls and every pull has a price to be paid.

Author:-Dr. Nayana Shah (Ph.D)

             Director, Manthan

             Ahmedabad 



Comments

  1. UnknownJune 22, 2021 at 11:37 AM

    The callings between mind and body are different at different times. Again "mind" is different than intelligence or academic supremacy. Mind plays tricks and needs to be controlled thru meditation and other techniques. The body is comparatively more honest unless it is tricked by the mind. If you are constant stomach pains, it may be time for a check-up as usually body gives you signals that something is wrong, so listen to your "body", keep your "mind" in check and let your "intellect" guide you in the journey of life. Dipika Rao

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