The Mind, Body & Soul Trio - Day 13

(Credits - Transformation by Diane Fergurson on MindBodySpiritOdyssey)

Mind, body, and soul; what a curious trio this is. You hear this a lot in mindful circles, 'focus on your mind, body, and soul', or 'connection with mind, body, and soul', but what does that even mean? Today I want to explore the triangle that is formed by mind, body, and soul.

First off, let's look into the etymology of each word. According to Oxford languages, here are the origins of each of the following words:

1) Mind: The origin is Germanic, from Old English gemynd (memory, thought), which comes from an Indo-European root meaning 'resolve in the mind, think'.

2) Body: The origin is Middle English, bodi (body, trunk, torso, chest, height, stature), from Proto-West Germanic bodag, from Proto-Indo-European bewd (to be awake, observe).

3) Soul: The origin is Germanic, from Old English sáwol/sawel, which means 'immortal principle in man'.

OK, so that was good to know.

The way I see it is that if your mind is suffering, you can develop physical symptoms in the body and vice versa, which makes up that mind-body connection that is so talked about. As for the soul, that's a deeper question. If your soul is suffering, your mind and body are both bound to suffer, too. However, while you can identify things that perplex your mind and the things that hurt in your body, how can you possibly identify the pain points in your soul? If we were to take a hint from the etymology of the word 'soul', we'd know that we're dealing with nothing short of the 'immortal principle in man' itself.

However, how many of us can claim to even be aware of this immortal principle that forms a part of our being? Say, even if you do believe in it thanks to religious or spiritual teachings, can you really personally experience the immortal principle before death? Personally, I do believe so. Essentially a spiritual practice, just like physical or mental practice, is what's required for this. So let us try to draw out a triangle and identify at least one practice that we can possibly do each day to address our mind, body, and soul. I have a few suggestions, but feel free to draw out your own unique activity triangle.

Here are my suggestions:

Mind: Write your thoughts down every day, in a physical or a digital journal. This is a great way to clear your mind and help give it the space to make its contents, anxieties, ideas, desires, problems, and even solutions known to you.

Body: Do yoga every day with your breath. It's a great practice to tap into the pain points, strong points, and flexible points in your body by doing it in a free-flowing way where you can breathe into and between the movements to help strengthen, de-stress, and rejuvenate your body.

Soul: Follow a daily prayer or meditation practice, or do both in combination. These will help you create space through breath and/or repetitive chanting/prayer, and hopefully help you tap into the 'immortal principle', where you are no longer just a mind or a body. Another good practice is dream journaling. This can really help clarify what goes on in the space where your mind and body don't hold much power.

So when they say that you should connect with someone that can connect to you on the level of your mind, body, and soul, maybe that means that:

a) they should believe in all three faculties,

b) they should have their own set of practices or ideas and how to connect to all three, &

c) they should hold a desire to connect with you on the mental, physical, and spiritual levels

I think that sounds like a good plan to start out with, and then let us start observing what changes occur as they are felt in our body, mind, and soul.