Body, mind and spirit work together. If any one of these, or more, is injured, then the other parts cannot heal and recover. Just like groups of muscles and tissue act together, such that an injured muscle can be supported by adjacent muscles, and they can lend their strength to the injured part, so can the mind and spirit help the body and vice versa.
However, people’s approach to this paradigm is fragmented. Practitioners and patients, both, see it in fragmented ways. For example, a gym trainer only focuses on physical aspects of the body and builds, trains and fortifies them. Yoga and meditation are taught by a separate set of people to calm and strengthen the mind. The spirit – which means the universal human spirit, which gives courage, will power and resilience – is not taught at all.
Let us look at an example, as to why this approach is faulty. Let us take one of the biggest problems of our times – i.e. stress. We are all stressed out, men and women, young, adolescent, middle aged or old. This we all know. But how does stress affect us? Very clearly it affects our body, mind and spirit. So, if one goes to the gym to deal with all the aches and pains and blockages being caused by stress, stress will still continue to act on the body through the mind and spirit. If one goes, only for yoga and meditation, then any required rehab for injuries to muscles and tissues may not happen and still cause stress. If mind and body are in training, but the spirit is down – that means the patient does not have a spirited attitude to recovery – then mind and body healing will not work either.
Another example. A lot of gym membership may be taken due to worries about weight gain and obesity. People are satisfied with weight loss on the scales, in shirt sizes, and looking slimmer in the mirror. However, weight loss can come from hydration loss, muscle loss or fat loss. Each has a very different effect. Yet, people don’t care how they lose weight as long as the weighing machine records a lower number. Long term weight loss, driven by fat loss, requires the mind and spirit to work together also. If there is anxiety, depression, or lack of belief and determination in the spirit, then weight loss will be only a superficial and short term gain.
On the other hand, a Parkinson patient, who has spent years working on body and mind and spirit in an integrated fashion, through an integrated approach, can walk a 5 km Marathon walk, because the lack in his nervous function is being supported by his mental strength and his strong spirt of resilience. Same with a sciatica patient climbing 2000 feet in a Himalayan trek. The mind supports the muscles by breaking the task into small pieces and convincing the body to achieve “one small step at a time”.
In fact, all human achievement has come from body, mind and spirit working together. Example being Stephen Hawkings. Suffering from Lou Gehrig’s disease he was predicted to live for a few years only. He had a mind which was perhaps the most brilliant mind of our times. This mind was supported by his indomitable spirit to keep the body alive and functioning and to produce the highest fundamentals of science for the benefit of mankind.
We need an INTEGRATED APPROACH, which combines the three energies together. A holistic integral coach who can deal at all three levels for sustained and maximum benefits to those who come to them with their various problems.
In a variety of ailments like diabetes, hypertension, excessive cholesterol, excessive cortisol, fat accumulation and fatty liver problems, knee pain, back pain due to spinal misalignment, spondylitis, surgery of knee, back or hip, an integrated approach of body, mind and spirit can be planned and implemented for holistic recovery.
This is not only about pain relief or cosmetic changes but a fundamental transformative change, which may take a little longer to manifest but will stay with you beyond ageing and decay of body matter.