As Mindful Biology began to take shape in my Life, I began by correcting unhealthy patterns. I did my best to replace criticism of my body with appreciation, punishment with nourishment, and commanding with listening. I began to treat my body less like a device and more like a beloved. Before long, I grew aware of my bodyâs profound intelligence and began to place myself in its hands.
Mindful Biology encourages us to stop resisting the body and start serving it, to stop fearing and start trusting it. We strive toward an ideal: depending on the body for intuition and support, while doing our best to keep it safe amidst the complexities of modern life.
The body did not evolve in technological landscapes; it lacks instincts for roadways and computer systems. But if we want to choose a mate or find a calling, the bodyâwith its ancient wisdomâknows best. As we transition from healing our wounded mind-body relationship to building a trusting bond, we can unburden the mind of tasks it performs poorly. The intuitive body can make the big decisions about people to love and values to pursue, while the rational mind can manage the designing, scheduling, and strategizing.
Whatâs more, the body is the mindâs base of operations. Like a child who explores the world with confidence when she feels secure in her motherâs love, the mind can negotiate adulthood with ease and purpose when it trusts its bodyâs support. When we recognize our secure base in the body, we feel less insecure in our relationships and less insistent in our desires. We discover that an improved mind-body relationship corrects deficiencies in our attachment style.
Improving our friendship with our bodies can be understood as a sequence. It begins with a close look at how weâve learned to treat our bodies like possessions, like complex biological robots. MindfulBiology, of course, considers the body a companion to the mind, not a utensil of it. We move from seeing the body as a utensil to knowing it as a friend.
Weâre then well-positioned to repairing wounds and rebuilding trust. We cultivate a happier, more egalitarian relationship between mind and body.
Our society teaches us to relate to the body with a lot of commanding but not much listening. To the extent we learn to monitor bodily sensations, we do so the way we glance at gauges on an instrument panel.Â
Mindful Biology corrects this imbalance. Sometimes we must direct the body, but very often we must listen to it (and not just when its signals grow insistent). As we listen, we learn. We discover how the bodyâs needs often differ from the mindâs. Because we value the body as a friend and care about its health, we take steps to accommodate. We stop resisting.
Whatâs more, as the relationship improves, we realize the body is our best guide to happiness. Immune to cultural messages, the body knows what truly matters to us as individuals. It ignores superficial societal values and helps us uncover our deeper nature. As the bodyâs wisdom becomes obvious, our relationship with it inverts: where once we bossed the body around, we now follow its lead. The mind begins serving the body.
Â
Â