The connection of the mind, emotions, and spirit within the body is the key to total health. It has been said many times before that we are far more than our physical bodies. The physical body is as dependent on our mentality, emotions, and spiritual connections as these aspects are dependent upon the functions of our physical body. Without a brain we would have no mind to think with, likewise, without a mind our brain would be nothing more than a machine. “Emotion” is not only how you feel, but the “energy in motion.” Therefore, good emotion is essential to an energetic life. Furthermore, the very essence of life is more than our bodily functions, but something more magical and lofty. The essence is inside our body and dependent (at least in this life) on our body. Simultaneously, our body cannot live without this life force. Therefore, maintaining health within all aspects of our life is necessary in order for us to be truly healthy.

Health, according to Oriental Medicine, is the process of making yourself whole and maintaining this holistic state. In fact, Lorena Monda writes in her book Practice of Wholeness that in Oriental Medicine “the body and mind have never been seen as separate.” Monda goes on to write, “All illnesses have physiological, emotional, mental, and spiritual components, just as all human experience is a simultaneous experience of body, emotions, mind, and spirit.” In this system of thinking Monda says, “The person is viewed as whole, not separate in any way from his or her body, feelings, thoughts, or spiritual nature.” To be healthy one must not focus too much on any one aspect of the being. Nourishing, exercising, and blessing one’s body, mind, heart, and soul is the basis of holistic health.

In the book Achieving the Mind-Body-Spirit Connection the author Brian Luke Seaward explains these four aspects of the self when he writes, “Ageless wisdom shared by the sages and mystics of all times reveals that health is composed of the integration, balance, and harmony of four unique aspects: mind, body, spirit, and emotions, in which the whole (often expressed in the form of a circle) is always greater than the sum of the parts.” There are four seasons, the four directions represented in the Native American prayer wheel, and these four quadrants: body, mind, emotions, and spirit. Each must be balanced, healthy, and connected to the others to be whole.

This connection of the body, mind, emotions, and spirit goes beyond health into the simple act of existence. “Humanness is the simultaneous experience of the body, emotions, mind and spirit,” writes Lorena Monda in The Practice of Wholeness. The outer and inner realms of our being must be recognized and nourished. “When we nourish both our unique inner world and our interaction with the outer we may find a balance, a state of being which is neither too inturned nor over active,” writes Katya Bloom in Moves. This balance of outer and inner can be achieved in movement. If this state is achieved by movement then Bloom says that “energy from ourselves can flow outwards and energy from without can flow in.” Then we become not only connected to all aspects of ourselves but also to the rest of life.

One of the most important processes to make one whole or healthy is movement or physical exercise. With exercise a person can become healthier, more mentally agile, happier, and have a closer connection to spirit. It also allows you to be present in the ever changing moment. “Being present in movement,” writes Eric N. Franklin in Conditioning for Dance, “means experiencing the moment-to-moment changes in shape and dynamics in every part of the body during the whole exercise.” Exercise can connect the four aspects of your being in the moment while your body achieves better fitness.

Fitness in a physical sense involves many aspects within itself such as agility, balance, flexibility, coordination, muscular strength, muscular endurance, reaction time, and speed. Lack of physical exercise promotes a greater lack, while more exercise will allow you to have more energy to do more exercise. “Being aerobically conditioned gives you more mental and physical stamina,” writes Eric N. Franklin in Conditioning for Dance (2004). He also states that such mind-body exercises will establish more “strength, balance, flexibility, alignment, and imagery,” which in unison create a “balanced whole.”

Every different person needs a different way to exercise, but luckily there are endless ways. The key to exercise is not to focus only on one part of the physical body, but on the entire being. To achieve a total workout one must not only exercise the body, but also the mind, positive emotions, and the soul’s spiritual connection to the higher energies. Even if you think you are too unhealthy and no good at any type of exercise, you can still excel. “The beauty of being really bad at something,” writes John Bingham in his book No Need for Speed, “Is that you can get better with almost no work.” Besides, “We cannot strive toward something that we already are,” as Donna Farhi writes in Yoga Mind, Body, & Spirit. This course will help you get better at exercising by exploring the different types of exercise and how each can be used in a way that will exercise the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual bodies or the entire being.

Course Continued…