How Mind Shapes Body

The mind’s influence on the body

Absurdus is a free Tuesday newsletter about life’s absurdities. If you like what you see, consider supporting it financially. For €7/mo (or a reduced, annual price), you’ll gain access to the audiobook version of my short stories, as well as exclusive articles and member-only short stories. I am active in the comment section, so if you have any questions, don’t be shy to ask them there! Thank you for your support! 

---

Last week I picked up Alexander Lowen’s psychoanalytical book Fear of Life, and though I still have some ways to read, there is one theme I’d like to expand on already: the impact our internal chemistry has on our physique. As someone who has struggled against my body since my early adolescence, I know, intuitively, that my internal wellbeing and has an effect on my external, and vice-verse. But how much of my intuition is true?

According to Lowen, our body doesn’t simply reflect our character, it also actively shapes it. A healthy body has a tremendous impact on our mental welfare. Without consistent exercise, proper breathing, and a nutritious diet, our bodies will always function under its higher potential. Lowen particularly emphasizes the importance of breathing, an area which many, including myself, forget about in light of eating well and exercising. Though we, as human beings, all have one thing in common, namely that we breathe, few of us do it properly. Lowen states that the only way to breathe well is predominantly through the nose and less through the mouth, and into the stomach and not the chest.

Albert has zero fear of life

Humans possess two, seemingly, inherent deficiencies. One is a weak connection to the earth beneath our feet, and two is a general discomfort within our skin which inhibits us to move with spontaneity and grace. Let me expand on the first point. We are probably the least grounded era in history. One look at our screen-time and we’ll see that we spend most of our time glued to our screens — our minds distracted, our bodies entirely ignored. A high screen-time means less real-world time. Our inability, or rather, our disinterest in grounding ourselves has left us disoriented and tired. We cannot possibly feel empowered after spending hours scrolling through the cultivated lives of others. Contrast this with the feeling you get after a long walk outside, and you’ll understand the difference. Whereas one leaves you in a state of floating confusion, the other places your feet on solid, steady terrain, and gives you a sense of weightiness which grounds you back into reality.

As I stated in a previous article, Nietzsche used to go for extensively long walks to keep his sanity. According to him we ought to: “sit as little as possible; do not believe any idea that was not born in the open air and of free movement – in which the muscles do not also revel… Sitting still… is the real sin against the Holy Ghost.” As you might remember, Nietzsche endured some severe mental and physical pain throughout his life. His health was in such a state of decline that doing anything at all felt like a burden. However, instead of withdrawing from the world, he “(did) ten hours a day of hermits’ walking.” And though he might not have faced the same threat as the modern man and his technology, there is something to say about his approach. He turned to physical activity to change and challenge his body, instead of distracting his mind through excess drinking or opium usage (which was the status-quo during that period). In Thus Spoke Zarathustra he continued: “There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophy.”

Many of us do not take care of our bodies because we are unsatisfied with ourselves, and, for whatever reason, do not believe we deserve health. When one is excessively self-conscious of their body, it leaves a scar on their character and disrupts their ability to enjoy social interactions. Bodily dissatisfaction creates an obsessive connection to it, which, in the long run, inhibits it from all spontaneous movement. We become rigid and graceless.

There is no denying that societal beauty standards are largely to blame. In order to become satisfied with our physical selves we must abandon these ideals which are largely impossible to attain. One mental shift that has helped me is replacing how my body looks, with how my body feels. Instead of looking in the mirror, I shake my legs and arms and ask myself: do my muscles hurt, do they feel strong, tired? Nietzsche deemed that a powerful body is all one must strive for: “What is good? – All that heightens the feelings of power, the will to power, power itself in man.”

We can increase our physical power by doing somatic activities. These include building things, painting, sculpting, dancing, learning how to play a sport, etc. Essentially anything that makes use of the body in a healthy manner and anything that will exasperate our vigor to live life. In slow processions, our bodies will become less of a vehicle which carries us through life, and instead will transform into the source wherefrom we can enjoy our life.

Aiming for bodily power instead of society’s bodily ideal offers a path out of our extreme dissatisfaction with the self. Instead, we can create comfort within ourselves, which will not only change the chemistry of our body in general, but also our mind and the perception we hold of the world at large. According to Lowen in Fear of Life, as long as we breathe properly and exercise well, and place our two feet firmly on the solid ground, we can create a coherent collaboration between the body and mind which will, in the long run, lead to a further satisfaction with the self. A conflicting relationship between the two will cause a civil war within the self out of which one seldom, if ever, arises victorious.