Humans are made up of soul, mind, and body. The Soul represents our internal force that uses feelings to communicate; mind is also invisible but uses cognition and thinking as a tool of communication; and body is the visible part that is using action to communicate and express who we are.
Each of the parts concerning our beingness is important and has unique way of functioning, communicating and being. It is important for us to listen thus hear what they are trying to tell us related to our life situation, our problems, and related to even some significant clues to solutions. On the other hand, the three parts need to work and operate in harmony so that we can live our lives fully as much as possible.
To be more explicit, soul, using the language of emotions and feelings do not communicate through words or actions. When we feel an emotion, negative or positive, it is the soul’s way of communicating to us that whatever we feel tells us something about what we are experiencing at that moment. Whether it is something that we need to attend to more, or we need to re-consider or even let go of. While you are in the middle of any activity and you feel negative about it, this is the soul’s message to you trying to attract your attention to that so that you can start to see what you might need to do about that activity, sometimes about that person, an event, an encounter, or a career…etc.
On the other hand, mind, using the language of thoughts and ideas, also functions similarly. When we are in the middle of a conversation for example, what are our thoughts, what are some ideas that come to mind? Are they negative or positive? Do they have a functional quality or are they trying to direct our attention to something that we have not considered before? If we have negative thoughts during any encounter, any activity, or an event, what does that mean about our choices which should ideally be conscious and serve a purpose considering our life goals? Using mind this way is very helpful.
Body gives signals through bodily symptoms, reactions, and actions. When you meet someone, or do an activity, how does your body react? Does it react through symptoms? If yes, what are they? Let’s say you are in the middle of a conference and suddenly your body reacts through coughing frequently. You know you were not coughing before the event since you did not have a cold or flu or allergies, at least to your knowledge. However, now you have these symptoms you are experiencing at the middle of this conference. On top of that you start sweating and your hands start to shake now. What does it tell us? And what do these mean for our experience, the meaning of it, the choice of that activity and our involvement in that conference? Is there a deeper meaning to those symptoms?
Through using our mind, body and soul as different but not separate functions of who we are, we are able to get access to a lot of self-knowledge that might lead us to make different decisions, thus choices.
To be able to listen to our minds, souls, and bodies, using awareness as a recreation tool is needed. The first step is always awareness of that which happens. What is happening in our minds, our souls, and our bodies? Coming back to the Ws and Hs from our earlier blogs, the what, when, where, what time & frequency, who, and how components of that which is happening should be our awareness focus. Further, knowing and understanding their unique ways of communication and language, their true function such as reminding, signaling, deeper understanding or healing…etc.
In our first blogs, we have talked about the usefulness of problem definition by using operational definitions as methodological tools to approach our problems. Similarly, if we know the language and communication styles of mind, body, and soul, therefore understand what they might be reminding, signaling, or revealing to us, it would be much easier to use our awareness as a re-creation tool. Something that serves as an enabler to re-create our lives from scratch either through not making certain choices or through making those at the right place and the right time.
While we are trying to solve our problems and even embark on a journey of life recreation, it might now be quite evident that we need to be able to understand the language of mind, soul, and the body. Once we understand the language and what it tries to communicate through our feelings, thoughts, and behaviors, we are able to approach our problems from a very functional perspective thus be able to find our own unique solutions to them. And sometimes
, while trying to find our own solutions, we might need to re-create our lives from scratch through using awareness as a re-creation tool.Kayla Wholey, PhD.