Frames and States of Mind/Body

Why is it that when I am under the pressure of creative deadlines, my body starts to act up? Why is my mind clearer and more focused after I work out? Why do we insist that mind and body are separate entities, anyway?

Morris Berman, in Coming to our Senses (1988), claims that human beings experience two births--the birth of the body and the birth of the body image (self-consciousness). The former separates us from our mother, the latter separates us from ourselves. We are divided, alienated, jarred loose from the at-one-ness that we experienced before we saw ourselves as fundamentally separated from everything we experience. True enough. Our culture certainly disposes us to live this way. But the at-one-ness, as he recounts in his "somatic history," has not ALWAYS been lost and CAN be re-found. The key, as Zen masters insist, is complete immersion in the work at hand. Meditative practice is seen by many westerners as something interesting but fundamentally time-wasting. What's the point of turning off our multi-tasking, entangled mental processes and focusing on the somatic input of THIS moment?We might lose our way and get stuck in the present!

Wordsworth insisted that we can cultivate a "wise passiveness" (I'd prefer "wise attentiveness" since even this is purposeful and "active" in important ways) which connects us to the possibilities that surround us. When sitting and trying to attain inner silence, when washing the dishes, when interacting with others, we can cultivate a stance of listening and involvement rather than separation and judgment. But it takes real effort to do so. The practice of focusing our minds and involving ourselves patiently in work that may never end is renewing and revitalizing. That is why many people work out, or run, or walk. Why they need quiet space. Why they enjoy building and making things and doing things with full involvement.

Our body state effects our mental capacity and the quality of our ideation. Our mental frames and states of mind effect our bodies. Where does one end and the other begin, anyway?