Like a richly flavored soup that is the product of many ingredients cooking together in the pot over time, our present state of health is the product of many factors–system inputs–interacting with each other over time.
Like a soup whose ingredients are interacting with each other in the pot whether we are aware of it or not, the cooking together of system inputs over time which produces our present state of health do so whether we are conscious of them or not.
The mind-heart and the body are like heads and tails of the same reality. There are different names to describe them, yet they are in fact never not woven together. Can a coin have heads without tails? Can a coin have tails without heads? Exactly. Thus, the mind-heart and the body are never not influencing each other.
The mind is the driver, the body is the vehicle. Of the two, the former is of greater importance. What actions does a vehicle perform without the involvement of the driver?
Worry is a mental-emotional state, a basic and familiar human experience.
There is healthy worry, and there is unhealthy worry.
Unhealthy worry–chronic, persistent, habitual, unskillful–is a root condition favoring pain and suffering in both the mind-heart and the body. This occurs whether we are conscious of it or not, as do the soup ingredients interact in the pot.
To break the cycle of suffering and create conditions favorable to restoring good health requires we become conscious of the above dynamics where they exist. How can one solve a problem of which one is unaware? How can one clean a disordered room without being in that very same disordered room?
Where there is worry there is fear.
Where there is fear there is hatred.
Where fear, worry, and hatred thrive there is agitation/tension in the body.
Where there is agitation/tension in the body there is inflammation in the body.
Where there is inflammation in the body, there is pain and suffering in the body.
The chain of worry-hatred-fear in the mind-heart leading to agitation-tension in body, leading to inflammation in body, leading to pain and suffering in body is one set of dynamics that influence certain cases of chronic ill health.
In some cases, then: pain and suffering are merely branch symptoms, hatred-fear-worry is a root cause/condition.
Reflection questions:
If the above is a problem, what are possible solutions?
If worry is a root-level contributor to chronic pain and suffering, what action steps are required to break the vicious cycle and restore one’s spiritual-mental-emotional-physical health?
How can we discern the difference between healthy worry and unhealthy worry?
Copyright (c) 2020, Justin Jaucian
Epicenter Wellness 