There’s been a growing interest in mind body healing over the past couple of decades. The scientific literatures in developmental neuroscience, psychoneuroimmunology, and mind-body interactions in general are shedding light on the intricate relationships between inborn propensities and response to our environment, between experience and psychological and physical well-being, between past experiences and future vulnerabilities for (or protections against) mental or physical illness. More and more, science is exploring emotion as an important intersection of mind and body, and not simply an artifact of faulty thought.
That we are both mind and body is a pretty much a given, but what about the soul? Some understand the soul in a religious or spiritual context. Others see it as an expression of human creativity, no more or less than a metaphor for our aspiration to be all that we most truly are. Still others use “soul” philosophically, to mean “the essence of something”. I incorporated it into the title of this blog to acknowledge the yet-to-be-discovered aspects of each person that can reveal themselves as part of growth and change.
As minds, bodies and souls, we are alive in the world. And art and science are ways we naturally engage in the world. When children are fortunate to have caregivers who provide a safe setting for experimenting with healthy impulses, they want to explore and create. The toddler touching, tasting, interacting with the world around and trying to figure it out is a born scientist. The child coloring, molding clay, singing, is expressing a deep human need for pleasure and beauty. As adults, finding opportunities, no matter how small, to explore and create nourish and soothe us.
Mind, body, soul. Science and art. Seemingly distinct, but intertwined?
I hope this blog can be a vehicle for sharing information and ideas about the science of mind and body healing, about the art of healing and the art of being alive, about enlivening the undiscovered potential in each person.
