Holistic Healing through Balancing the Four Bodies
Holistic Healing through Balancing the Four Bodies
March 29, 2023 By Lesley Seto MSc.A, RD, CYI, CECP
Achieving optimal health and healing might feel complicated and maybe even impossible, especially if you’ve been dealing with multiple symptoms or the accumulation of one condition or symptom after another. These symptoms and conditions are signs that the body is out of balance. An imbalance stresses our homeostatic state beyond what can be managed innately by the body and often leads to disorder. Disorders don’t usually happen ‘out of the blue’, there are usually very early warning signs, that most of us tend to ignore because of the fast-paced nature of life. There are 5 stages of imbalances that I want to bring to your attention.
1. Initial stage is minor imbalances that can be corrected by the body’s innate ability to re-balance or heal.
2. Build up stage is where imbalances were not corrected and begin to worsen, minor symptoms start and are usually ignored by most individuals.
3. Escalation stage is where additional imbalances and symptoms result, triggering symptoms to become chronic (long-lasting).
4. Sickness stage is when there’s organ/gland dysfunction which usually leads to multiple symptoms and a disease diagnosis.
5. Complication stage is when organs or glands are damaged, leading to system-wide imbalance and complications.
If we take responsibility instead of falling victim for what we’re experiencing, how do we even begin to bring the body back into balance? The four bodies approach is a holistic healing approach that considers all aspects of an individual. This concept might seem foreign to some since in Western medicine the primary focus is on treating problems through the physical body. Although the physical body might be an aspect of what needs to be balanced, often the other 3 aspects of the individual are not considered - mental, emotional and spiritual. How do you know what needs support to bring the body into harmony? When you’ve tried everything for the physical body and you’re still suffering, move on to the others! Let me present to you the four bodies.
Mental Body
Our mental body is composed of our thoughts, beliefs, goals, and opinions. In Western culture, we tend to rely heavily on our mental body, or the intellectual aspect of the mental body.
The mental body includes the intellectual ego-based mind and the divine mind. The ego-based mind is useful for setting goals, planning, and producing, but it’s meant to be turned off when we’re not performing these types of tasks. Unfortunately, we tend to use our ego-based mind in everyday life, which can lead to overthinking, worrying, anxiety, mood swings, the need for approval, and the need to control, ultimately leaving us feeling lost and unfulfilled. The constant chatter in our minds creates mental blocks that prevent us from connecting with the divine mind and living peacefully as our true selves. The divine mind connects with the spiritual body, receiving energy from our higher self to inform what comes next, free from ego, fear and illusion.
To improve our mental health, it’s important to find a balance between the ego-based mind and the divine mind. Engage in practices that help quiet the ego-based mind so you can live from a more present and authentic place.
To balance your mental body, you can:
Practice mindfulness (day-to-day or start with specific activities like mindful eating).
Meditation and breathwork
Eliminate triggers of stress during times of healing
Activities that get you out of the ego-mind and into the other bodies (e.g. emotional or physical through play, unstructured or creative dance, yoga, Qi Gong, etc.)
Physical Body
The physical body is the most visible of the four bodies. It’s what we usually use to gauge our overall health. Our physical body is affected by what we put into it, the food we eat and the amount of exercise we engage in, but also by our thoughts and emotions. For example, physical symptoms like gut issues and headaches can manifest in the body during times of acute or chronic mental and emotional distress. Long-term or more chronic physical symptoms can also manifest from unprocessed past emotions (emotional body) or the way in which we think. If there is a need to control or we’re rigid in our thinking, the physical body can be more rigid and prone to injury. If we hold onto emotions of discouragement, we’ll often feel stagnant with fear and may feel pain in the lower back. In this way, one body rarely functions exclusively on its own, rather they’re all interconnected. The health of one, influencing the other.
To balance your physical body, you can:
Stay hydrated by drinking plenty of water throughout the day.
Take breaks throughout the day to stretch and move your body, especially if you have a sedentary job.
Establish a good sleep schedule and supports for quality sleep when needed.
Exercise by going on walks, going to the gym, or other physical activities you enjoy.
Eating nutrient-rich foods and limiting highly processed foods
Try forms of body work like massage, acupressure, chiropractic, yoga, etc.
Emotional Body
The emotional body is a crucial aspect of our overall health and well-being and is the body that’s most often ignored. The emotional body is where we store our emotional experiences, memories, and traumas. We are not taught to express our emotions, which causes negative emotional energies to become trapped in the physical or emotional body.
Trapped emotions can lead to physical and emotional manifestations.
Trapped emotional energies may be deeply rooted (from childhood or inherited), absorbed, or even shared by others, impacting our mental and physical well-being. These unprocessed emotional energies can make us feel trapped by our emotions, and cause anxiety, depression, stress, and anger. However, positive emotions such as love, joy, freedom, and abundance are also stored in the emotional body. When we release our trapped emotions and learn to express them moving forward, we open ourselves to more positive emotions that lead to a more joyful life.
To balance your emotional body, you can:
Process and express emotions in the moment by becoming more aware of your emotions.
Integrate movement practices that allow you to connect with your emotions.
Journaling about emotions or events that are impacting you.
Build a support network of friends, family, or community members to provide emotional support.
Spiritual Body
The spiritual body is about connecting to something greater, be it God, spirit, source, the universe, your higher self, or whatever you’d like to call it. It’s not necessarily connected to religion, but rather, it is our true self. It helps us to make decisions in the mental body that is true to us and is for the highest good of all. When connected to the spiritual body, we tend to feel calmer and the presence of love everywhere. The spiritual body doesn’t get out of balance, instead, it’s a body we either connect or disconnect from. When we’re stuck in the ego mind, have trapped emotional energies or hyperfocus on our physical condition, we create blockages that hinder our ability to connect to the spiritual body. When connected to your higher self, it can support rebalance in all aspects as you become guided to what is needed for you.
To balance your spiritual body, you can:
Practice gratitude and mindfulness
Prayer
Meditation and breathwork
Energy work to clear blockages (e.g. Reiki)
The knowing that we are all one and letting go of the idea of separation
Understand that events in life are lessons for us to learn and grow
Our mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual bodies are all interconnected and must be in balance for us to experience optimal health and well-being. After working for several years helping people bring their physical and mental bodies into balance through nutrition and yoga, I've turned my attention to our other 2 bodies (emotional and spiritual bodies) that need support to bring us into a state of optimal health and to better connect to our true selves. Taking care of the four bodies brings our whole being into balance to prevent chronic issues or symptoms, handle stressors more effectively, and live with more love and happiness.
Contact me to discuss how we can initiate your healing process and bring your body into a more balanced state.