What is the connection between Body and Soul?

Dear Friend

I wonder if you have thought about the connection between your body and your soul? We often speak of ‘body and soul’ as if they are separate, yet connected, entities.  As John O’Donohue wrote in Anam Cara: ‘Your body is the home of your soul’.  If my body, my bones, muscles, nerves and skin are the visible, physical embodiment of my soul, then how does one relate to the other? I would love to know your thoughts.

When I was diagnosed with breast cancer a year ago, a friend who had been through the same experience advised me to try and separate my body from my soul – it was my body that was diseased, my soul was intact, whole.

For a while I followed her mantra, giving my body over to the medical team to heal and keeping my soul in a separate place, protected from the assault on my body.  However, after a few weeks, I realised that rather than separating body and soul, one could care for, and listen to, the other. When my body ached, my soul told me to rest.  As my body healed, my soul energised.  As my body shrank in anxiety from hazards in the external world – would I fall and damage my scar, would Covid prevent further treatment – my soul told me this was time to care for and nurture my body rather than challenge or test my boundaries.  My soul became the nurturing mother to my body in its vulnerability. 

Some mornings I woke full of energy and joy, a sense of gratitude at healing, that life was ‘back to normal’.  On those mornings I was often too busy to listen to my soul, back in the cultural expectations of busyness, of doing.  Then I needed to pause, breathe and listen to the nurturing, mothering soul and respect her guidance.  On other days, when the thought of further treatment or the unknown future seemed overwhelming, I could lean into my soul’s strength and resilience to carry me through the shadows and back into the light.

I realised I cannot separate body and soul.  Both are entwined, one reflecting the other, each listening to and learning from the other, the soul’s wisdom guiding my embodied self as it physically responds to each moment.  My body’s senses alert my soul and my soul tells my body what it needs, to rest or to move, to laugh or to share my anxiety and vulnerability.  My body and my soul are in constant communication, an ongoing dialogue of sensory experiences and intuition, the voice of my soul.

‘The body is the place where the soul shows itself’ John O’Donohue

My physical form embodies my soul so that choices I make, minute to minute, in how I treat my body, the food I put into it, the clothes I wear, the speed and force or gentleness with which I move, all speak of my soul. 

My soul tells me, when I listen, that to dress in materials and fabrics that have been made from artificial fibres, where my pores can’t breathe, will stifle my soul.  Clothes that have been made from the forced labour of children or exploited adults will kill my soul.  The purity of my soul’s essence needs the purity of fabric and manufacture.

If my soul is hard, my body will reflect that in its movements, tone of voice, the fabrics and style of clothes I choose.  If my soul is full of softness and gentleness, this will be reflected in gentle fabrics, quiet movements and warmth in my voice and eyes.  The eyes, oh the eyes.  How they speak of the soul.  If we look on the world with gentleness, the world will be gentle with us. If we look on the world with harsh suspicion, our souls will shrivel away from a hard, cold world. 

To me, body and soul appear to be inseparable and, in reflecting your soul through your body, the world will see your essence.  So I try to listen to my soul’s instinct, allow time to breathe and move, be gentle in how I embody my soul so it will show gentleness to the world.

Why not try to lean into your soul today with this practical exercise from Anam Cara:    

Close your eyes and relax into your body.  Imagine a light all around you, the light of your soul.  Then with your breath, draw that light into your body and bring it with your breath through every area of your body. (Anam Cara, p.43).

Go gently, soul friends.

Miranda