Lead Yourself First: how mind-body education can catalyze social and global change
It’s safe to say that change is in the wind.
We have been presented with an ultimatum and, also, an insane opportunity.
We either change (or rather evolve) as a species or die.
This article discusses the hypothesis, backed by the findings of a scientific field called “Interpersonal Neurobiology,” that the sustainable way to change is through integration (see definition(s) below).
Additionally, other ideas are discussed including:
· How embodied personal leadership can address “wicked” and complex social problems (and why these social problems require an “inside-out” approach)
· The transformative power of mind-body education and the necessity of a roadmap to holistic wellness for catalyzing change at all levels (i.e. individually, socially, and politically)
· 3 exciting areas in the field of Holistic Health: Embodiment, Neurodharma, and Optimal Functioning Mind-Body Systems
With the right instruction and a little peer-to-peer encouragement, we can all lead ourselves towards more harmonious, sustainable ways of living - that support the flourishing of all living beings on this planet.
Within each of us, is the potential to take a conscious lead in the creation and co-creation of new approaches.
Additionally, we need to shift the way society views both health and what it means to be a “successful” human being.
These are not just a nice set of “hippie” ideals. Our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing, as well as our highest happiness, all rest on this collective realization.
The following blog explores how integrative, holistic mind-body education can catalyze the transformation required.
The Integrated Individual
Dr. Dan Siegal defines integration as … “ the linkage of differentiated components of a system, integration is viewed as the core mechanism in the cultivation of well-being.”
This definition applies to our internal lives and inter-personal lives.
“For the brain, integration means that separated areas with their unique functions, in the skull and throughout the body, become linked to each other through synaptic connections. These integrated linkages enable more intricate functions to emerge — such as insight, empathy, intuition, and morality. A result of integration is kindness, resilience, and health. Terms for these three forms of integration are a coherent mind, empathic relationships, and an integrated brain.”
-Dr. Dan Siegal, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at UCLA Medical School
The integrated individual is intuitively connected with themselves, other people, and the biosphere has a whole.
An integrated individual’s mind is unified.
In practice, this means recognizing that what is the highest good for them is also the highest good for every other living being and the planet.
Time and time again, across cultures and traditions, we see the same pattern.
Individuals (Saints, Sages, Bodhisattvas…) that have reached psychological maturity or unity (or enlightenment), who then utilize the skills and insights cultivated along the path of self-realization, in service to others and the whole.
This act of service is also what makes the individual's journey worth it.
When we shoot for the highest reaches of human potential and flourishing; everyone wins.
What’s more: The level of training and development that is required, can only be effectively achieved through cultivating a shit ton of loving-kindness and compassion and living your life to its highest expression. That means enjoying life, the process, and practices itself. (More on this later)
The re-integration of the human species (Collective Integration)
The collective has become disintegrated (out of harmony and balance) from the interconnected whole.
The Gaia principle proposes that living organisms interact with their inorganic surroundings on Earth to form a synergistic and self-regulating, complex system that helps to maintain and perpetuate the conditions for life on the planet.
The human species is no longer integrated with the Earth! We are no longer working synergistically with the biosphere that we call home.
It’s insane. We have become separated from the planet. We have lost sight of our connection to the environment and the place we were born. We cannot see that we are a part of life and life is a part of us.
We are caught in a collective daydream or illusion that we are in fact separate (and more insidiously superior!) from every other form of life and everything that sustains life, including other humans, on our planet!
So HOW can individual and collective integration be achieved in the time we have?
The social and political problems we face are “wicked.” Meaning if we continue to focus all our attention on addressing these issues at the social and political levels, we may not ever(!) achieve the societal changes that are clearly necessary, in the time we have, to change as a species.
And, what’s more, we will continue to have a shit time collectively!
Wicked problems are difficult or impossible to solve because of incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements that are often difficult to recognize.
And we live in an open, complex, dynamic, and networked world.
Outside-In Approaches: Catalysing social and political change
We must make the shift towards new ways of being, living, and doing that address collective issues (e.g. wellbeing and sustainability).
Such outside-in approaches, whilst important and necessary, will emerge naturally because of individual transformation.
And here’s why….
The “Transforming individual,” develops a worldview that includes the open, complex, dynamic, and networked nature of reality. These individuals can embrace paradoxes and have a high tolerance for ambiguity. Moreover, they are open to updating their worldview based on new information and perspectives.
Therefore, to address collective issues we need groups of “Transforming Individuals” working together on “Wicked problems” producing EMPATHETIC (I.e. human-centred), intelligent (i.e. way beyond the ability of one mind) and creative solutions (i.e. utilizing the highest faculties and ingenuity of the human mind).
Fields such as social design, human development, and interpersonal neurobiology have already laid the groundwork and knowledge base for catalyzing change.
Yet, no matter how sophisticated and ingenious your way of working and thinking; it must be embodied and put into skillful action.
This requires individuals who know how to get the most of their mind-body system in order to maximize their creativity, cognitive function, and ability to connect with others in a trustworthy and authentic way.
Effective “outside-in” approaches
It is essential that we work to bring our lives back into harmony with natural rhythms (both biological and ecological) and integrate indigenous ways of living back into our modern lifestyles.
There is a positive feedback loop that can occur from “Outside-in” approaches which acknowledge:
Lifestyle, communities, and the environment are a container for wellbeing, integration, and transformation.
Healthy ecosystems and healthy ways of living support healthy, flourishing, and “Integrated” people.
Such “Integrated individuals” move beyond their needs to facilitate the growth and healing of others, communities, and the environment.
They can do this effectively as they have cultivated the inner RESOURCES (i.e. wisdom, compassion, and empathy) and RESILIENCY required to catalyze change.
Individuals as agents of change
Individuals are shaped and conditioned by factors at these different “sites”. These sites of shaping can also become sites of change. Each one of these sites has a relationship with the other.
The embodied leader focuses on what they can most easily influence; namely how they show up in the world and connect with others. Over time, their circle of influence can widen to effect change across these sites.
Groups of embodied leaders can work together effectively and creatively on wicked social problems, to answer important questions such as:
How do we bring our lives back into harmony and balance with nature whilst retaining what is useful and worthwhile about modern technology and lifestyles?
Clearly, the scale and complexity of “outside-in approaches” catalyzing social and political change require that we shift our focus on the collective and instead become radically responsible for ourselves.
Inside-Out Approach: Embodied Personal Leadership (Yes, that means you!)
“To be on a path is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to become one with all things”
— Dōgen Zenji (13th Century Zen Priest)
Here’s the crux of the matter: The transformation of an individual’s consciousness is a vehicle towards collective transformation. The more we can do to support the flourishing of ourselves (and others); the greater the benefits for everyone.
Fortunately, we live in abundant times. We can draw on the wisdom of the ages, latest scientific discoveries, and approaches as well as proven practical tools.
Bringing these together to maximize the level of value we can create and, perhaps more importantly, the level of enjoyment and fulfillment we can live with.
…now that is mind-body education that can catalyze change!
The work to become holistically well and optimally functioning is done for the quality of life and experiences that one can have as a result. There is a special kind of fulfillment and joy that results in using one’s greatest and unique gifts in service to the whole.
Holistic Wellbeing: A human-centered approach to co-creating the future
Having studied the highest limits of human potential and development (somewhat, I am still very much a beginner). And engaged in my own healing work.
It’s clear to me that we are spending way too much time discussing inconsequential issues. That we don’t give ourselves credit enough to see that we (yes, you too!) are the solution. It’s the wasted and untapped human potential that can create the global changes we need to make.
We would be way better off focusing our attention on developing our innate potential to self-heal, self-generate, and self-educate.
The inconvenient or empowering (depending on your view) truth is that this means we as individuals must take responsibility. It’s the only way healing can occur.
Healing happens very naturally when we bring our lives back into harmony with the way things are. Healing happens when we live with Virtue (i.e. generosity, compassion, and integrity).
It’s the healing path that results in the unification of mind (or Integration). It results in the optimal potential of your mind-body system so that you can live out your destiny for the benefit of all beings.
Along the path, you activate neural circuitry that literally makes you more compassionate and empathetic.
You become wise and kind…and masterful in the art of conscious living.
There is no telling how much our lives and, more importantly, the planet(!), would benefit from an emphasis on educating people in a way that truly draws out the loving and creative potential that lies within.
The journey to the heart of human change: A roadmap to personal transformation
Catalyzing change through embodied personal leadership requires a clear, outlined roadmap that can support individuals to transform.
Ultimately, this journey is unique to the individual, we are all conditioned and shaped differently.
Yet, several emerging and exciting fields are changing the game when it comes to personal transformation. They are worth touching on to ground this article in practical and actionable insights.
It’s important to highlight: these methods are for lifetime wellbeing and sustainable change.
Beyond healing, the principles outlined below are lighting up the way by which diligent and courageous individuals can walk the path towards the highest human happiness.
1. Embodiment
‘Mr. Duffy lived a short distance from his body.’
— James Joyce
Simple Definition of Embodiment: “How we are”
Let’s break this down a little:
The “HOW”- How we construct ourselves, moment-to-moment.
The “WE” — It's relational. Relates to our past, our ancestry, environment, cultural shaping, other people, and the planet.
There are two core aspects:
1) Awareness of “How we are” which creates new possibilities and choices for action
2) Enhancing our capacity to take skillful action and create change requires deliberate and embodied practice.
So, “Embodiment” is the direct investigation and deliberate development of “how we are.”
This can be achieved through yoga, dance, martial arts, mediation, somatic coaching, and bodywork (and more!). The chosen embodied activity is less important than one’s approach and consistency with practice. And the recognition that we practice for the game which is an embodied life.
“Embodiment” can create sustainable change. It’s the methods by which we, as individuals; can move beyond our conditioning and become present, open, and connected.
Making Peak states baseline traits!
Embodied practices have the power to turn elevated states into permanent traits.
Now that is something worth cultivating.
The life well-lived is marked with peak states. Moments of deep connection and connectedness. Higher states of being and elevated emotion.
They have the power to transform if these states can be anchored into our neural wiring
…so that they become “How we are”.
It is a western cultural view to treat our bodies as the carriers of our brains. We live our lives in our heads. Yet, this cuts us off from so much of our potential human experience.
The Goal of Working through the Body
In his book, “The anatomy of change: a way to move through life’s transitions” Richard Strozzi-Heckler discusses 3 ways of categorizing bodywork:
1) Working on the body- Dealing with physical symptoms and ailments that affect our functioning in the world (i.e. diet, exercise, deep-tissue bodywork, massage, acupuncture, etc).
2) Working with the body- uses systems (such as deep-tissue bodywork, sound healing, breathwork, movement disciplines) to enhance emotional freedom and ease of movement.
3) Working through the body- is about contacting the basic life energy or aliveness that animates us, shapes us, and moves through us (and forms our emotional character). All the above-mentioned techniques can be used in this approach but the attitude or point of view that exists is fundamentally different. And here’s why….
Working through the body connects us to emotional and bodily intelligence… and to new possibilities and choices (this is supported by the latest neuroscience).
It’s about working with our internal experience.
It’s not about striving for; a better posture, alleviating pain, optimizing movement patterns, or eliciting an emotional response (although all of that may happen!)
This way of working is the recognition that the body quite literally shapes our experience (the physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual shape).
The energy that animates our bodies, also flows through our entire mind-body system, through one another and the planet.
Working through the body opens our systems up to become conductive to this lifeforce.
The art of mediation and the bodily arts work with this principle; with practice, we become superconductive to the flow of life. The quality and scope of our potential experience become transformed.
“At its most profound, the goal of working through the body is to allow the universal spirit or energy, that which unites and is the source of all life, to guide and inform our lives”
-Richard Strozzi Heckler
I hope you can see; there is magic in connecting to and working through the body. It connects us with the magic of reality.
Many of us, live our lives from the neck up. Caught in our heads, keeps us locked in our concerns and fears…we forget to appreciate life itself.
The body is an anchor into the now
“There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophy.”
-Fredrich Nietzsche
There is great wisdom accessible in the body.
There is considerably more neural wiring going from body to brain than the brain to the body. This flow of electrical activity from the body to the brain is what stimulates psycho-physiological coherence (i.e. inner balance and harmony of the many different systems involved in our entire mind-body interface).
The body knows how to self-regulate and self-heal.
Living, working, and relating through our heads we bypass the resources and wisdom that are always accessible. Living from our heads is a recipe for inner conflict and sub-optimal function.
The Body Keeps the Score.
“Neuroscience research shows that the only way we can change the way we feel is by becoming aware of our inner experience and learning to befriend what is going inside ourselves.”
― Bessel A. van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma
We have conditioned tendencies and a whole range of emotions are stored within the body. They make up our current shape.
They are the results of evolved responses to real or perceived threats to our safety, belonging, and dignity.
We have numbed out feeling certain emotions or processing traumatic experiences.
It’s important to say increasing our capacity to feel, through embodied practice, may not always be a comfortable experience.
However, with proper guidance, understanding, and a network of support, we can learn to navigate smoothly and work free of the conditioning that is held within the mind-body system.
Although challenging, this is a journey that is well worth it.
We are making space for more life, more choice, and overtime… skillful capacity to act with grounded compassion and pragmatic wisdom.
The Global significance of accessing the body!
“C.G Jung’s alarm for the world’s conditioning stemmed from our devaluing of the feminine principle and the glorification of the masculine. We tend to place a high value on rational thought, achievement, and goal-orientation at the expense of that part of our experience that is not rational: namely feeling, intuition and emotion…They are qualities that can only be appreciated through the medium of the body, which offers its information via sensation, often in very subtle ways”
-Robert K Hall, M.D
The masculine and feminine principles are a part of “how we are.”
The feminine principle is all about emotion, intuition, and empathy. All of which are found when we work through the body. When we make space to feel. We more easily connect to ourselves and others. We learn to meet the needs, both expressed and not, in ourselves and others. The hierarchical structures in society, that are breaking down, are very much founded upon masculine principles.
This changes the game when it comes to leadership. Embracing the feminine makes everyone a leader. It also suggests that in order to be an effective leader we must be embodied and therefore sensitive to our needs, other's needs, and the needs of the whole.
Somatic Intelligence — learning to trust in your direct experience.
“Trust Thyself; Every heart vibrates to that Iron String”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Often there can be a tendency for teachers to present a map to the territory of personal transformation and the good life. This is useful yet it’s important to note that the map is not the territory.
The territory is your lived, moment-to-moment experience of life and being alive. And to master the territory requires stepping into your capacity to self-educate, self-heal, and self-generate.
Moreover, building Somatic intelligence helps us to make new relationships and explorations of new ways of relating and being together. In the process, we build up resources with each other, form peer-to-peer networks, and create opportunities for community growth, healing, and connection.
All of which is accessible along this journey of embodiment and tapping into the wisdom of the body.
2. Neurodharma
“The systematic training of the mind — the cultivation of happiness, the genuine inner transformation by deliberately selecting and focusing on positive mental states and challenging negative mental states — is possible because of the very structure and function of the brain.”
- The Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler
Working to live your life to its fullest expression is a noble journey that we are all called to take.
The human mind is a miraculous and complex instrument. It’s important therefore that to get the most of life we have proper guidance from those who have awakened their hearts and mind.
Many individuals have walked the path of tranquillity and insight. Their accrued wisdom can reveal and light up the pathway to the highest happiness and peace.
These are beings who have reached heights of human experience and, subsequently, shared their gifts, teachings, and insights developed along the way.
The contemplative wisdom of the ages can be supported and enhanced by the latest discoveries in neuroscience and cognitive science.
This is a great innovation of our age; when scientists and practitioners (past and present) come together to illuminate the mind through brain science and wisdom.
Although all our journeys are unique. They are also all connected in many ways.
This uniqueness means that training our mind-body systems and living in harmony with life requires trust in our own experience. You and your body are the greatest teachers for this.
Dharma is truth. Those who wish to align their lives with what is true and sacred can be supported by the science of the mind.
Living Dharma and creating an optimal function of the mind is transformational to “how we are.”
Our habitual ways of being and our mental operating system can be updated and upgraded.
Through developing and training effectively and intelligently, we can achieve unification of the mind (i.e. remove internal conflict), cultivate pleasure and happiness, make empathetic joy a personality trait, direct our attention at will, and sustain attention effortlessly.
This all equates to a profoundly positive transformation of our human experience and our relationship with others. And the development of wisdom, mindfulness, and compassion, eventually, leading to ultimate insight into the nature of human suffering and its cessation.
3. Optimal function of the mind-body system
“So that’s what destiny is: simply the fulfillment of the potentialities of the energies in your own system.”
-Joseph Campbell, Pathways to Bliss
Optimizing the function of our mind-body system provides the energy and fuel for creating sustainable change and inspiring others.
This is about working at the biomechanical and psychospiritual/bioenergetic levels to raise the energetic potential of the body.
That is exactly what pursuing one’s destiny is all about: Intentionally building the energy and zest for one to live and love fully.
This enables us to show up consistently, with compassion and enthusiasm for serving our highest interests.
This “Holistic Wellness” approach also benefits from combining the scientific view with the ancient medicine practices and wisdom…and above all what works.
Let it flow!
We tend to over complicate things but here’s holistic wellbeing 101: The more energy (or Chi) flowing freely through your system the better you feel.
The goal of holistic wellbeing is to become superconductive to the energy and information that flows through life. The flow of this energy and information is what healthy relationships and optimally functioning mind-body systems are all about!
Conclusion
The process of human change is a profound journey towards the realization of the ultimate truth. The truth that we are all interconnected.
That the unification and integration of the human species will occur naturally with more and more individuals walking their own path towards lifetime peace and wholeness.
Clearly, changes must be made at the collective (i.e. Outside-in approaches).
However, Individuals who are embodied and awakened with optimally functioning mind-body systems have the capacity to create and, more importantly, co-create these changes.
It starts with the encouragement and re-education of ourselves… that we, as individuals, can be the solution to the collective issues we face both locally and globally!
Conscious communities and sustainable living will arise as a natural by-product of greater numbers of flourishing individuals, creating together, who all share the same vision of an integrated human species.
The time is now to intentionally and deliberately raise our consciousness. Never has it been easier to find the support and connection with others who are walking this path (and have walked the path before us!).
This goes way beyond the survival of our species: it’s about evolution and flourishing of life on our planet.
