The body is an amazing instrument, which speaks its unique language through consciousness; the consciousness that observes and realises how we think and act and feel.
To understand this in a medical sense according to our health and well being, I will offer an example from everyday life;
A woman bleeds several times after having sex without any obvious reason. She consults a doctor who examines her in different ways and concludes that “nothing is wrong”. The doctor offers her some hormone therapy in order to treat the symptom. This woman is not interested in hormone therapy, she just needs to be sure that “nothing is wrong” so she sticks to watchful waiting.
However her body keeps on bleeding although she was told “that nothing was wrong”, so what is this symptom about, what is the body trying to express?
Well in a conventional medical perspective, the doctor is looking for physical and hormonal diseases and when he/she doesn’t find any serious disease he/she thinks everything is fine, and in order to do something about the visible problem that obviously still is there, the doctor offers a treatment for the symptom which he/she doesn’t really know the origin of. There is a natural urge to do something, and of course, since we usually understand unexpected bleeding as a seriously sign of disease, and we are used to treat rather than understand the symptom.
The doctor’s revelation is very much appreciated since her fears of being seriously ill disappeared and cause to this some healing have taken place by the relief of this knowledge. However this approach isn’t enough since the bleeding continues, and she doesn’t feel well at another level. She has psychological troubles in her relationship. She is not able to express herself and her needs, which is a very fundamental conflict of hers that goes far back in her life and even through family generations. In realising this her bodily symptom disappears. To her it makes sense how the bleeding is related to her actual relationship, and her inability to express herself and her inability to set healthy boundaries for herself. The body bleeding made her aware of it, and this “seriously” sign of bodily bleeding was the only way she was able to “communicate” in her troublesome relationship until she became aware of it and dared to change her way of relating. As soon as she becomes aware of the mechanism and acts on her way of relating the bleedings subsides.
This was a story from a particular woman. Of course we can’t use it on another woman or person since everyone has his’ or hers own story and body language. This is just a brief example to better understand our different symptoms and to work on them in a holistic way with body, mind and consciousness. She, or in fact her unique consciousness realises the interconnectedness of how she thinks (he rejects me if I communicate openly) how she feels ( anxiety and low self esteem), how she act (not expressing/communicating verbally) and how the body reacts (expressing through bleeding from the uterus).The mind is unconscious about what is going on however the body speaks.
A greater awareness, what we could call her soul, created this symptom of the body in order to support her in awakening and making healthier changes for her well-being. In this understanding the formless consciousness speaks to us through the many different symptoms of the body in order for us to wake up and realise what we do, where we are and who we are. And "the one“ who wakes up is a consciousness with a lower awareness, which could be what we call the mind. It could also be another formless consciousness at a greater level of awareness, and even our soul. In this way the formless consciousness and the formed consciousness, the body, interact and communicate. Through this process our personal awareness and consciousness expands.
The challenge is that we continuously get new challenges, what we may call symptoms that pops up in the lower part of the body as well as the upper part; the thinking and emotional part of the body. Sometimes we are not aware of it or we ignore the symptom and get sick. The good thing is that we all are on our way to wake up and that new ways of healing are available to support us in connecting with a higher formless consciousness. The consciousness we could call our soul, which is a part of our common impersonal formless existence.
Read more about the book mindful medicine on www.mindfulmedicinebook.com.