Chauvenism versus "The Tyger"
Calvinism, Catholicism, antidisestablishmentarianism, & a mickle more -isms of this ilk: they all inform our experience. These belief systems are stencils through which we trace a pre-determined reality; when I wear red glasses, even avocadoes look red. Interacting through such belief systems, we see only what we already know. This modus operandi is useful for its expedience. Otherwise, we would be occupied perceiving kaleidoscopic forms & colors...even as the great stripèd cat stalked us through the twilight reeds & prepared to pounce. But the drawback of this philosophy is in the limitations it imposes on our experience.
What if your whole world fits into a cookie-cutter?
After you pencil in the stencil marks, what's left of the rest of the page?
As William Blake expresses it:
“Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?”
Image of street art grafiti of wild animals.
None could; it's a tiger. Nevertheless, we find that innumerable belief systems color our world. By the mandate of tradition or some authority, we willingly assume a condition of half-blindness. Teachers, parents, priests, gurus—each has a new stencil for us and thus proceedeth the circumscription of our lives.
The integration of the body & the mind seems to represent yet another doctrine that we either accept or reject on faith:
Perhaps we identify ourselves with the slightly New-Age, Starbucks-sipping, Saturday-morning "yogis." In this case, we likely embrace on faith that the body and the mind are "yoked."Conversely, we might reject it out of commensurate ideological inclinations—perhaps we perused Origin of Species & assuming that Darwin didn't believe in New Age bullshit, determine that neither should we. No matter what we conclude on an ideological basis, it's chauvinism. Interestingly, the only testimony that we often ignore is the very one that we might expect was the dearest of all: the soft voice of our own experience.
What happens when we turn inward?
Go not to your beliefs but straight to the grist of your own unadulterated experience! When your psyche soars buoyed on the thermals of joy, how does your body feel?
And how difficult is it to sustain a depression when you feel like a cheetah? Sometimes, it feels like a matter of belief. But experience demonstrates its sterling veracity. The body & the mind share such an intimate connection that they can never be dissevered from the other. You don't have to "believe" this; you can just check and see.
Like all quality stories, this one has a moral: schedule a Rolfing® session today...your body will benefit & YOU will too!
