The human triad

I have a theory. Stop groaning, it’s a good one.

The mind must rule the body.

It came to me at the gym this morning when my muscles started arcing up after being indulged with two days of bed rest. One set of lunges was all my legs said they would do (apparently, poor babies). Good one. I was dressed and present and by Jove, I was going to do what I went to do.

I can hear my mother sighing as she has a flashback to me as an obstinate toddler (then kid, teenager....adult...), but personality disorders aside, I think this revelation is important.

My body played dead this morning, rolled over with its legs kicked in the air. Not literally - sorry all you visual learners – but it didn’t want to cooperate. I know that the flesh is lazy, but it can also be manipulative and convincing when it has something to say. Why else did we invent the remote control, or do we hit the snooze button a dozen times before we roll out of that snugly bed? It’s only lazy because we let it be.

You might be fine with that, but I challenge you to think about what you might be missing out on. The mind can dream up a myriad of exceptional things to do but how many do we actually pull off? Kids seem to have less regard for what their bodies are saying...consequently they believe they can and will do all that they imagine. Okay, and probably break a few bones along the way. But heck, they really were flying there for a few seconds...

What is a human, if not a combination of mind, body and soul? Of the three, the only one we eventually shed is the shell we call ‘body’, so why should it rule? When we allow it to, the consequences are usually less than inspiring.

My point is, the body’s stop-this-it’s-too-hard alarm goes off well before we redline, so why don’t we push it harder? There are limits; I’m not advocating seeing how long a person can go without their medication in the name of mind domination; we should understand that there are certain signs that don’t fall in the ‘playing dead' category. (Like the day we ignored our child in the backseat on a journey up a winding mountain who ‘felt a bit sick in the tummy’. Heard of Mount Vesuvius?). But learn those limits and regain control.

We all know that brain knows better than brawn (which brings me back to the gym analogy...), so why not start investing in those schemes our brain imagines, and extend ourselves. Then when the day comes that we step out of this earthly body we will be able to appreciate its service rather than mourn the missed chances because we allowed gravity to hold back the desires of our heart.