The Wisdom of Some Bodymind Aphorisms
This is so important to me I pulled the old The American College Dictionary by Random House (1966) off the shelf to get the definitions right.
Aphorism: A terse saying embodying a general truth.
Cliché: A trite, stereotyped expression, idea, practice, etc.
A cliché, in my thinking, begins its life as an aphorism; a pearl of wisdom that came from a great teacher and his or her group of students which is then taken by the general public and turned into a mundane, banal, irrelevant saying. This is what the masses do with discoveries and wisdom—new things become popular, then turn into a fad, and then are dismissed as trivial, old-hat, or just meaningless. The masses then move on to the next thing that grabs its collective fancy. I was thinking this morning about certain sayings of spiritual and folk psychology wisdom that became cliches and that, despite their banalization over time, remain useful and important. Their meanings just need to be rediscovered and renewed.
Let’s try a few on for size.
The stars may impel, but they do not compel
I got this saying from astrology and paraphrase it regarding genetics—which is just the scientific name for karma—so “Genetics impel, but they do not compel.” This saying reflects my stance on the Nature vs. Nurture debate; which is just the same old argument of Determinism vs. Free Will. For me, the contest is not 50-50, but more like 70-30 with Biology usually triumphant over Socialization most of the time. Another way of putting this is that we are biologically determined by genetics as in being dealt a set of cards at birth, but our own free will and shaping by social forces and learning leaves us free to play our hand in our own way.
We must no more ask whether the soul and body are one than ask whether the wax and the figure impressed on it are one.
This is from Aristotle (384-322 BC) and I’m a big fan of his writings on the body-soul as found in his De Anima and elsewhere in his writings. It’s hard to turn this one into a cliché, even after 2,000 years, because it just doesn’t lend itself to pithiness, yet, it still says a lot even after all of these centuries.
The body is the temple of the spirit
This one is pretty traditional and probably originates out of the Christian tradition and the Bible. Yet, there’s an undeniable truth here and one that helps guide people into healthy, moral habits.
The eyes are the windows of the soul
I think this one also comes out of the Bible as well, but I’m not sure. But it doesn’t matter as there’s a lot of truth in this one as well because, according to Chinese Physiognomy, the eyes reflect the level of life-energy in what they call “glitter.” Eye movements also indicate what is going on within the mind or what is happening in the core of the person.
Your body is an inn and that only temporarily
An obscure saying from the Roman Stoic philosopher, Seneca (4 BC-65 AD), and one always best kept in mind. It’s a good aphorism about the transience of Life. It reminds me of Carlos Castaneda (1925-1998) and how his shaman-mentor, Don Juan, urged him to use Death as an advisor (Castaneda, 1968). It also resonates with the next saying.
Impermanence is swift.
A Buddhist saying summarizing the randomness and indifference of physical reality, how the nature of reality is ceaseless change, and the transitoriness of life. A darker meaning is that physical reality is that the Universe doesn’t care about humans and we are mere objects on a par with the clouds and rocks. What does this say about the body? It says that being embodied is a very delicate, tenuous, and unpredictable condition.
You are only as old as your spine is young and Strength comes from the lungs, not the muscles.
I got these two from my studies in Tai Chi Ch’uan, yoga, and martial arts. The second one regarding strength comes from a book on Pa Kua Jin or the Eight Silk Brocade exercise.
Be here now
First popularized by the famous book by Ram Dass (1931-2019) in 1970 and then revived for a new generation by Eckhart Tolle in his The Power of Now. I’ve always found this saying much easier said than done and, when doing it, it doesn’t last for long. It’s a tough one to live and reminds me of how difficult it was in counting breaths while sitting in Zen meditation.
Be here now. Be some place later.
Yes, this is a joke I came across a long time ago. Fritz Perls (1893-1970), one of the co-founders of Gestalt therapy, used to call such things “Zen Judaism.”
What is is and what is not is not
A favorite of mine from Fritz Perls. It is a strong one about accepting things that cannot be changed. The wisdom, I think, comes in knowing when to evoke it otherwise it becomes an excuse for resignation and premature surrender.
Lose your mind and come to your senses
Again, a third pearl from Dr. Perls (pun unintended). Here he is obviously talking about deepening our sensory experience and, to a great degree, writing off the importance of thinking. It’s a great image, but it tends to throw out the baby with the bathwater, as it were. Sensory experience is a fundamental aspect of the bodymind so the senses should be honored as an essential part of embodied experience and what they contribute to embodied consciousness.
You are what you feel
From the body image researcher, Seymour Fisher (1922-1996) in his book, Body Consciousness. My paraphrase of it is: Your being is your feeling. And this is why you should always…
Listen to your body
This one also hearkens back to Dr. Perls’s Zen admonition and has become a common saying, possibly popularized by the somatic clinical psychotherapies like Bioenergetics, Gestalt, and Hakomi. Which then leads us to…
There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophy
A famous one from Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900). And, while our body wisdom is truthful, it is not always pleasant or happy. This notion of listening to your body and hearing its wisdom was grounded in Gestalt therapy by one of its co-founders, Paul Goodman (1911-1972). He proposed it as being a fundamental principle called organismic self-regulation which is the somatopsychic process of health, balance, and self-expression. It is the neurophysiological mechanism expressing the wisdom of the body.
The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of
A famous quote from Blaise Pascal (1623-1662). It gives us one of the stronger images of the silent language of body wisdom. This one speaks to the unconscious nature of body experience and how it sometimes disagrees with the mind and social morays. I am often reminded of the knowledge contained within the enteric or gut brain and how it speaks in a voice of sensations, aches, and pains. I first came across this aphorism not in Pascal, but in the wonderful little book by Therese Bertherat and Carol Bernstein entitled The Body Has Its Reasons: Self-Awareness Through Conscious Movement. Highly recommended reading.
I feel like I am trapped in the wrong body
This is a statement commonly reported by transgender persons and it is not an aphorism, but more a statement of somatic reality. This echoes, You are what you feel. People describe their body experience this way because it neurologically originates from small, but very powerful, anomalies in brain structure as compared to the heterosexual brain. Much has been written about this although the research effort is fairly young and so there will be more to come. I summarize the LGBT body image and neuroscientific findings in my Principles of Somatic Psychology. For those interested in this, see Savic, Garcia-Falgueras, & Swabb (2010) and LeVay (2017). This notion is lent credence by the philosopher, Michael Polanyi (1891-1976), who believed that humans know more than they can verbally express (see Long, 2011 for an overview of Polanyi’s philosophy).
Every body is an experiential body
and
Your body is inside of your brain and your brain is inside of your body.
Yes, both of these are my own. The first is a variation on You are what you feel. The second is the very odd conclusion I came to after spending several years studying the neuroscience of embodied consciousness. Yes, I know its paradoxical and makes no sense, but it is true.
If it’s physical, it’s therapy
I came across this one on a coffee mug a long time ago. It was owned by a Rolfer in Columbus, Ohio who did unsatisfactory work. This didn’t dampen my enthusiasm for Rolfing, however, and I went on to study it in the late 1980s. I always wanted the mug though and because I was writing this, I was able to find one—the only one—on eBay for $7.50. I was very pleased to find it.
Medicus curat, natura sanat
“The physician cures while Nature heals.” I came across this one in the writings of Paul Goodman (1911-1972), one of the co-founders of Gestalt therapy. He copped the concept from his classical studies at the University of Chicago where he did his doctoral work on the structure of literature and used it to frame the process of psychotherapy from an organismic perspective (Goodman, 1977). The saying may be traced back to Aristotle (384-322 BC) or Galen of Pergamon (129-216 AD), but I am unsure exactly.
You are perfect the way you are
This one follows the Zen thought that things are the way they are and implies that things are perfect the way they are. But, I can tell you from first-hand experience, that whenever I look in the mirror I have a lot of resistance to this. This one takes a lot of work, but it’s really true. Also, it’s not an excuse to act hedonistically because it also implies you have duties caring for the Temple.
From Pearls of Wisdom to Bits of Rubbish
I do not know from who or where these originated from and don’t care because they are incredibly stupid and anyone who mindlessly parrots these is looking for unhappiness and/or self-injury.
Pain is weakness leaving the body
No pain, no gain
It’s better to look good than to feel good
I’m not even going to dignify this garbage with any further comment except to say it is the very essence of the shadow side of Cartesian dualistic thinking and is ultimately self-destructive.
Closing Thoughts
I have found these sayings personally useful over the years and I share them in the hope that you may find them helpful as well.
Paul Shane, Ph.D., LMT
Director, Academic Content
References
Castaneda, C. (1968). The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge. Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press.
Fisher, S. (1973). Body Consciousness: You are What You Feel. New York, N: Prentice-Hall.
Goodman, P. (1977). Nature Heals: The Psychological Essays of Paul Goodman. Edited by Taylor Stoehr. Gouldsboro, ME: The Gestalt Journal Press.
LeVay, S. (2017). Gay, Straight, and the Reason Why: The Science of Sexual Orientation, Second Edition. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Long, D. (2011). Body Knowledge: A Path to Wholeness. Bloomington, IN: Xlibris Corporation.
Savic, I., Garcia-Falgueras, A., & Swaab, D. (2010). Sexual differential of the human brain in relation to gender identity and sexual orientation. In I. Savic (Ed.), Progress in Brain Research, Vol. 186, Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Elsevier, pp. 41-62.
Revised 07-27-24.