First and foremost, the body is here and now. It is employed in real-time, constant communication with the mind. It wants immediate response, no hemming and hawing and considering. It does not want the mind to go off and ponder without responding. It wants to send an impulse and get an immediate and matched response. Period. It does not want a lot of words or extra posturing. It likes things to be succinct and clear.
The body does not need to be a “sacred temple.” It does not need affirmation. That is what the mind does to counterbalance the massive degree of control it exerts.
And with this alignment, immediate, constant, back-and-forth response without delay and without frenetic attempts of the mind—now humbled—to “overdo” things.
The mind likes submission. The body likes simple responses, because the body already knows it is nobility. It does not need to give constant affirmation just for the mind to do its job—the job being so simple. Access the wisdom of the body and carry that out in the world, checking in to ensure it’s in alignment with the priorities of the body: connection and intimacy.
The mind, then, enters the body with kindness and willingness, but without timidity, agenda, or a demand for accolades for doing what it was here to do all along. It is not committing any great feat; it is a simple restoration of objects and conditions landing in their right place.
This is how the mind gets sober. The body does not need to continue the martyrdom of congratulating the mind for doing what it should have been doing all along. It does not need to punish it for what it did, either. There simply needs to be sobriety and a new set of behaviors based on this clarity. The mind is learning to show up now for the body. No more blustering or evading. It simply shows up and carries out its part with immediacy.
A mind that has experienced sobriety from its own delusions of grandeur can begin to be proactive. It can begin to sense, at a very subtle level, the impulses of the body.
It can anticipate and tend to matters before the body has to experience discomfort—provided the mind checks in with the body to ensure this is truly what the body wants and not merely what the mind wants to give it. Humility, not shame-based apologetics or sycophant qualities, goes a long way with the body.
The body wants a simple communication, ensuring the mind is here to do its part. First, to present its perception of its role, checking if it is accurate, and then to execute. Then checking in again to make sure it’s still on course and listening for any impulses the body sends. It returns to the body even when the mind has found an entrenched pattern groove. The mind no longer gets to check out of the body; it must stay connected at all times. This is the only agenda.
It is the responsibility of the mind to extend itself and check to see how accurate its offerings are. The mind gets frustrated, thinks the body too fussy or picky—but when the lights go on, the mind understands why nothing will do other than the exact spot.
The mind is wasting its time if it’s trying to convince the body to want anything other than exactly what it wants so that the mind can then engage less or with less accuracy, or can continue along its well-worn grooves. The mind would do well, then, to show up with the enthusiasm of one who has been saved, because it has. It has been saved from a disincarnate, disembodied reality that is no reality at all.
All this work the mind has to do and that is all it gets. That is all there is. The mind does not luxuriate in its grumbles. It does not have the time or bandwidth. It has one—and only one—purpose: to execute the instructions of the body. What is essential to understand is there is nothing benevolent in this. This is how the mind “gets theirs.”
When the agenda of the mind is served, the body is discontent and the mind is in a state of delusion. Whether that delusion is bliss or misery, it is still delusion, because it is disconnected from the body where reality is.
The mind uses complaint as a form of bragging about how much it has to do and how important it is. Just skip that—even the subtle complaints or internally listing out all that needs to be done all the time. Face it, there is no other work than this, so do it, and do it quietly and with honor.
The most challenging habit for the mind to break is having the body feel like a burden. It does this because of the way the body needs constant care and attention, and how that always changes, and how there is no formula.
The way the mind wants everything direct in a dry-land way rather than with fluidity actually hurts the body.
It has had to develop impulses that are strong and harsh in order to call the mind back, but it would prefer the mind learn its language. Masculine communication will use clear and explicit language in order to remove all subtlety and implications. However,
This difference feels harsh to the world of the body where overt clarity is, first of all, an unnecessary expenditure, but more importantly, it breaks up the continuity of communication. For the body to make a “direct” communication to the mind rather than the mind dropping in and listening for the subtle shifts in the body means the body must leave the present moment—which is incredibly painful for the body.
The mind demanding the body tell it what to do or tell it what is happening on the mind’s terms—direct and linear—is a carryover of the old guard ways where it did not have to learn the language of the body because it was the dictator. A flexible mind is a mind open to the continuous real-time adjustments of the body, and not because the body is un-gratifiable, but because in a real-time process like reality, things change.
It’s important for the mind to let the body know it has received the new information, and then, when it has integrated and executed it, to let the body know its work is complete. The mind is accustomed to wandering and gets defiant when it needs to return to the body and be accountable for not just the completion but the communication of such. It is kind to not have the body send impulse after impulse in search of the mind.
It exhausts itself easily, spending energy designated for the carrying out of the agendas of the body on all kinds of things from fantasy to self-flagellation. It will then demand more after misappropriating funds. It is accustomed to having endless access. It is not accustomed to living on a budget. The good news is, an economical mind is a happy mind. As long as the mind is carrying out the wishes of the body and its wisdom, these are the checks and balances that allow the body to provide power.
The mind can eventually gain access to depths of genius and creativity with stability, and without destroying the body or creating situations that will have negative consequences. A mind that tunes in to the body for instruction eventually has unlimited, regular resources and inexhaustible energy to work with, realizing the genius it was trying to access by taking the shortcut of dropping the body off.
It knows this is how it will find the enjoyment and meaning it was seeking when it was out of range, pretending to be the master of its owner.
From here, life is much simpler for the mind. Now, well tethered, its scrambling subsides. It pays attention, listens, anticipates, and executes. It asks for clarity when necessary—but only when necessary. It checks in to ensure it is still on course. It always stays in attention, ready to shift direction as the course of reality the body is sensing has moved. This is how the mind achieves joy.
