Season 2, Episode 7: Encountering My Body
Existential Analysis acknowledges the body as a fundamental given of the human being and existence. Together with the psychological, and the noetic (spiritual) anthropological dimensions, the body represents a constitutive dimension of the human being. Embodiment represents as a holistic, integrated experience of the body, mind and spirit. In this view, the body represents the primary physical structure of our existence, the sensual, earthy connection to life, ourselves and others, the receptacle of our person, and the vehicle for our acting in the world, and becoming. This view contrasts with the prevalent objectifications of our bodies in our current world by overemphasizing the appearances, external standards of beauty and intense scrutiny of the outer aspects of one’s body such as shape or weight. This way, our bodies become objects of constant scrutiny and evaluation devoid of life and existential meaning.
An existential understanding of our body starts by acknowledging that our body provides a firm, solid, stable ground to our existence. We live intuitively trusting that our body is holding and carrying us in this world. A deep, implicit trust in our body capacity to hold us gives us the confidence that all is good in our body and we can rely on it. Our body creates space both outwardly and inwardly. Outwardly, we take up space with our bodies. By occupying space, we become visible and set physical boundaries between our own and what is different from us. Inwardly, our body is spacious and allows us to experience the space inside. For instance, our lungs are filled with air, and if we take a deep breath, we can create more physical space within our body. By design, our body is meant to offer us protection. Our skin acts as a live, flexible membrane that allows us to optimally relate with the world without being damaged or wounded, and without being poisoned by foreign influences or substances. Our skull keeps our brain safely enclosed and our thorax protects our heart. Our backbone shields our spinal cord.
Our body is not just a firm, protective physical structure that supports our existence but is also filled with life and is experienced as alive, akin to Sartre’s (1943) lived body (Leib) or body-subject. The aliveness of the body-subject is experienced as vibrant emotionality in addition to sensuality and interoceptive experiences. Physically, we experience the goodness and beauty of life in and through our bodies. As sensual beings, we enjoy food, art, nature, the pleasures of the senses, and take comfort in all these. Embodied experience is imbued with emotionality. The sensorial pleasures or comfort as well as the physical pain are accompanied by affective overtones and emotions. Our emotions are clearer and more powerful when they resonate and are expressed through our bodies. Through our bodies we relate to ourselves, to each other, and to the world. We are embodied relational beings and our bodies are meant to communicate, relate, touch and love. Moreover, we also relate to our own body. We like and appreciate our body as good and beautiful, and we enjoy its sensuality. We experience our body inwardly as a rich source of life and beauty.
Our body not only carries us through life and ensures the basic structure of our existence but also reveals who we are as persons. Simply put it, we are not just a body, we are our body. As embodied beings, the uniqueness of our person shines through the materiality of our body, not in an objective, voyeuristic way but in the inimitable way we carry and express ourselves. We essentially are our body, and our body makes our essence visible in the material world.
In one’s body, there is also opportunity for freedom and movement, creativity, and belonging to a larger context. The body as a site of agency and freedom, something that offers movement and presence to be in and interact with this physical world. In one’s body, one can affirm freedom and purposeful action. For instance, birthing and the capacity to give life represents a unique creative potential for the woman’s body. Dance and movement, gardening, and sculpturing or other art, all represent creative purposes for the embodied self. The body is generative and full of creative capacity. In and through one’s body, one chooses to engage cultural and family traditions and spiritual practices.
Encountering our body and cultivating a good relationship with our body is critical for living a good, fulfilled life. We can nurture this personal encounter and dialogue with our body in everyday life and in the psychotherapeutic context by refocusing our attention from the objectification of the body and the body-object towards the lived experience of the body (body-subject), by emphasizing the capacities of our body and what we can do and accomplish through our body, by bringing awareness to how my our body express who we are, and by engaging in generative, creative actions through our bodies.
References:
Antonio Damasio - Descarte’s Error
Maurice Merleau-Ponty - Phenomenology of Perception
