Wholeness

I’m going to do things a little differently in this article. Many of you know that I’m an osteopathic physician. What I’m hoping to share with you today is an important concept in osteopathic medicine that I’ve come to recognize as very helpful in how we live our lives. One of the foundational principles of osteopathic medicine is unity of mind, body, and spirit. As the founder of osteopathic medicine, Andrew Taylor Still, MD DO put it: “The science of osteopathy is founded upon a knowledge of the fact that man is a compound of body, mind, and spirit.”

When we put mind, body, and spirit together we have wholeness. Wholeness is about true interconnectedness and integration. As Still put it,  “The body is a unit; a harmonious whole made up of mutually dependent parts.” It’s harmonious in that the parts support one another, a bit like an orchestra, to create something beautiful. So how do we do that? A big hint is that it isn’t about thinking. Wholeness is something that we can experience. It’s about awareness. Unfortunately, this isn't something that has been prioritized as humankind has advanced in so many other ways. In fact, we’ve become so good at thinking and overthinking, that we’re stuck in our heads or in some other world that we’ve left the rest of ourselves (most often our bodies) out of the equation. When this happens, we don’t feel good, and it’s more than just our physical health. It can affect us on all kinds of levels and I believe it's the root cause of many diseases and mental health struggles in the world today. In this disconnected state, our nervous system is stressed, there is tension in our body, we experience anxiety, we feel disconnected, or like something just isn’t right. 

The fix here is to be found through wholeness, and as Dr. Still reminds us, wholeness permeates our entire body.  “We see the body in health as meaning perfection and harmony, not in one part but in the whole”. And truly, through sensing our body and its wholeness, our nervous system can work the way it's supposed to, and it feels good. 

For the record, I’m not talking about meditation. Meditation is something that we set aside time for. It is something that we do when we aren’t doing something else. But wholeness and awareness is something that we can experience in the moment, to bring ourselves into the present moment. And in reality, we can do it anytime and anywhere. To me, this is what wholeness is all about.

Wholeness is when we live and breathe the perfection of Nature that is created in us. It heals us. It helps us to continue to learn and grow, and evolve. And most importantly it is happening moment to moment.  “When we take up principles, we get down to Nature. It is ever willing and self-caring, self-feeding and self-protecting” Andrew Taylor Still, MD, DO. Nature is supporting us all of the time, through the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, and the earth beneath our feet. When we take a moment to realize and appreciate this beautiful interconnectedness, we slow down, feel our bodies, and experience gratitude for simply being human. These are ways to experience wholeness, and it's probably something that our ancestors were able to do automatically. Nowadays, it's something we can still do and it's easier than you might think. It's just that no one has shown us how.

It's so easy to forget our whole selves because the world is constantly asking so much of us and pulling us outside of ourselves, keeping us stuck in our heads, or worse, outside of our bodies. We think so much that we forget to feel, and it leaves us compartmentalized and disconnected. We can’t feel peace because we’re in pieces. 

We can best experience wholeness when we connect mind, body, and spirit. I used to think that these were three separate things, three circles that just sort of overlapped on the edges. But my work in my own healing journey and through my deep study of osteopathy has helped me to experience it in a different and much more complete and more accessible way. This interconnectedness is right under our noses, and we’re wired to be able to feel it. When we learn to take a moment to simply drop in and sense, we really can feel good in our own skin. 

A more helpful image is that the three circles of mind, body and spirit, are concentric, one within the other, within the other. To experience wholeness it’s helpful to use our mind and awareness and allow for the possibility of spirit to be within our body. Our body as a vessel for our being. It's a flowing kind of interconnectedness. And it's something we can feel with just a bit of practice and a simple shift in our attention. My favorite way is by simply dropping into our body. It feels good. We feel calm. We feel connected to ourselves and the natural world that we are a part of.  Andrew Taylor Still, MD, DO said, “Osteopathy is to me a very sacred science. It is sacred because it is a healing power through all Nature.” When we drop in and sense from within our bodies, it can put us into healing mode. 

Think of how you feel near the ocean. The sounds of the waves, the feel of the air, the soft sand beneath us. We stop thinking and feel, and it feels good. We might even remember that our body is at least 60% water. This fluid nature of our body and our being is our inner interconnectedness and also that which connects us as human beings to all of nature, from the smallest particle to the infinite cosmos.

To make room for wholeness in our lives, in a way that feels right to us, it can be helpful to consider our body as a receptacle or container for nature’s perfect design. Spirit can be inside us or outside of us. We can understand spirit as the living movement of creation that's constantly living and breathing the breath of life through the vessel of our being. This is wholeness. It’s our relationship with nature, our relationship with Health, and our relationship to ourselves.

What I've discovered is that the more I can stay centered within myself, within my body, within my being, the better I'm able to experience this felt sense of wholeness. This sense of being centered by the Breath of Life, by the Tide, by the Health, by Stillness, and living and acting from this centered state. I started teaching my patients to do it. And then I created a course because it's easier than we think and it's just that no one taught us to do it. When my patients and course participants learn to do it, they experience wholeness too. As they keep working with it, amazing things happen that help them in their lives, on many levels. 

Wholeness doesn't have to be something that we only experience in a morning meditation or devotional, an osteopathic treatment, a retreat, or only outside in nature, because it's always here for us. It's always within us. Our human being is inherently whole. We just forget to “re-member” ourselves to remember all of the parts of us that make up our whole self, our whole being. I truly believe that this is what Dr. Andrew Taylor Still, MD, DO, the founder of osteopathic medicine came to understand when he created osteopathic medicine. He wanted something that supported the whole of the person and which in turn supports the Health of the person. I believe that his inspiration came from his relationship with the natural world and the perfection of the human design that the “Great Architect of the Universe” created. It was his recognition of that that inspired him to develop what he later named osteopathy. As he put it, “I do not claim to be the author of this science of osteopathy. No human hand framed its laws; I ask no greater honor than to have discovered it.”. No matter what you believe, most people agree that nature is beautiful and amazing. And we as part of it are pretty amazing too. 

Andrew Taylor Still, MD, DO used this recognition of nature’s beautiful design to create a method for us as osteopathic physicians to serve humankind through osteopathic treatment. The beauty of what he brought us was also the message of the importance of wholeness and the perfection of the Health within each of us. But I’ve come to realize that this understanding and experience of wholeness is something that anyone can learn to access and feel. It's this perceptual awareness that I think as human beings is part of our birthright. As osteopathic physicians we can help our patients to come to a place of wholeness in relationship to our Health. However as human beings, this is something that we all can experience. The Breath Of Life is always breathing us. We're part of the great River of Life and it's flowing through us. We're part of all of creation and it's always happening within us and supporting us whether we notice it or not. “We must blend ourselves with, and travel in harmony with Nature’s truths.” Andrew Taylor Still, MD, DO. 

There are many ways we can get “in touch” with and experience the harmony and interrelatedness of our own wholeness. But I've discovered that we often make it more complicated than we need to. Here’s the simplest way I’ve found to get the feeling started: 1) Drop your attention into your body (preferably somewhere below your belly button). 2) Sense something that feels good to you such as warmth, softness, light, or water. 3) Do it as consistently as you can until it becomes natural and automatic. This simple shift in our awareness, from the outside to the inside, offers a sensory change in perspective, and can open doorways to wholeness in ways we never imagined. It may seem hard to believe that something so simple can really work, but it’s these very breadcrumbs that I’ve seen work magic in people’s lives.

In sum, wholeness is something we can experience, simply by centering within ourselves, mind, body, and spirit, and feeling the beauty, the goodness, the Stillness, and the Health that’s always here for us. When we do this we discover how much more there is available to us in our lives for our health, our ability to help ourselves feel better when we need to, and our sense of fulfillment. And I think maybe the most important thing is to do it as often as we can, really ideally all the time, because the more we do it, the better we feel. I’ve seen so many incredible things happen when someone learns to do it and I really believe that's the work that we're all here to do. 

If you find you want or need more help with this, or to experience wholeness in a variety of ways, my courses include guided experiences that will help get you there.