Remembering the Body in the Information Age

“…we have come to the point in biological history where we now are responsible for our own evolution. We are self-evolvers. Evolution means selecting and therefore choosing and deciding, and this means valuing.”—Abraham Maslow

Today human beings find themselves in an interesting situation. Our modern lives really don’t require much from us. Many of our efforts are half-measures by design. Our techno-economic culture in some ways really limits human agency in that in our current way of interfacing with technology it does not inspire our fullest human physical expression. Many of the activities in our lives require no more from us than the pressing of a few buttons, the typing of a few keys, even our groceries can be delivered to our homes. Our spiritual mettle isn’t tested. Our bodies are built to hunt, to fight or flee, to engage with life not only at its highest intellectual levels but also at its most primal levels. We’re hardwired for action, to connect with the world on a deep and energetic level. Our bodies, our minds, and our spirits shine when we are challenged.

At the risk of eulogizing the past, in our not too distant horticultural and agrarian past, human beings participated in life in a much more direct way. Their world placed very immediate and dire demands on them. They knew they had to fulfill the requirements of nature: hunt, eat, plant, and harvest. But we have evolved since then to not only transcend purely agrarian modes of living and being, but also industrial. Today we find ourselves in the information age. Life is vastly different today than even 100 years ago and it is evolving at a surprising speed (one only has to think of the Wright brothers who in 1903 achieved the first flight—by 1969 we had taken our first steps on the moon). Today, much of the work of human beings is simply the processing, collecting, distributing, and exchanging of data. The information we get is often second-hand at best. We get our information about the world either from the television, internet, or newspaper, and rarely if ever actually experience the realities we read about or see. Our relationship to the world is indirect. And while it’s easy to blame technology, technology isn’t the problem. We are. Let me repeat that. We are.

In the dialectic of progress we have forgotten where we came from. We were so impatient to evolve that we have attempted to kick out the lower rungs of the evolutionary ladder that has allowed us to reach our present height. We have forgotten our bodies. Evolution, the process of becoming more complex and more whole, is spirit-in-action. The same spirit that gave birth to the manifest world moves through us too. We are, so far as we know, the latest evolutionary model—cutting edge biological technology. What this means is that for the first time in human history we are in control of our own evolution. What this also means is that we are co-creating our world now. And the vehicle of this co-creation is our bodies.

Because so much of our time is spent in the virtual world shuffling 1s and 0s, we have lost touch with the real world. We connect with life by proxy. And so, the connection between us and our bodies has been divorced. They feel less and less like our own and more and more like flesh baggage we drag around. One would almost thing we no longer need them. We are so out of touch with our bodies that our bodies have finally begun to notice. According to the Get America Fit Foundation “Obesity is the #2 cause of preventable death in the United States; 60 million Americans, 20 years and older are obese; [and] 9 million children and teens ages 6-19 are overweight.” Not to mention the cost in productivity: “Workdays lost: $39.3 Million; Physician office visits: $62.7 Million; Restricted Activity days: $29.9 Million; [and] Bed-Related days: $89.5 Million.” Our lack of attention to our bodies is now an epidemic. We are literally dying.

Of course none of this new. We have known for years. As Maya Angelou is fond of saying, "When you know better you do better." I think it’s time we finally do better, don’t you? And it begins with our awareness. There is nothing that can get you as connected to life as your body. It is after all through your body that you experience the world. I want you to do something very simple. After you read this article I want you to just close your eyes, relax, and sit comfortably. Notice your breath coming in and going out of you. Do you feel your breath? Can you feel your lungs contracting and expanding? Can you feel your heart beating beneath your breast? Can you feel the way your back is tensed to support sitting upright? Can you feel the way your hands rest on your lap? Can you feel what all that really feels like? Do you remember what it feels like to be lucky enough to have a body and to be able to use it? Open your eyes and look at your body. Get naked if you want. There is no other body like it. You have the only one. And there was never a body like yours before and there will never be one like yours again. It is yours. It is the most well made thing in the universe. Do you feel that sense of awe? Do you feel that warmth pour through your body? Notice it. Remember it. Feels good doesn’t it? What you’re feeling is information—original information. And this is all it takes. Just noticing your body, remembering (re-membering) it. Because if you remember it, you’ll be more likely to take care of it.

Your body is here for one purpose: to support your consciousness to become the fullest human being you are capable of becoming. The better you take care of your body, the more productive you will be and the sooner you can enjoy the kind of human flourishing that not only expresses the full beauty and wonder of who you are, but will be a living example to others that a complete life, a life of meaning and purpose, must include the integration of the body, mind, and spirit. Because many of us have forgotten: these bodies of ours are not physical, they’re spiritual. We call them physical, but it’s not true. They are spirit manifest. Let us learn to value our bodies as the spiritual vehicles they are. It feels good, I promise.