Integral on Illness: Mindset and Matter 🤒

A common debate in spiritual circles: is the cause—and cure—for health problems material or mindset (eg: a virus or your thoughts)? There are two complementary approaches that inform my being with my own illnesses.

The integral approach says the psychological (I), the material (it), the cultural (we), and the systemic (its). All four play a role in being sick, and all four in recovery. Eg: I got a virus (material) passed around in our modern daycare system (system), but painful emotional processing (psychological) in response to being back in Europe for the first time in a while meant a weakened immune response couldn’t keep the virus at bay.

Gift of this view: I feel no shame taking medicine. I feel no shame interpreting illness symbolically, inquiring into psychosomatic roots, choosing to make ill-health a boon for waking up, growing up, and cleaning up. It’s a simple and peaceful way to accept what is, make use of what’s given, and stay in moderation.

With love, Jordan