In Eat, Pray, Love, Liz Gilbert speaks of her friend Bob, a student of yoga and a neuroscientist, who in a particularly transcendent meditation, arrived at both a clarity and a distinction within the body. He defined a literal anatomy of the body and a poetic anatomy. The poetic anatomy is that which one can’t see with the naked eye or feel with touch. It is the qi in Chinese medicine; the chakra in Indian yogic tradition. St. Theresa of Avila, probably the most mystical of all Catholic saints, envisioned seven mansions of the soul; coincidentally, yogis identify 7 chakras.
Nourishing the Poetic Anatomy
So what does that mean in the context of nutrition? How do we nourish our “poetic anatomy”? Do we need to nourish it, or does it nourish us? My sense is there is a synergistic nourishment that occurs, that is, the physical anatomy nourishes the poetic, or ethereal anatomy, and the poetic anatomy in turn nourishes physical anatomy.
Let’s start with the concept of the poetic anatomy nourishing our physical anatomy. How do we know when we are energized? On a simple level we easily recognize when we are not. We feel sluggish, we may feel tired, weak, irritable, achy, dull, empty. We have no oomph. We don’t feel grounded and thus have no boundaries, so the physical and psychological attributes of people and places around us can easily penetrate and affect us. This creates an unwanted vulnerability. When our ethereal or poetic anatomy is nourished and energized, it is able to send light and optimism to the physical anatomy.
We most easily become aware of the state of our poetic anatomy when we engage in practices such as prayer, walking, meditation, yoga, or qi gong, or when we receive energetic bodywork that lifts our energy systems. We see how all of these experiences influence how we feel in our physical bodies.
The Body Nourishes the Poetic Anatomy
Let’s turn it around now and consider how the body mind and spirit may nourish the poetic anatomy. What might this higher self need to be nourished? What nutrients are needed? How would say a bowl of organic brown rice laden with freshly harvested organic vegetables compare to a commercially produced doughnut? Do you get the picture? Imagine each of these items entering the body, moving through the digestive system, the small intestine searching for nutrients to extract from the food, the liver in turn filtering out unnecessary fats and toxins, and watching what is left become your cells, your blood and the potential for nourishing your poetic anatomy or higher self.
Thoughts Become Things - Even Our Anatomy
Now let’s look at the mind. The central terminal of all thought, the mind is constantly processing, much like a computer, but on an elegantly higher level. How might a negative thought nourish the literal and poetic anatomies? Do you suppose it would energize or deplete? Would it have any effect? How do you feel when you say ‘I’m dumb, I have no money, I’m fat, I’m ugly’? How might those thoughts influence your anatomy? Conversely, ‘I’m so lucky to be alive. I have wonderful friends. I am a good person. I care about myself and others’. How would thoughts of this nature likely affect the anatomy? And the higher ethereal or poetic anatomy?
Waking Up to Oneness
And finally, the spirit. It is through the spirit that we begin to understand our interconnection not only within ourselves but with all that exists, past, present and future. If you think about the qi pathways, or the spinning chakras, there’s a continuum, a flow about them that keeps our body humming, much like the circulatory system so familiar in Western medicine. These essences create vibration that extends beyond our physical body and unites us with every other essence. At least that is so when we are functioning on a spiritually conscious level. I’ve personally experienced an uplifting of physical energy through the process of chakra balancing and shiatsu acupressure, and have had my spirit lifted from conscious eating of a beautiful meal. Being aware and connected taps into our soul energy and allows us to nourish the pathways that lie within and outside of us. It allows us to connect with ourselves, and with each other.
Nutrients Matter
The body mind and spirit can most easily support the deeper essences, the qi and the chakras, when we absorb the best nutrients available to us. The fact is that these nutrients nourish not only the body, but also the mind and spirit. As our physiological and spiritual self is intimately integrated and dependent upon quality nutrients, so too is our poetic anatomy.
Never disregard the power of food in its potential to support all aspects of your being. Food becomes You. Hippocrates said "Let medicine be your food and let food be your medicine."
Have you had experiences of heightened joy has ignited your physical energy, or vice versa? That is the meeting of the physical and poetic anatomies at work within you.
Peg Doyle, M.Ed.
Affiliate Member - National Speakers Association - New England Chapter at National Speakers Association