I like to argue that independence of body from mind is not so bad.
It is good to remind body and mind have strong connection by saying “psycho-physical unity”. But, I think it is not practical enough. What’s wrong with thinking like: our mind and body give strong influence each other, but we can change our physical use better independently of our psychological state? So, why not we put more enphasis on “the independence of body from mind”?
Most of our physical use (movement, posture, breathing, uttering, etc.) are excuted by our skeletal muscles. The skeletal muscles are voluntary muscles, and it means that we are potentially able to make our physical use consciously (under our conscious control) in any time except in sleeping.
People usually make their physical use not consciously (mostly by auto pilot), and they thus tend to use their body disadvantageously. People tend to pull their head down and back and tense their neck excessively when they have psychological stimulus like speaking in front of many people. This is just because they let auto pilot respond while their state of mind gives strong influence to the body through motor neuron.
They could have chosen their response and have kept their head position and release excessive tension in their neck (because these responses are executed by the skeletal muscles), even though they feel nervous through facing psychological stimulus. This is saying that we are able to control our body independently from their state of mind. So, what we learn through AT is more about this independence of body from mind, isn’t it?
I know that our consciousness and thinking will be involved in changing our use. Consciousness and thinking are parts of mental process, so we could say that it is still “psycho-physical unity”. This is describing the characteristic of our function. It is good to know, but it is not practical enough. Knowing what we can change is more practical information. FM’s word “conscious constructive control” can mean this independence of bodily control.
We are consciously able to control how we support our body, how we move, and how we breath independently from our psychological state or emotion. These are in our hands. I feel freer and lighter since I start to think this way.
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