I briefly talked about this topic in one of my M.I.Ts a couple days ago and I wanted to expand on it a little bit more here.

Ever since Descartes uttered the famous words “I think, therefore I am”, people have begun to identify themselves with their thoughts. The mental realm had begun to define their identity and the physical aspect of themselves was ignored and swept under the rug. The coming years began to focus solely on the mind, a journey into unknown territory as very little was not known about it then. As a result of this predominate focus on the mind, many self improvement books centered around this topic and we began to see evidence of this by looking at some of the earlier ones, namely James Allen’s classic “As a Man Thinketh”. That was followed by more literature on visualizing, the self image, the subconscious mind, positive thinking, etc.

Slowly but surely, we began to view the mind as vastly superior to the body and as a result, saw an emerging dichotomy between the two.

It was either or. You either had a superior mind+weak body or a superior body+weak mind. You couldn’t have both.

I’m a firm believer of the idea that if you have a strong body, you will have a strong mind.

But some might argue that since the mind is stronger than the body, that the mind deserves most, if not all the attention. I don’t disagree with the idea of the mind being stronger than the body, but that doesn’t mean you should disregard the body and focus solely on the mind.

You can strengthen your mind through bodily training, so why not take advantage of that opportunity? Your mind and body are linked. There’s no doubt about that. They are not separate as history has conditioned us to believe. You strengthen the body, you automatically strengthen the mind.

Granted, it’s not something that’s absolutely necessary, but it’s something that can help. And it can help a lot. So why not use it? It makes no sense to disregard something as valuable and central to our lives as our own bodies to help build our minds.

You need only to take a look at the lives of those who have focused on their body as well as their mind to see just how beneficial this habit can be -Arnold Schwarzenegger, Teddy Roosevelt, Lance Armstrong just to name a few.

Biologically speaking, it makes sense too. You focus on the body by exercising and eating right, you gain more energy, have greater vitality, and get sick less often which allows you to do much more with your life.

If you take a look at some of the most elite military schools in the nation, namely West Point and you take a look at the difference between the person who enters that school and the person that emerges after graduation, the difference can be as different as night and day.

Part of that difference is attributed to extensive physical training and you’ll find this to be one of the foundational elements in any military school around the world and one might think it’s obvious since you need that physical training in order to fight, but that kind of physical training is more often than not, used to transform individuals from soft, weak minded individuals into hard, disciplined individuals who are masters of their own mind and bodies. This kind of transformation is truly astonishing and emphasis on training the body plays a big part in it.

Kelly Perdew, winner of the Apprentice II – you can really see the difference between him and the other contestants when you watch the show. There’s something about him that just screams discipline and he attributed a good portion of that along with his other successes in life to his training at West Point.

When you focus on the body and give it the training and nourishment it deserves, there will come a day when you will literally feel your body flowing with energy through your veins. You will feel life force pulsating throughout every cell in your body. You’ll feel like you’re “on” and you’ll have that eye of the tiger.

Have you every looked at the eyes of a tiger? It’s 400 pounds of pure, concentrated, attention focused squarely on YOU.

All your senses will begin to heighten as well and you’ll find your day to day experiences much richer than before. You’ll be able to pick up on subtle body language cues when you interact with other people, food will taste better, your hearing will improve, you’ll begin to see more clearly and all these things begin to manifest as a result of focusing on your body and helping it get back in touch with its natural state.

The energy in our body is the same energy that makes the deer run in the mountains, the same energy that propels the lion to pounce on its prey, and the same energy that helps birds fly thousands of miles in the wintertime. It would be a shame to deprive ourselves of that energy now wouldn’t it?

It’s foolish to assume that bodily training doesn’t affect the mind positively. If you can train your body to persevere, to run that extra mile when you don’t think or feel you can, but you do it anyway, is it not your mind, as well as your body that was strengthened, that worked together to help achieve that goal? When you work on your body and give it the attention it deserves, your body becomes a new source of confidence and inner strength that provides tangible proof of just how connected mind and body can be.

Our bodies are in an unnatural state most of the day. Half the day, it’s parked behind a desk. The other half is in the car and on the sofa, parked behind the TV.

Our bodies have become soft and weak. As a result, our minds have become soft and weak.

The more we pay attention to our bodies in this day and age where technology easily makes us neglect it, the more in tune we can become with our natural state. The more in tune we are with our natural state, the more we can utilize all the gifts that nature has given us within it.

You nourish the body, you WILL nourish the mind. You train the body, you WILL train the mind. You strengthen the body, you WILL strengthen the mind. And by doing so, you’ll realize that mind and body were never two, but were always and forever will be, one.