The recent dramatic escalation of new Covid-19 cases has increased health anxiety. It seems a good time to remember that a spiritual focus in life includes an awareness and appreciation of our physical body. There are religious traditions that still teach that the highest spiritual states disregard the physical world and therefore they dismiss the human physical body as problematic to spiritual attainment, Yet, all major religions as well as indigenous spiritual traditions have their ways of physical healing.
One of the greatest gifts of my medical training was a new awareness of the complexity, intricacy and wondrous intelligence of the human body and it's regulatory systems. The way the body's parts fit together and function, the physiology, basic anatomy. and cellular processes still fascinate me. To me, study of the physical body is spiritual study; awareness of the body is spiritual awareness. The division is artificial.
With health anxiety, there is often an increased focus on the physical body, but a focus that comes from fear and fear-based watchfulness. We have been regularly informed of the growing list of symptoms of Covid-19 and different geographical areas have their criteria for testing. We are told to be watchful. But this is also good time to move beyond illness fear, and consider the spiritual significance of your body as part of your self care and part of your spiritual practice. What does your body have to communicate to you, beyond signals of contagion? What does it need right now? Conscious inner "scanning" the body while you remain in a relaxed state is another form of mindfulness meditation. As in other forms of mindfulness, you can give your attention to your body, listening with reverence and awe. (Susan Nettleton)