The Four Bodies

The human self consists of four levels, or four bodies – the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual bodies – and each body holds wisdom and information that can be drawn upon in order to remain balanced and functioning in a healthy way. As we go through life, the wisdom of the four bodies sometimes becomes diminished or blocked. Things like trauma, heartbreak, addiction, abuse, abandonment, physical or mental illness, and unhealthy patterns of behavior can have a lingering impact on an individual, their relationships, and the way they see and experience the world.

The key to wholeness is to bring balance to all four aspects – body, mind, emotions, and spirit. So much of Western medicine has been primarily focused on healing the physical body, while tending to overlook our mental, emotional, and spiritual bodies. The ultimate goal is to be balanced in all four bodies, and not forgetting that one level of the self is just as important as another.

Another aspect is the balance of the masculine and feminine energies in the body. The physical and mental bodies relate to the masculine aspects of the self, and the emotional and spiritual are feminine aspects. When we are solely in our masculine body, focused on the physical and mental side of things, we are ignoring the feminine body. The modern world has taught us that showing or having emotions is weak, and anything having to do with spirituality is “woo-woo”. Conversely, when we are solely in our feminine body, focused on the emotional and spiritual over the physical and mental, we allow our emotions to consume us and there is a danger of spiritually bypassing, or the tendency to dismiss or avoid complicated emotions or psychological issues.

By getting in touch with all four levels of the self, and bringing balance to our whole being, we can begin to clear blocks we didn’t know we had, heal past trauma, and improve our overall well-being.

Below, we break down each of the four bodies, and how to bring each aspect into balance. Keep in mind that some levels may need more time and attention than others, especially if you’ve experienced some type of trauma in that level. For example, if you spent time not believing in a higher power and neglected the spiritual body, you may need to spend more time healing and reconnecting with your spiritual body.

PHYSICAL BODY

This one is pretty self explanatory — think your skin + everything beneath! Organs, fascia, joints, etc. The physical body (masculine) is the only tangible body of the four. It is responsible for our ability to survive and thrive in the physical world. We usually know when our physical body is healthy or not as the signs are visible and generally recognizable.

Our body will often tell us when something is right or wrong, we just have to learn to listen and trust the signals we receive. Our physical body is directly affected by what goes into it, not only what we eat and drink, or the medications we take, but it can also be positively or negatively affected by our thoughts and our emotions.

A balanced body feels open, flexible, and healthy, it is full of vitality, functions properly, is free of pain, discomfort, and toxicity. It has everything it needs to operate well.

When out of balance, the body ages more rapidly, breaks down more easily, and loses elasticity. Organ function is disrupted, there are issues with absorption and elimination, and there’s a feeling of tightness, heaviness, and stress on our skeletal frame. There may be too much focus on strength, beauty, or anti-aging, and an over-reliance on outside factors like medications and surgeries, with a tendency to bypass more natural elements.

Here are some of the many ways you can bring the physical body back into balance:

• Get at least 7-8 hours of quality sleep every night
• Get regular massages or practice self-massage
• Exercise: running, walking, Yoga, Pilates, swimming, etc.
• Simple movements and stretching
• Eat healthy, organic foods
• Spend time in nature – get sunshine and fresh air
• Drink plenty of water
• Learn to listen to your body, know its signs and signals

MENTAL BODY

The mental body (masculine) is formed of our thoughts, beliefs, desires, values, attitudes, and judgments. It is how we process information and rules our ability to think and reason. It also rules our intellect and logic. It creates our perception and the lens through which we view the world, and our mindset can be our greatest blessing, or our biggest curse.

When our mental self is balanced and clear, we are proactive at problem solving, we engage in concise communication, bring innovations to form with clarity and ease, and when we are in alignment with the higher mind, instead of operating from the lower mind (ego), we do not let our thoughts rule over our lives by over-thinking, over-planning, worrying, and staying stuck in past memories.

When out of balance, there is confusion, lethargy, brain fog, forgetfulness, lack of purpose, neuroses, self-doubt, feelings of low self esteem and low worth. It can also manifest as ego-centric, sociopathic, narcissistic, over-thinking, or being on overdrive, which can manifest physically as headaches, migraines, and jaw aches or pain.

Here are the ways we can bring our mental body into balance:

• Meditate (quieting the mind can clear a path between the spiritual and mental body – we need a clear mind to receive energy from our spiritual body)
• Recognize and clear limiting beliefs
• Talk therapy
• Positive affirmations or mantras
• Mental exercises or memory games
• Read, listen to podcasts, take a course, continue learning and expanding your mind
• Practice being present and living in the moment

EMOTIONAL BODY

The emotional level (feminine) is connected to our central nervous system, hormones, sense of touch, and water absorption (bloating) and release (tears). It represents our feelings and relationship to all things and is responsible for how we relate to ourselves and the world around us. The emotional body is the bridge between the physical and the spiritual and rules our ability to feel and experience life on a deeper level. It is also where we hold our hurtful experiences (trauma) and the attached emotions and feelings like anger, sadness, jealousy, fear, guilt, resentment, shame, etc. These emotions get stored in the subconscious and unconscious mind, and if they aren’t cleared, they can become blocks.

If we aren’t aware of these stored emotions and have chosen to bury them rather than heal them, the negative energies they emit will influence our lives and can affect our mental and physical bodies as well. Anxiety, stress, anger, and chronic pain in the physical body can be good indicators of unreleased trauma and blocked emotions.

In contrast, the emotional body also stores positive feelings like love, abundance, gratitude, joy, freedom, etc. It is the level that seeks to make meaningful connections with others and find fulfillment in the things we do.

When our emotional body is balanced, we feel empathetic, open, honest, inclusive, less judgmental toward others, and generous. Levels of cortisol, insulin, estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone are more balanced, blood sugar is more regulated, the heartbeat is even and slow, and blood pressure is balanced. The body does not retain water, nor is it dehydrated.

When out of balance, there is a lack of trust, and very little emotional intelligence or intuition. There can be a lot of fear and neuroses, as well as a focus on self and very little empathy for others. This can manifest physically as holding water and weight gain, or dehydration and being underweight, inflexibility, and joint stiffness. It can also present as passive/aggressive behavior, obsessive, irrational, depressed, irritated, overly anxious, or feelings of hopelessness.

Here are some ways we can bring our emotional body into balance:

• Journaling, write about past experiences or feelings that come up for you and see if there is an opportunity for you to release some of these blocks
• Practice gratitude
• Self-love
• Practice forgiveness, especially important is learning to forgive yourself
• Releasing stress through meditation, dance, Yoga, or breathing techniques
• Balancing your hormones
• Crying or laughter
• Detoxing or fasting
• Physical touch and intimacy with others
• Emotional intelligence

SPIRITUAL BODY

The spiritual (feminine) is our soul. It is the part of us that exists beyond time and space. It is our connection to something greater than ourselves, whatever you want to call it: The Universe, God, the Divine, Source, Higher Self, Great Mystery. It connects us to all that is and allows us to find a deeper meaning and purpose in life. It is not about going to church and has little to do with religion. It is about remembering that we are all connected.

Our spiritual body is made up of energy – we are more energy than we are matter – and it communicates to us through emotions (emotional body), which in turn affect our thoughts (mental body). It is also the most ignored level, but provides the foundation for the development of the other levels of the self.

When our spiritual self is balanced, we feel calm, fearless, empowered. We are able to access divine guidance and follow our intuition. We create action from ideas and trust in the fact that there is a higher force guiding us, that there is something bigger at play than us. Life feels effortless because we are in a flow state.

When talking about the spiritual body, it is never out of balance, but rather it is us who are out of alignment with it, and by being disconnected from our spirituality, we often ignore or bury some of our emotions, or we can create mental blocks that disrupt the flow of energy between the spirit and the mind. We can feel disconnected and alone, or feel that we are victims of fate rather than co-creators of our reality. We dismiss our gut feelings. There may also be a heavy focus on doing, controlling, and trying to force things. One may also have their head in the clouds, a false god complex, a lack of connection in relationships or earthly responsibilities, or there may be a feeling of entitlement or expectation.

Here are some ways we can bring the spiritual body back into balance:

• Practice daily meditation
• Visualization
• Breathwork
• Work with energy healing and clearing, the chakras, reiki, etc.
• Prayer and gratitude
• Generosity and the act of giving
• Introspection and shadow work
• Release the illusion of separation and understand that we are all one and that heaven is within
• The understanding that everything is happening for us, not to us, and every experience holds a lesson for our greater good

In today’s world, the majority of people take care of their masculine bodies. When something is wrong with our physical body, we go to the doctor. When we have mental health issues, we seek help by seeing a therapist or talking to someone we trust. When we are solely in our masculine, the physical and mental side of things, we are focused on the doing and the accomplishing, the yang parts of our life experience.

When it comes to our feminine bodies, the emotional and spiritual side of our existence, we don’t treat them with the same importance, and most men are taught to completely ignore their feminine bodies because it’s not masculine. But the feminine is simply the state of being and feeling, the yin part that is also necessary to our experience. The truth is, we are all made of both masculine and feminine energies, and to ignore one aspect is to ignore a piece of yourself.

When all four levels are working together in harmony, we feel whole and complete. That is why it is so important to focus time and attention on working with our four bodies and healing every level of the self. It’s about finding a balance that works for you and incorporating practices that nourish each aspect of yourself.

I hope you found this information helpful.