Embodied Justice: Physiology of Body-Mind-Spirit

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

Locate the institutions and power structures that contribute to mind-body-spirit disconnection, and the social movements and healing practices that can aid integration

Review examples of body-mind-spirit experiences that demonstrate the interdependent nature of our bodies, honor the complexities of different abilities (e.g. neurodivergence, inflammation), and acknowledge capitalist-colonial conditions themselves can be disabling

Demonstrate the power of collectivist, ancestral, and spiritual approaches to healing, including how they can support meaning making, self-understanding, and animistic sensibilities towards justice

Identify trauma-informed and justice-oriented ways that providers can support people and communities in their unique healing journey

Review on-the-ground perspectives from the Global Southeast (specifically in the context of the Philippines) to build bridges with Western contexts of justice-oriented education

Western healing systems are rooted in the practice of examining and analyzing body systems independently from one another in order to identify a supposed “problem” and “solution.” As capitalist-colonial systems have cultured parts of our embodiment, there is a need to counter dualistic narratives and co-process Cartesian impacts and Gnosticism. In truth, our psychobiological formation, neural architecture, and survival are wholly dependent on restoring the quality of connection – to ourselves, each other, the land, the universe, our ancestors, and the web of life around us. Thus, the disconnection between mind, body, and spirit constitutes a form of violence, failing to account for the myriad ways that these interact. Disconnections can introduce emotional and energetic reverberations of fear, anxiety, dysregulation and dissociation, which are then communicated physiologically as inflammation, pain, and other forms of chronic illness and dis-ease . Interconnectedness must be honored in order to chart paths towards justice, genuine healing and ease.

This class will explore the impact of capitalistic-colonial conditioning on our individual and collective bodies, drawing attention to the ways function over being is prioritized and that our current approaches function to keep systems invisible. What if we viewed ourselves through the lens of the social, political, systemic context of our lives? If we have been dis-membered by systems of colonization, how can we re-member and put ourselves back together? What movements and practices can we turn to grieve violence and loss and realize integration? Faculty will discuss the ways in which each body-mind-spirit is connected to expansive histories, continuously transmitting wisdom of where it has been and where it is. Participants will be encouraged to see themselves as artists of connection, and gain new strategies to identify and tend to body-mind-spirit needs during times of meta-crisis.