When considering a holistic approach to life, health, and well being one is understandably drawn toward considerations of the connection between mind, body, and spirit. While there are many explanations that fall along more esoteric or spiritual lines, these types of descriptions can be a bit confusing for practical purposes. There is, however, a straightforward explanation that may shed light on the obscure.
The mind and body connection is readily apparent, but the spirit tends to cause consternation. As will be seen, this should not be the case. Of course, the mind is the source of the body’s function. This is true on the subconscious level, as in breathing, the blood pumping, healing processes, and so on, as well as on the conscious level.
Ultimately, we rarely do anything without the mind informing the action. Accordingly, a healthy mind feeds a healthy body, and a healthy body is better able to do the mind’s will. But the spirit has a reputation of being ethereal. However, the actual meaning of the word spirit is simply breath. And without breath neither the body nor the mind can operate at all.
So in treating the breath as an actual entity, which it is, one can come to a clear understanding of the whole apparatus as it were. Breathing deeply, purposefully, and consciously is an element of most great spiritual movements, and for very good reason. The breath is spirit, and the body and mind cannot exist without it.