The invisible mind-body

One can have a body and still feel physically lifeless. 

The more I touch the world, the more it touches me, the more alive I feel.

One can have mental activity (thoughts) and still feel empty. 

The more I engage with the world creatively, the more enriched and vibrant I become.

Having a body and mind, and feeling physically and imaginatively alive, are two different things. 

Thomas Ogden distinguishes between body and soma, the latter being "the experience of physical aliveness, which is not located anywhere, and is different from the body and the brain, which are things located somewhere." He also distinguishes between mind and psyche, psyche being the imagination that unfolds from sensation, the mind that creates the experience of physical aliveness.

He writes: "psyche-soma is not in the body; it is a realm of experience different from that of the body, but related to it. It is an irreducible whole that is not localisable anywhere." Ogden also calls it the live-body "with its limits, and with an inside and outside, [that] is felt by the individual to form the core for the imaginative self. The ‘live body’ is unlocalisable experience that is "felt by the individual," while the body is a localisable thing." 

He names a healthy psyche-soma “the self,” and I wonder: is that the very invisible presence that dances butoh?

And each one of us has a unique way of being alive.

[Photo above by Raul Batolome @raul.bartolome with my drawing on top]