A vile pattern in our oppressive over-culture is to divide us from our own sense of self.

This results in many different fractures within us, all of which serve to make us easier to control, exploit, and oppress.

The false dichotomy of "mind" and "body" plays a massive role in this. In reality, mental health is physical health, and physical health is mental health; our minds, emotions, and bodies are all fundamentally inseparable from each other. These parts of us are more akin to facets of a single jewel than to distinct containers of "self-stuff."

As a result, our culture teaches us nothing about how to truly deal with emotional pain. We are deprived of rituals, customs, traditions, and processes which - traditionally - people have relied upon to deal with difficult experiences. Under capitalism, we're rarely even given the time to confront our own experiences.

This is all by design. We are actively forbidden the knowledge that would allow us to heal effectively, because that would shatter the hold oppression has on our circumstances.

It is why every effective healing journey must include some form of body-focused (somatic) work. And it is why communal practices - of giving each other time, space, and techniques for processing our feelings - are mandatory for the recovery of our world from the ravages of kyriarchy.

Until we know how to find a measure of peace within our own bodies, we will never truly find it between each other, or in our world at large.

Related

Essay: How to Change Your Mind