Overestimating yourself... Body vs. spirit

I can’t remember when was the last time I was so sick. I think that the 

last time I had fever was more than 10 years ago. But somehow it managed to bring me down. I was quite surprised on the one hand because I was feeling really good and powerful, but on the other hand I think that I had seen it coming… I had overestimated myself… 

It doesn’t mean anything if the spirit lives without limitations, regardless of the body which exists in this (real) dimension. A spirit without limitations helps only when there is a complete harmony between body and soul and when they mirror each other.

After the last couple of months I concluded that I needed a change. So we decided to visit Trieste for two days, shortly after the ball of Graz University of Technology. When we set off I had already known that I failed to take notice of something. Despite an amazing time in Trieste, I got back home sick. I was feeling good mentally and we managed to take a time off and switch a bit, but my body was tired and it didn’t get its well deserved rest. The inevitable viruses finished me off and I was pulled out of everyday life. That was my body’s cry for help, which has kept me chained to my bed for almost a week…

Rueful and ineffective, I’ve had plenty of time to think and this is how these thoughts have came to my mind…

I think that many creative people, artists or mentally active people have a similar problem – in the outburst of their creativity and their thoughts they often forget about their body. They think that their bodies have the same abilities as their spirits. This can be possible in many aspects, but still… our spirit in its very nature lives in a whole other dimension than our body. 

If we want our body to match our spirit, it can be done by extensive training and thoughtfulness. It’s hard to presume to which extent this is possible. Yogis, Buddhist monks, fakirs and many others show up to where our limits can be pushed...

On the other hand there are people who are super fit and take good care of their bodies, but forget about their psyche and spirit. If you take for example Burnout exercises and other similar forms of keeping your body fit, you can notice how little attention is given to spirit and soul. Your body is healthy and your mind is sick… One affects the other inevitably. Mostly it’s just a question of time until a sick psyche would affect the body or vice versa.

Neither in the first nor in the second example is it possible to perform activities at a satisfactory level for a longer period of time. A satisfactory level of performance is preconditioned by a „healthy” relation between body and spirit, which also enables us to be „happy“ and „satisfied“ over a longer period of time and not to diminish our essence or shorten our lives intentionally and consciously.

If either body or spirit is imbalanced, this will reflect on our lives. This is the reason why we should pay attention to both of these parts equally. This precise characteristic can be noticed in dance as well – striving to experience dancing throughout the harmony of body and spirit. Don’t get me wrong – it’s always possible to dance, regardless of the condition in which our body or our spirit is. But discovering the freedom of mind combined with overcoming the obstacles of your body and discovering your very own personal abilities makes it much easier to express music throughout dance.

Dance is an exercise for your body and a relief for your soul...
If everything functions in harmony, then one can freely say that he’s close to perfection.

Taking this into concern I couldn’t help but wonder would it ever be possible for people to dissolve. Will „dematerialization“ or teleportation be possible, will the spirit ever „surpass“ the body… I came to a conclusion that this will never be possible. I mean it could be possible in a spiritual way – but in that case our body would be abandoned by our spirit.

Naturally, it’s possible to live in all kinds of ways. A lively spirit can live in an ill body, and an ill spirit can live in a sane body. But isn’t the harmony of these two within the limits of your personal possibilities the congenial individual connection which we should strive for? Doesn’t that mean that if you forget one, you would not be able to provide optimal support to the other?

That is why I think that overestimating or underestimating yourself, either physically or mentally, is the worst people’s enemy. By overestimating yourself, you appreciate the important stuff too little and vice versa. And when you believe that you’re the strongest, you’re actually the weakest because it is in these moments that you tend to overestimate yourself and be vain, which makes you vulnerable and imprudent.

Perfection, or better to say the moment which looks perfect, is therefore „healthy” only for a short period of time. Losing balance is necessary to stay “modest” because like in a circuit only by being modest and down to earth is it possible to come close to perfection.

To live in harmony means neither to over- nor to underestimate yourself, but rather to live with your strengths modestly. I am happy and thankful to have learnt this because of a flu.

(Translated by Martina Pranjić - Thank you)