A child is born with a fully active body, life energy, and an open consciousness that has not yet been influenced by culture, education, and trauma. Around the age of 2- 4 years, the sense of ‘I’ emerges in the child, creating self-awareness. Self-awareness brings the delights of life and the fear of death. The child takes shelter within their family and is given psychological protection and comfort through religion, traditions, customs, myths, and culture. ‘I,’ with the wrappings of education and culture, becomes an identity. Through that identity, a child is rooted in culture. Rooting in culture is essential because a rootless child (without identity) would struggle to find their place in the world and could suffer from emotional and mental health problems.
Rooting in culture is essential because a rootless child (without identity) would struggle to find their place in the world and could suffer from emotional and mental health problems.
Education and personal trauma add to the identity of the child. Although a child is protected psychologically by their identity, a big sacrifice is made by conforming to a culture and following the pattern and expectations of society. Something authentic and unique is lost. For psychological protection, the child surrenders the unique life energy with which they were born. This life energy becomes blocked, and that essential connection with the body is lost. And so, the body is no longer fully active. We fill the emptiness that we feel because of a lack of life energy, with external culture and education. The cultural mind is fully imposed on the body.
A child born with open consciousness, an active body, and life energy grows into a blocked adult. An adult compensates for their blocked life energy through excess wealth, power, fame, knowledge, entertainment, sex, and addictions. The consciousness of the child, which was open, now is veiled by the conditioned cultural mind. The person is not fully alive and lives a mundane life without passion and creativity.
However, it is possible to completely reconnect and return to the body and full life energy. Blocked body and life energy can be unblocked. As the life energy is freed, it will cause a radical revolution and allow us to live a full, complete life. Somatofulness is the story of the body and life’s energy.