The inability to sit quietly, in silence highlights to me the amount of unresolved inner work that is within people. To be silent can be horrifying to some people, especially if their inner world is unkind to them. By this, I mean how they think and speak to themselves.

When people are left to be silent, it doesn't take long for things like anger, judgment of self or others, resentment, or hatred of self or others to arise.

I remember when I stayed in an Ashram in India for 3 months at the end of 2012, I did a 21 day Ayurvedic Panchakarma (detoxification program). It was wonderful except when I had 7 days of treatment for my eyes where I had to be in a darkened room and only had the distraction of people when my meals came and when they wrapped my eyes in the evening. I wasn't allowed to use the computer or read anything! OMG did I really feel the absence of DOING! I was sort of ok until about day 3…I became so stir crazy, pacing the room, doing standing push-ups against the wall, and so much anger was rising in me. Then on day 4, so many tears came. It was an amazing experience that shifted something within me on a massive scale.

I love Rumi's quote, "The wound is the place where the light gets in." If we allow trauma to be our teacher instead of our enemy, magic happens. It's amazing what a good reframe can do for our perceived perception!

This inability to be fully present to uncomfortable sensations in the body and mind is to me the first of the three major disconnects that I speak about, which is the disconnection to self. Until we are able to connect to ourselves we are run by the mind.

When I was studying Ayurveda (India's natural system of health) about 17 years ago, my teacher, Dr Ajit said, "The mind is an excellent servant but a very poor master." At the time I didn't really understand what he was saying.

Now I get it!

If you think about what we as a society value, one major value is the intellect of the mind. We encourage competition from a very early age in regards to scoring how clever the mind is. What happens often is that people tend to live in their minds and are disconnected from their bodies and spirit. To have the full human experience and to experience our full potential, we need connection between mind, body, and soul.