We have been created and designed with a Body and Soul. St. Thomas Aquinas described humans as Ensouled bodies or Embodied souls, not separate but united and uniquely integrated.
What has been developed over the years is a philosophy of health and wellness, with a model of human person with a body, mind and spirit. The goal was to replace the dualistic model - body and mind towards an integrative wholeness, yet we now have a tripart system. Moreover, in this philosophy it has defined the term 'spirit' as the non-material driver of one's motivations, built within an inner platform rooted in what is personally meaningful. Its expression is one's spirituality, as aspect of one's personality.
What I have been asking myself is 'where is the soul' in this tripart system? How did it leave the conversation? On top of the dualistic philosophy model, the term 'spirit' was an add on. Now we, humans, are even more divided.
We all know there is something that functions as the engine to our bodies that when it no longer functions, we die with the body with the mind housed within the brain, no longer functions.
Is the term spirit and soul the same? What does it have to do with health and wellness in this world of integrative health.
As I continue my studies, I hope to address this issue in depth gathering in from Ignatian spirituality, Thomistic philosophy and some of the evidence-based mind-body medicine methods as a way forward for one to flourish in health and wellness through an awareness of this our eternal soul which animates our temporal body.