I noticed a long time ago that we do a really weird thing when we talk about ourselves in Western culture: we treat our minds and bodies as inherently separate pieces of ourselves. When I was getting my Bachelors in Psychology I noticed we even do this in class and research. We have all seemed to collectively forget the ways our minds and our bodies are inherently connected. When I tried explaining this point to peers and professors I was mostly met with confused silence. Apparently this way of thinking is so ingrained that we have a hard time imagining alternative ways to think about ourselves. So I wanted to write this piece to explain my observations, offer a different way of thinking, and point out the benefits of allowing ourselves to be complicated and interconnected people!
El que reza y peca, empata: Understanding Colombia???s Cultural Contradictions
Foreigners studying or living in Colombia often find that societal customs and the local way of life here are at once familiar, but refreshingly…