Many thousands of years ago in ancient India,
The great masters or the scientists of what would end up becoming called yoga,
Discovered that there were two types of body.
The first type of body is called the subtle body and the second type,
The gross body.
The subtle body is slightly akin to the nervous system and the mind,
But also includes various aspects such as the endocrine system.
The gross body really is the physical body.
The subtle body has profound effects on the gross body that are normally not noticed,
But are nevertheless extremely powerful.
For example,
If you were to eat your favorite food,
The body releases dopamine,
Which makes you feel happy and relaxed.
If somebody were to hug you,
The person being hugged will release oxytocin,
Which also makes them feel relaxed and happy.
Eye contact with somebody also has the same effect as it releases oxytocin.
Just simple laughter and the body will release endorphins.
It is quite amazing how much the subtle body is working on a consistent basis and creating so many aspects of who we are and who we will become.
The subtle body can also affect the gross body in many negative ways.
For example,
As soon as you become anxious,
You may end up then getting abdominal pain or discomfort in the gross body.
The subtle body is so powerful in so many ways because we don't know what it's doing,
But in the end,
It does tend to always show itself in the gross body.
Therefore,
If our subtle body is healthy,
The gross body is healthy.
If the subtle body is unhealthy,
Then the gross body is certainly unhealthy as well.
It is also the subtle body that uses far more energy than the gross body.
For example,
If you were to be sad or to cry,
How fatigued do you feel after that?
How fatigued do you feel after you had an anxious moment or were in fear?
There is also a very strong correlation to the subtle body and the five senses.
If one watches a gambler,
How intensely he's looking at the roulette table with his eyes.
Those eyes being directly related to the subtle body use so much energy that you can see how fatigued this person has actually become by looking at the person's auras and face.
We must of course not forget our gross body and eat the correct foods and keep muscles strong and flexible,
Elastic,
But the subtle body,
Which that is which is continuously moving without us knowing,
That subtle body we must also take great care of.
There are methods of course to take care of it.
One of them for example is meditation,
But at the end of the day to do meditation one really needs pre-training.
It's the same as diaphragmatic breathing,
Which is so healthy for the subtle body.
There also needs to be pre-training before one is able to do that effectively.
The first training method to affect the subtle body in a positive manner is the training method of non-reaction.
Non-reaction starts externally and slowly becomes internal.
So for example if somebody were to cut you off in the traffic,
Initially without knowing about the subtle body you will swear or get angry at that person.
Of course the worst form would be to actually get out the car and try to attack them.
This is the worst reaction possible and is the most external,
But most people may swear under their breath or shout at them.
The subtle body being affected here can also come up in the gross body where that anger may cause you liver pain,
Rib pain,
Stomach pain,
High blood pressure,
The list goes on.
So you would want to have non-reaction.
This may take a while because you'll initially notice yourself react without even noticing how much of a habit it's become by swearing at the person.
The next time it comes,
Your reaction is not swearing at the person cutting you off and having no outward reaction whatsoever.
Maybe you pull a face.
The next step then is to take away the face.
Eventually you want to move inwards where somebody cuts you off in the traffic and even in your mind there is no ripples of annoyance or discomfort,
Annoyance or irritation.
Eventually when you've trained non-reaction deep enough,
When somebody cuts you off in the traffic,
You have no reaction internally or externally whatsoever.
It is therefore taking this idea of non-reaction to all aspects of your life as the first step to training the subtle body.
