The Body is the Mind...DUH!
Notes from a facialist by day & catadora by night
Every Saturday I work a double shift. A few hours past noon, I peel off my med-spa scrubs, refresh, and don an outfit reminiscent of my style icon — Beret Girl from An Extremely Goofy Movie. I then walk out to the employee garage and nap in my car. Upon waking, I am a different service professional. No longer interested in hearing about someone’s skincare routine, what I’m now curious about is their palate.
As I stroll down the requisite blocks to my wine bar shift, in solitude with myself I am visited by my Abuela Rosalía’s voice: dime con quién andas y te diré quién eres. Tell me who you’re with (translated for essence: tell me who you spend time with, or, tell me who your friends are) and I’ll tell you who you are. To this, from my ever shapeshifting mind I add my own refrán: tell me what and how you drink, tell me what and how you eat, and I’ll tell you about your inner terroir.
As I study for my upcoming WSET exam, my body is sensing through fresh knowledge. My eyes are learning to see color in a new light, my nose is training to pick up scent differently, my hands are stabilizing glass then swirling wine, my mouth is aerating molecules around, coating the entirety of its inside. I’m swishing, tasting, spitting, repeating. My tongue is now a critical thinker. The language for it all, the notes, the standardized vocabulary and theory of wine etc. all of that comes after having first experienced the bounty of a vine. After all, feeling is the first confirmation of existence. Descartes was a myopic man.
Contemporary wellness terms like “mind-body connection” imply a separation in need of mediation, like Lucifer falling or Eve banished. Learning and laboring in a service job whether in aesthetics or food and beverage, it all highlights just how flat the westernized mind-body perspective is. What’s more interesting is to remember that the mind is in the body; the mind is of the body; the body is the mind.