Before you embark on a long journey into unfamiliar territory, it's helpful to have a map handy. The same goes for our inner journey. Many people think of the physical body when the word "health" is brought up. After all the definition of health in the dictionary is, "freedom from physical disease or pain or general condition of the body." But we all know there is more to a human being than the physical body. In fact we have several bodies that are all interconnected. When something happens to one body, good or bad, it can be experienced in the other bodies as well. It is therefore imperative that we understand all of our bodies and learn to keep them all free from disease and pain.

Over 3,000 years ago yogic sages developed the map of the koshas (bodies) to navigate an inner journey - starting from the periphery (physical body) and moving towards the core of the self (the embodied soul).; We are composed of five layers, sheaths, or bodies. Like Russian dolls, each metaphorical "body" is contained within the next. The five bodies are as follows:

1. Physical body. It is the most dense and the only body that is tangible.
2. Energetic body or the breath body.
3. Psycho-emotional body or the mental body.
4. Wisdom body.
5. Bliss body.

The koshas are interwoven together like a tapestry. Without a doubt we have all experienced this interconnection in our own body. Whenever you feel tension or stress, you will find your breath becomes shallow and your mind is in a state of agitation while wisdom and joy seem far away. But when you feel joy and are in communion with life, positive energy permeates your entire being. From the kosha perspective, yoga (or any other meditative practice) allows you to bring alignment of the layers to allow connection with the bliss body. Remember there are no hard and fast laws governing the kosha map. Look at it as a guideline for exploring the mystery of being alive.

Physical Body
You would start your journey with the first layer, which is your annamaya kosha or physical body. Annamaya means food in Sanskrit and so the physical body is made of food from the earth and is the tangible part of our being. Food should be looked at as fertilizer to enrich the physical body. Take time for quiet contemplation on different parts of your body and notice how your attitude towards food changes. There are many meditative techniques that allow you to connect with your body such as Qi Gong, Tai Chi, Yoga, and Vipassana.

Breath Body
The next three layers are unseen and are part of the subtle body. Although they cannot be tangibly grasped, they can have a profound effect on the physical body. For instance, if your breath body, or pranamaya kasha, were to cease to funtion, your physical body would perish. Yoga teaches a system of breathing called pranayama and its purpose is to cultivate the develop the quality of the breath body. Once you have established a firm familiarity with the physical body, breathing exercises will assist you in developing an awareness of your breath. By exploring your breath you create freedom by creating a river of life within your physical body. As you increase the amount of oxygen in your bloodstream, your breath body comes to life.

Mind Body
The mind body, or manomaya kasha, is the third layer and corresponds to the nervous center. Thoughts express themselves in waves of awareness that are carried throughout the physical body via the nervous system. Just think about a fearful or stressful situation and notice how your body tenses up. Our minds have a job to do and that is to produce thoughts. It is important to understand that only when we are attached to a particular thought or string of thoughts that we find our physical body and emotional body react. When we learn to detach from our thoughts and let our minds rest, it is there that our minds find true peace, harmony, balance, and freedom.

When the mind is overloaded with too many thoughts, the breath can serve as a bridge between body and mind. If you expand the breath, you will expand the mind and create openness in the physical body. Also it could be said that the mind is the future in that everything starts with a thought or idea. The physical body is the past in that the reaction to the thought is later experienced in the physical body. The breath is the present and therefore can unite the physical body and the mind to bring them both into the present just by putting full attention on the breath.

Wisdom Body
Now we can tie the first three layers together by coordinating breath with physical movements and synchronize with the mental body (concentration and awareness). When the first three layers begin to syncopate, a profound awakening occurs within your wisdom body or vijnyanamaya kosha. We begin to experience deeper insight into the universe and ourselves. Our consciousness expands and an effortlessness occurs within the first three layers.

Bliss Body
When you experience the blissful joy of all four layers in synch with each other, you have touched the bliss body or anandamaya kosha. You, the individual, ceases to exist and you become one with all that is beautiful. This is the center of your being where unconditional love and communion with spirit arises.

We have all experienced this bliss body at one time or another. Musicians, dancers, yogis, as well as children go there often. Just know that sometimes the bliss body is not accessible and requires we look for obstacles or disturbances. Learning about the different bodies and how they work together is the journey that leads to enlightenment.