I believe I can fly

This philosophy class of mine is very thought-provoking and has been the motivation behind many of my posts. So yet again, other thoughts that came to me from things the students said, which got me thinking, and here I am writing about it.

We were talking about Functionalism, Dualism, Personalism, and Materialism with respect to different schools of thought about our mind, body and soul; whether they exist; if they are one in the same; etc.

One student commented that "The body is an obstacle for the mind," and another said, "The body gives our mind the ability to do things," in other words, the body is a tool for the mind. These two students' opinions seem to be contradicting one another. The answer could be, as many of the students love to say, "it depends." We can always find a clause to invalidate any theory, but I think asking people to take a firm stand is a great way to pick people's brains, find out, and, have them show themselves what they believe.

The body could be an obstacle for the mind under some circumstances and then a tool under others. If we set a goal in our mind, for example, to run a marathon, our body makes that goal a reality, with a lot of help from the mind's motivation. However, there's the other case that one of the students presented about wanting to fly, flight being a desire of the mind or imagination; however, the body is incapable of fulfilling this desire of the mind, this is where the body is holding the mind back, its obstacle.

Someone else in class said that the body is needed to express physical feelings. Are feelings physical? Is the only way to express our feelings physical? Are there certain feelings that can only be expressed physically? What if we are unable to express feelings physically? Does our mind/body find an outlet?