Photo by Ashley Batz on Unsplash
I was so excited to attend a presentation a couple months ago on healthy mind, healthy body, healthy spirit.
Afterwards I took time to ponder the things I’d heard. They didn’t resonate with me. Part of what I heard that was distressing was that the spirit has to “strong arm the body” into behaving. I just don’t believe that the body is to blame for every bad decision. It just seems like this would lead to body shaming or using the body as the scapegoat.
I took a college course (EXSC 349 Body, Mind, Spirit) a few years ago, and it did resonate with me when it spoke of the “sacredness of the body and its meaningfulness to the whole being.” I love seeing the mind, body, and spirit as three parts of my whole working together. Just like any three entities joined, I’m sure they are at odds at times. But I believe together they make united decisions.
Whether it’s the body or the mind that wants the cheesecake, I can’t really say. But I believe they decide together whether to eat or not to eat it. Together they reap the consequences and/or blessings of the decision.
This week and for the next several weeks I’m doing an experiment to notice the mind, body, spirit connection. My 40-day plan includes clean eating and exercising, meditation and scripture reading, and lots of reading, models, and thinking.
To be honest going into my experiment I was feeling dread…mainly about the eating. I love getting in tune with my spirit and my mind.
My model looked like this:
Circumstance: 40 day eating plan
Thought: I’m already feeling deprived
Feeling: Weak
Action: Eat a lot before the first day gets here, regrets, stomach ache
Results: I’m a glutton
Of course, I turned to my coach for guidance. She gave me a thought that helped me feel excited.
Thought: Deprivation facilitates the space for mind, body, spirit connection.
I don’t know why that sounds so romantic to me 😊
It is the thought that got me excited to move forward. And truth be told, I haven’t felt deprived once. I’m enjoying and craving the healthy foods during this first week. But I’m sure the feeling of deprivation will come and I’ll be ready for it. Because that means I’m getting closer to discovering the connection when I’m feeding my body, my mind, and my spirit all the good things.
