BODY CONSCIOUS

Discovering Your Spirit

To experience the latent potential within each of us we must first understand the misuse of the word spirit.   We were never intended to be suppressed by the soulish nature of the body.  We were all designed to be spirit lead and not soul led.  To clarify the point, consider the needs and wants of the body and mind: food, shelter, companionship, clothing, and personal comfort.  Now consider the needs and wants of the spirit: food, shelter, companionship, and personal comfort.  It is how we acquire these needs and wants that separates the soulish nature from the spiritual nature.

 

As an athlete I have had coaches who taught basics as the most important item to be mastered in sport.  As the athlete achieves mastery of the basics a game plan can then be built for success.  As a coach myself I pushed basics so hard some of my athletes thought I would never get to the game plan.  Failure to apply the basics is a game plan for disaster.  Likewise the same is true of the body, mind, and spirit; failure to apply the basics in equal measure is a life plan for disaster.  In previous posts we covered the basics of the body: proper nutrition, exercise, and rest to achieve physical wellness. We have also covered the mind and how to retrain the brain for wellness through nutrition, exercise, and rest. Our best effort will fall short of total body wellness until we complete the basics of the total body.  What then are the basics of the spirit lead life?  First we need to understand the nature of the spirit.  The spirit is hidden potential, hidden from success by the selfish nature of the soul.  The soul has learned how to hide our potential so effectively we are willing to accept mediocrity as our potential.  When measuring performance results in any effort the standard is set by willing acceptance of mediocrity for which we and others grant praise and approval.  The truth is we can achieve so much more than the measure of success we currently use because our basics are missing, basics of the spirit.

 

The spirit is very much like a seed.  Anyone who has ever planted a seed knows that seed is dead.  We know the seed is dead, but that is of little concern to us because we are considering the seed’s potential.  We plant that seed believing that with proper soil, moisture, and sun light sooner or later it will produce the desired effect we seek.  We do not see the seed as something dead rather we see an apple tree, a beautiful flower, food to nourish us, and even some day shelter from the hot sun of summer.  We saw beyond the lack of life in the seed and saw the seed’s potential.  At no point did we consider that the dead seed would not succeed in its potential.  The spirit has potential but it is dead seed within us until it is planted.  Planting the dead seed of the spirit in an environment where it has the greatest potential to achieve the desired results is the key.  Until we can distinguish the difference between being soul led from spirit led we will serve the soulish nature.  The next post will talk about bringing the dead seed of the spirit to life and toward its potential.

The Care and Feeding of the Spirit

The spirit in many ways is just like the body and the mind.  It requires proper nutrition, rest, and exercise.  The nurturing of the spirit is one of the body humans’ biggest failures.  When a baby is born and fails to thrive the condition is sometimes diagnosed as marasmus. Dorland’s Medical Dictionary for Health Consumers defines marasmus as “a form of protein-energy malnutrition predominantly due to prolonged severe caloric deficit, chiefly occurring in the first year of life, with growth retardation and wasting of subcutaneous fat and muscle.  Mohammad El-Baba, MD, Wayne State University, Reda Bassali, MBChB, Medical College of Georgia, John Benjamin, MD, Medical College of Georgia, and Ruby Mehta, MD, Children’s Hospital of Michigan describe the Failure to Thrive among other causes as follows: “Failure to thrive in a patient can result from the combination of both organic and nonorganic reasons.  In one study, half of the cases with organic etiology had a psychosocial factor contributing to the failure to thrive.  This is caused by a number of reasons.  It is clear that illnesses in children, particularly chronic illnesses, can take their toll on families.  Stresses from coping with chronic illnesses may lead to parental dysfunction, such as depression, alcohol or drug abuse, divorce, or chaotic home environments.  Parental dysfunction and the resultant negative atmosphere in which children are reared affect their food intake.  In addition, children may undergo personality changes when they have chronic diseases.”  Parental dysfunction and the failure to thrive also has relevancy when it comes to the spirit.

The spirit has a record of failure to thrive.  Having a spirit and having the spirit thrive are completely different manifestations as we shall see.  Have you ever noticed how some people walk into a room and gloom seems to come in with them, and then there are those who simply light up the room just by being present?  Perhaps neither of the above mentioned individuals is aware of the effect they have on others they are just busy being themselves.  They may not even be aware of the marasmus condition of the spirit.  Marasmus is as much a parental issue as a personal issue when it comes to the spirit.  If the spirit is not properly loved and nourished the results may be a failure to thrive.  Who is the parent of our spirit, is it our parents, is it the individual, or is it some mysterious force from the outside?

When we fail to recognize the needs of the spirit as important, maybe more important than the body and mind, we are on a path to marasmus of the spirit.  Meeting the needs of the spirit will require effort and diligence.  Understanding the nutritional requirements along with the exercise requirements of the spirit is a study unto itself.  Many have attempted to negate the needs of the spirit believing that if the body and mind are cared for the spirit will follow.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Those who have become soulish (actions of the body directed by the soul) will have a difficult time reviving the spirit without help.  The source of help depends on factors we will describe in future posts.  You were designed to accomplish great things, things beyond your ability to even imagine; this is true and available to all living humans.