Serve Yourself First Whole-fully

Welcome. Serve Yourself First is a Life Transforming Blog focusing on spiritual, mental & physical wellness.

It is confidence in our bodies, minds and spirits that allows us to keep looking for new adventures — Oprah Winfrey

Achieving maximum brain health is possible if you learn to keep three important parts of your life in balance: mind, body, & spirit. … Physical exercise, for example, is well known to help elevate one’s mood, decrease anxiety, as well as accelerate creation of new brain cells.

“Wellness is the search for enhanced quality of life, personal growth, and potential through positive lifestyle behaviors and attitudes.” With that said, in order to attain overall wellness, one must not only focus on the physical aspect, but also the mental and spiritual factors.

As the mind, body and soul are so intrinsically intertwined and they directly affect the action of the others, it is essential to maintain a balance between the three major areas of wellness.

When we think about health, diet and exercise are typically the first things that come to mind. However, good health is not just about the physical body. Our mind and body are interconnected and affect each other tremendously.

Mind, Body, Spirit means that our well-being comes from not just physical health, but from mental health and spiritual health as well. To be “healthy”, we must pay attention to all three aspects of our nature…mind, body and spirit.

The mind, body and spirit connection is more than just an abstraction to get what you want. It is who you are as a whole being.

We need to look at ourselves as a whole being instead of different parts. Your body is affected by your mind and your spirit and vice versa.

In fact, evidence of an awareness of the mind-body-spirit connection is all around you. For example when my employer built a gym facility at our workplace I never really took the time to understand why they would think of such an idea, firstly I was never interested in getting fit, I was always lazy and thought to myself “Why must I gym at the office”?.

“As years went by my workload started increasing, my personal life was going downhill, I neglected my spiritual needs, my parents divorced, my finances were looking bad,  basically nothing seemed to be going right in my life at that time”. I would get random headaches, I felt tired most of the time and something in me said “YOU NEED TO TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF AS A WHOLE”. I started with self reflection, deeper analysis of self.

I looked at where my time is mostly spent and where most of my frustrations are coming from, after that reflection, it then crossed my mind that actually, the office gym could be my solution.

I  joined the office gym. As I trained at the gym, I started discovering how the body was responding to the routine. I started feeling good about myself (that was the body affecting my mind), I was more relaxed and calm in the midst of deadlines and stress I was going through (that was my mind, body and spirit all working together). I was consistently attending Church every Sunday which never happened (that was me feeling “WHOLE”, “HAPPY” AND FOCUSED).

Those are just a few examples of some of my experience with Mind-Body-Spirit that I have encountered. Through this I have learned how these are connected together. They go hand in hand. We are more than just our thoughts. We are also our bodies, our emotions, and our spirituality. All of these combined give us:

• Identity – this refers to a person’s qualities, personality, looks, and expressions. This would relate to “BODY/PHYSICAL”. Which is the outside of a person
• Determine our health – A state of complete emotional and physical well-being
• And make us who we are – this refers to one’s “WHOLE BEING”

Let us get a bit practical about Mind-Body-Spirit:

When we say, “Our physical health is determined by our mental health”, what does that even mean? A practical example would be, when you go and see a doctor about a headache for instance that has been bothering you for weeks or months, their first question to ask is about stress in our lives because they have also been taught to pay attention to the Mind-Body-Spirit concept.

When we say, “Our mental health is determined by our physical health”, what does that mean? When you look at a psychiatry and counselling world, when a person is focused on the negative emotions such as hatred, anger, jealousy, or how unhappy they are in the workplace that can make them physically sick right? It is actually proven that mental issues can manifest themselves in the body, making us sick.

The mind, body and spirit are one. It no longer makes sense to classify problems as either stress/emotional (mind) or physical (body). For example, a physical symptom such as abdominal cramping may trigger or be triggered by emotional stress. The symptom is the same and still needs treatment. You can see that if you treat only mind or only body you will miss out on opportunities for healing. Scientific evidence continues to confirm the power of spirit and how affirming beliefs – particularly belief in a higher purpose and a higher power – can contribute significantly to your health. A well-nourished spirit is a great preventive measure for many illnesses.

A sound mind works better in a sound body. The body is made up of a lot of parts, but there is also an “ENERGY” or “LIFE FORCE” that goes beyond the mere physical nature of the body.

The life force energy refers to the Spirit/Soul. It is the essence of our being, our consciousness. The flow of life force energy moves through physical, emotional, and spiritual bodies. It is very important that it is well balanced.

That is why when this life force energy leaves our body, we die.

So how do you build your Mind-Body-Spirit for better health?

• Meditate regularly
• Read and learn often
• Get at least 15 minutes of moderate exercise each day
• Spend time outdoors
• Fuel your passions
• Listen to music
• Be grateful
• Be kind
• Find a career that is meaningful to you
• Stop people pleasing
• Avoid gossip and drama
• Travel and learn about other cultures
• Laugh often

Inner engineering is vital, to be able to define yourself and making your Mind, body and spirit to work together.

Have you made a connection with yourself? Do you know what your life purpose is? What are your personal values and how have they helped you become the person you are today?

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Follow me on Twitter at  @RorieSibisi