When it comes to healthy habits there seems to be a lot of information or suggestions about the physical body.  As well, many articles and conversations take place about the mental and emotional aspect of a body, let’s take for example, stress management or controlling your anger.  Maybe it’s a taboo subject but I think it’s time to talk about the spiritual aspect of your body.

You, me, we are a three part body, mind, body and spirit.  Some people call your spirit, your soul. The definition of soul is 1) the spiritual part of humans regarded in its moral aspect, dictionary.com 2) the spiritual part of a person that is believed to give life to the body and in many religions is believed to live forever. www.merriam-webster.com.

Let’s look at the first definition, the spiritual part regarding moral aspects.  I believe that we all know deep down inside what is right and what is wrong, well maybe I should state that at one time in our life we innately knew what was or is right and wrong. The challenge comes when we choose to not listen to that still small voice that guides each one of us.   For whatever reason some people choose to think they know better than the guiding spiritual aspect of each one of us. Sometimes pride, greed and even revenge or anger get in the way.

The second definition states the spirit or soul gives life to the body and depending on your faith is your eternal life. That makes me think that we all need to spend as much time and care on the spiritual aspect of our three part body as we do on the physical and emotional aspect of the body. If the soul is the only aspect we keep after death it makes sense to me to nurture and take care of it.

I think it is fitting to discuss this topic since we just celebrated the Holy holiday of Easter.

In my opinion faith is a critical aspect of life, and I am grateful for the Holy Spirit in my life. So how do you develop the spiritual aspect of your body?  Spend time in prayer, spend time reading to learn the truth of your faith for yourself, don’t just take someones word for it.  Yes it is important to have teachers, but you also need to dig in for yourself.

Many times people turn away from a faith because they have been hurt by people who attend the same faith, let’s just say a church.  When in fact people are people and they are anything but perfect so we could be disappointed by people.  What is important is establishing a personal relationship with God.

Having a spiritual aspect to your life is like knowing deep down inside that someone is guiding you, someone you can trust in, someone who cares about you, someone that is smarter than you, someone who knows the whole big picture.  Quite frankly I am relieved I don’t have to carry life’s load all by myself. I am truly grateful for the guidance I get.  You probably get guidance as well! Have you ever had that feeling to call someone and the phone rings and it’s that person.  Or you start thinking about someone, well just don’t think about them, do something, maybe they need to hear from someone. Some people call it that gut feeling.  Call it what you want but the more you act on that small voice inside the more your faith will grow.

Diane