When someone says "health", what comes to mind? I bet that a lot of people only think of health in terms of the physical body. The truth is, health is not just physical. You are not just physical. You are composed of mind, body, and spirit. Therefore, health is not only physical, but mental, and spiritual as well.
Your physical self is a reflection of your inner self. When you feel good inside, you are radiant and undeniably looking great outside. The beauty is not just physical anymore. There is this radiating energy from you that attracts people toward you.
When you eat healthy, it is very easy to be mentally focused, and when your mental state is stable, it is very easy to be spiritually balanced. It can also go the other way around. Spiritually clear inside, you feel inner peace and calm, which allows you to achieve a balanced mental state, and you end up eating just right.
In other words, To be healthy means to be healthy in mind, body, and spirit.
Exercising allows you to move your energy all over your body and get you rooted and grounded with mother earth. It also allows you to shift and dust off any low vibration energy that you may have inside. Do you remember the times when you are so angry or so upset, that you say, "I'm going to take a walk", or "I'm going outside, I need air"...and you find yourself pacing, and walking, and then later feel a lot better than ever. Physical activity dissipates negative charges, makes you take and release breaths, which then puts you in a better mood.
Mental health is a lot more connected to our feelings and emotions. You may have noticed how your thoughts greatly affect how you feel and how you feel impact your words and actions. When you are thinking of something pleasant, you feel good, and in the opposite case, when you are thinking of negative things (e.g. focusing on a person you dislike, criticizing a situation or a person), it does not really feel very good. Over time, whatever you keep thinking of, and focusing on, eventually shows in your behavior and the words that come out of your mouth. Later on, it becomes part of your belief system and eventually becomes part of your character.
Taking care of your mental health requires a mind shift; a conscious shift of thinking towards positive, affirmative, kind, loving, compassionate thoughts. One step you can make is start becoming conscious of your thoughts and really catching yourself when your thoughts are making you feel negative. Later I will expound on this, but for now, this is one step you can make towards maintaining a healthy mind. Consciously check your thoughts, and anything that is negative, try to do your best to shift your mind to love and compassion and see how it changes your self and your life for the better.
Spirituality is very much related to your belief in higher wisdom and power and your connection to that. A lot of people do not spend the time to pursue spirituality --- a lot of people are religious but not really spiritual. I am going to quote some lines from this site to expound on this a little more:
- Religion is an institution established by man for various reasons. Exert control, instill morality, stroke egos, or whatever it does. Organized, structured religions all but remove god from the equation. You confess your sins to a clergy member, go to elaborate churches to worship, told what to pray and when to pray it. All those factors remove you from god.
- Spirituality is born in a person and develops in the person. It may be kick started by a religion, or it may be kick started by a revelation. Spirituality extends to all facets of a person’s life. Spirituality is chosen while religion is often times forced. Being spiritual to me is more important and better than being religious.
- True spirituality is something that is found deep within oneself. It is your way of loving, accepting and relating to the world and people around you. It cannot be found in a church or by believing in a certain way.
Being spiritual can never be forced upon you; when it is the right time, you will seek and pursue it, voluntarily, from your heart. Inner guidance (intuition/vibe) has a lot to do with Spirituality and one easy way to feel it and find it is to QUIET your heart and mind. This is why meditation is very crucial and important to spiritual people. For it is only in quieting our minds that are we able to connect to our Inner Self/Inner Wisdom/Source.
I hope that from this day on, you will see HEALTH in a new light.
With love and light,
AnniePMaki
