Spiritual Pie Is Anything But Humble

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Wholeness. Complete. Lacking in nothing.  What does that feel like?

Today in North America, and increasingly in other industrialized countries around the world, we’re having a harder time keeping our bodies healthy.  There are plenty of great reasons for us to be unhealthy.  Restaurants supersize our portions, buffets are everywhere and many of us have been brought-up to “eat what’s on your plate!”.  With unemployment above 10% in the United States, those of us who are fortunate enough to be gainfully employed are working longer hours and being asked to be more productive.  The increase in hours, pressure to produce more and fear over possible loss of our jobs have caused very high levels of stress. Many of us find release from stress and fear through the comfort of food, drink or both.

Many people have become so unhealthy that they’ve said to themselves “that’s enough!  It’s time for me to take control of my health and get my body back into ideal health.” Many of my family members, friends and customers have either hired personal trainers to develop the knowledge and best-practices required to be able to eat properly and exercise safely or they’ve learned these great habits on their own via self-study.

They’re proud of themselves because they’ve allocated time on either a daily or multiple time per week basis for exercise and they now treat food and drink as a source of nourishment for their bodies instead of using food as a  bandaid to cover the wounds of stress, fear and unhappiness.

Although they’ve made major positive changes in their lifestyle and have transformed their bodies back to their normally healthy states, I still hear them saying, “I’ve made the changes that I needed to make on my body, and that’s still not enough!”

I would say that our physical bodies represent the lowest level of health that we can achieve as humans.  It’s critical that we take care of our physical bodies but, that is just one step in a 3-step process. You get to decide whether it’s step one, two or three for you.

I’ve trained hundreds of people at companies around the world how to monitor and control their self-talk - the thoughts that they hold in their mind which create their beliefs.  The people that have received this knowledge understand that our positive beliefs about ourselves and others lead to positive expectations and results.  Our negative beliefs about ourselves and others lead to the self-fulfilling prophecy of negative results.

Accepting responsibility for our own thoughts and for the thoughts that we allow into the sanctuary of our minds is a life-changing modification to our overall well-being.

People who become aware of this information are always amazed at how destructively they were speaking to themselves prior to receiving this education. Our beliefs are the software that is used to control our lives. I hear on a daily basis how they’ve used the knowledge of assimilating positive thoughts proactively to intentionally eliminate the negative, destructive thoughts  in order to make major transformations in their performance at work and in their personal lives.  Individuals have told me about how they’ve improved their incomes, changed careers, lowered their golf scores, started exercise routines, transformed their bodies, etc.

Some of the people who went through these education sessions came into the program with already healthy bodies.  Others have used this knowledge to transform their bodies. They’ve modified their own body-image by reconstructing that image in their mind first. They also used the information to make additional changes in many other aspects of their lives by monitoring and controlling their self-talk.  They’ve taken on this proactive approach to making the changes that they desire for themselves with a gusto and wonder how they ever managed to get this far in life while ignoring their thoughts and beliefs.

It’s a fantastic feeling when we become aware of new knowledge or knowledge that’s existed for a very long time but, is new to us and transform our lives with that information.

These individuals used the new knowledge to eliminate the negative self-talk and proactively input positive affirmations related to the goals of what they could become.  They’re now moving quickly along the path to becoming healthy of body and healthy of mind.  Again, through my 1:1 conversations with them, there still seems to be something missing. I hear things like “I’m taking care of my body and now I’m making improvements in other areas of my life by creating positive self-talk in my mind with affirmations and that’s still not enough!”

This next higher level of managing our total self is managing our brains.  By monitoring, managing and changing our beliefs intentionally, we’re able to bring about amazing improvements in every aspect of our life.

All of the problems that we’re experiencing in our lives were created with our mind.  We’re going to need some additional out-of-our mind help with our thoughts and awareness to order to  create the solutions to these problems.

If we picture our complete self – our wholeness – in a pie chart, one small slice of the pie would represent our physical health.  Another larger slice of the pie would represent our mental health- the thoughts and beliefs that we’re using to run our lives. The third, largest and what ideally will become the foundational piece of our health would be represented by the spiritual slice of pie.

The spiritual piece of the pie contains four components: faith, hope, love and knowledge.  This is the third step in the process.

Our faith is what keeps us grounded on a minute to minute basis. Faith is our belief in God.  Our faith allows us to accept the promises given to us by God.  When we’re living and abiding in God’s word and allowing God’s spirit to dwell in us, we’re able to remain in a state of peace at all times.  Knowing God’s promises comes as a result of reading, learning and internalizing scripture. Our confidence in God comes as a result of coming to know God.

Some of us quote lines from movies. Some of us can give statistics from every athlete and team that has ever played a sport. Some of us have a hobby and can tell others everything related to that passion.  These are all good things. How about taking this same skill and applying it to the secrets of eternal peace?

For many of us, spiritual hope is based upon the expectation of everlasting life in heaven.  Some of us believe that the resurrection (taking ourselves from death to life or from darkness into the light) occurs while we’re still on earth as a result of believing, living and acting in alignment with God’s word and receiving the Holy Spirit into our being.

We show our Love by how we treat each of our brothers and sisters.  We become God’s eyes, ears and hands when we become aware of people who need assistance and give them our love by listening, hugging or assisting them with whatever they need.  The love in our minds and hearts manifests itself in our service to others. We are the spirit of God at work in our families, the community and the world. You and I are the answer to other’s prayers.

Our knowledge of God can be increased on a daily basis in a few simple ways.

• Our knowledge increases by reading and studying God’s words to us in the scriptures
• Our knowledge increases through prayer. In addition to formal prayers, our relationship develops as a result of silently talking to God and inviting God’s presence to be with us in every interaction throughout the day – in traffic, during meetings, in discussions with family – everywhere.
• Our knowledge increases through meditation.  There are many forms of meditation.  In its most basic form, meditation is a silencing of our minds to the point where we’ve silenced our own thoughts – our egos.  Through the process of eliminating all of our thoughts, we make room in our life to hear God’s thoughts.  When we stop talking and thinking, we’re able to actually listen.

If you’re trying to figure out where to start if you are trying to work on all three connected aspects of your being – your mind, your body and your spirit – I would suggest that you begin with your spirit.  Just the desire of inviting God into your life will begin the transformation of your mind and body. The practices of reading scripture, praying and meditating will manifest themselves in reduction of stress, increase of love and thoughts of well-being for your mind and body.

Over time, the fear, worry and stress that we experience will be completely replaced with faith in God whom we’ve intentionally come to know.

The pie chart is made whole and complete with the pie’s most significant secret ingredient -God. And that’s enough!