A good friend’s 6-year old son recently asked his father while looking at a Bowflex ad together, “Dad, why don’t you look like that man?” My friend smiled at his beautiful son after giving a few seconds of thought to the innocently truthful question and responded, “because I don’t pay attention to my health the way that man does”.
Does my friend have the potential to have a world-class Bowflex body? Yes. He just hadn’t made this a priority in his life over the last several years. In his words, “I’ve settled comfortably into middle class mediocrity”.
We can focus on sports, music, health or anything else and get results. We display our values day-in and day out by how we spend our time.
How much time do you spend on a daily basis investing in yourself? Not work, not your hobbies, not with social media, not your children – on your mind? on your spirit? on your body?
Have you allowed yourself to settle into mediocrity of self as you’ve devoted time to activities that reduce sense of self instead of increasing sense of self?
It seems that many of us spend a disproportionate amount of time focusing our thought, effort and attention on work (money). When gainfully employed and making financial ends meet, we tend to justify the imbalance in our lives with the fact that we’re being good providers for ourselves and our families. Because we’re so busy with work and the rest of the activities that monopolize our time every day, we subconsciously block out the aches, pains and feelings in our bodies that are signals of the neglect in the other areas of our lives.
Are you willing to slow down long enough to listen?
A lot of the people who’ve been friends of mine for decades have recently found themselves among the unemployed. They’ve gone from not having any time to devote to themselves mentally, spiritually and physically to having way too much time on their hands after the lay-off. Many of them are experiencing a tremendous feeling of emptiness and loneliness with the void created without work.
Several of them are questioning their own value now that they can no longer identify themselves with their profession. Too many people associate their worth with their job or with another person. When the job ends or a person is no longer involved in their life, the sense of worth evaporates.
You were born without a job and without a significant other and you were considered quite valuable at birth. Your value as a human does not fluctuate like the stock market or like a currency. Your value does not increase or decrease with age.
You’re valuable all the time! I’ll bet that your most valuable asset is the one that gets the least amount of your time on a daily basis.
We’re spiritual beings that are temporarily living in human bodies with human minds. Although our internal value does not fluctuate, if we ignore, or deny our primary worth – our spirituality – we feel lost and ungrounded when we’re not doing. That’s probably why we spend so much time doing and little or no time just being. We’re afraid of being silent. We’re afraid of what we might start thinking if our brains were not distracted with the incessant noise. What questions would we have to start answering if we gave ourselves time to think?
When we spend time just being – silent and still – we’re able to feel a sense of peace with ourselves and eventually with others. When spending time on a daily basis in this silent, meditative mode, you may also feel or sense or presence that seems to come from within. There is tremendous wisdom inside each of us that only presents itself when we care enough to listen.
This Presence or Spirit manifests itself to us most often when we’re still and silent – in meditation, in nature, in prayer, in church. This sound of the Spirit gets drowned out by the sound of the iPod, television, radio, trucks, computers, background music and all of the other loud sounds that distract us from ourselves and from the wisdom and Spirit within.
When you wake-up in the morning, how much time do you spend with yourself in silence before reaching for the television remote, your iPod or your cell phone?
Prior to going to sleep at night, how much time to you spend in silence, in gratitude, in communion with self?
Would you benefit from centering yourself and your thoughts in meditation and prayer? What would it be like to deliberately fill your mind and soul with positive thoughts, words and prayers for yourself and others before allowing the very negative outside world to infect your mind? Would you sleep better at night if you spent time in prayer, gratitude or meditation prior to falling asleep?
The silence of your mind and soul is where you are guaranteed to fill yourself with the positive energy to sustain yourself for a period of time so that you’ll be able to deal with the negative energy that begins bombarding you once the television, radio, Blackberry or computer is turned on.
The sense of worth that comes from being in touch with our Spirit within is the cornerstone of our worth.
Why would we even consider spending time acknowledging our spirituality – especially if our lives appear to be going well?
- Our Spirit is the source of our worth.
- It is our connection to our Source, our Creator.
- It is our connection to every other human in the world.
- It is the only piece of our being that is permanent. The mind will die. The body will die.
- Once we acknowledge, accept and embrace this connection, our feelings of isolation from others and competition with others go away. The isolation is replaced with a sense of belonging with others.
- Spirituality is our source of faith, hope and love.
What would you and I do if we wanted to be a world-class Spirit- one with God and one with other humans – with a never ending supply of faith, hope, love and joy? That potential is already inside every one of us just waiting to be released like a genie from the bottle.
We’d do the same things that the world-class athletes, musicians and superstars from every field of work do. We’d allocate time to the things that we consider most important. We’d make our spirituality a priority. We’d read books to understand how others have manifested their world-class spirits. We’d seek out teachers, coaches and mentors to assist us in the process.
Attaching your worth to something that is the most valuable and that never depreciates in value is the guarantee that you’re investing your time wisely – regardless of how much or how little time you invest on a daily basis.
- Companies and jobs will come and go.
- Sporting teams win sometimes and lose much more often.
- Investments appreciate sometimes and depreciate quite frequently.
- Cars, homes, jewelry and other material goods decay and usually decline in value.
- We earn money. We spend money. It doesn’t matter how much we earn, there is still something missing.
- Video games are a fun distraction. What are they distracting us from?
Associating our sense of value with anything that is outside of us is a recipe for disappointment.
When your sense of worth goes up because of the high value that you place on your spiritual health, your connection to other humans and your connection to God, you also find yourself speaking to yourself and others much more kindly. Love starts pouring out of your body – even when you’re not speaking. It’s evident in the sparkling of your eyes and your tranquil body language.
You’ll also start taking better care of your physical body because you know that it truly is the temple where your Spirit has chosen to live.
Our minds, bodies and spirits are all connected. When the Spirit is acknowledged and appreciated, we immediately start valuing our minds and bodies and treat them as miraculous gifts too.
Can you envision buying a beautiful new car and having it delivered to your home? It’s clean on the outside and freshly waxed. The inside was just detailed. The car just received the proper amount of high quality oil. The windshield washer fluid receptacle is full. You turn the key in the ignition but, nothing happens. Not only is there no gas in the car but, you’re unaware that the source of energy for your car even exists. You’re confused as to why you continue to turn the key and the car won’t move.
Something must be missing.
Your detailed body is beautiful but, somehow feels empty.
You drink 8 bottles of expensive bottled water every day but, still feel unquenched.
The organic food that you eat is healthy but, something inside still craves more.
You’re earning lots of money but, never seem to have enough.
Something must be missing.
When we’re running our lives on spiritual empty, we’re trying to live and move at 65MPH with our energy tank on E.
You have time to do many things well. You have time to invest in yourself mentally, spiritually and physically AND succeed in the other roles in your life. Might you have to cut-back on other activities which you deem to be less important in order to nourish yourself? Yes.
You are a priority.
It’s very easy to love others and be accepting of others when our spiritual tanks are full.
Fill your spiritual tank on a daily basis and enjoy the feelings of worth, joy and unity that come from within.
