A Concept of Self Love
Mind Body and Soul Care.
1 Thessalonians 5:23, KJV: "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."
We have looked at the mind and what is needed or advised to ensure good mental health. We looked at the body, and most of us realise that eating healthy and exercising may ensure a healthier body, it is surely conducive to remaining healthy. Soul Care spoke of how the Soul communicates with us, it's role in helping us to get to where we need to be and the path to take to ensure we get there sooner, with less stress than we would have without the Souls help.
How is it possible to keep Mind Body and Soul healthy every day?
The answer is Mindfulness, acknowledging the the present, or simply being aware! In my book ‘The Exhorted Soul', (2018) Angela Scott,The Exhorted Soul, Chapter 12, Amazon) I introduce 'The Eight Wheel Path' which is the Buddhist teachings of attaining Nirvana (the path to enlightenment) through rightness of belief, resolve, speech, action, livelihood, effort, thought, and meditation
'In order to reach, what Buddhism call Nirvana a place of perfect peace and happiness. One needs to be continually mindful, this is achieved by following 'The Eightfold Path', which is Right View, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Concentration and Right Mindfulness. ‘The Exhorted Soul', (2018) Angela Scott,The Exhorted Soul, Chapter 12, Amazon)
This chapter will use The Eight Fold Path as a suggestion/idea of caring for the Mind, Body and Soul, while using three subtitles: Life, Situation and Yourself. Part One will concentrate on Right View and Right Intention.
The Wisdom training consist of Right View and Right Intention. We will start with a look at Right View. I believe that any attempt to holistically care for your Mind, Body and Soul, one’s view is of vital importance.
What are your views about your life; how do you view, most of the situations you find yourself in; and how do you view yourself?
What view do you hold for your life? Many people view life as a cycle, we are born, we grow, we work, we get old and we die. Thoughts like that may have you trudging through life expecting to retire then curl up and die.
When dealing with situations- If your view of life follows a pattern of, you are born, you grow, you work etc.. any situation you find yourself in, may have an inherent dim outcome. Disclaimer here, it really would depends on the situation. So let’s take a situation like missing the train on a work day.
Let me introduce Harry, he has the view of life, similar to the one above...Things just happen, that's life.
Harry missed his train as he had to find the cat, in-order to put her in the house before leaving for work. Millie the cat had gone out for her morning stroll around the garden and had gotten into next doors’ garden. It took ten extra minutes to get Millie into the house. Harry then had to get his keys and work bag, run to the bus stop, travel for 8 minutes, when he arrived at the train station, he had to purchase a train ticket, walk to his platform and board his train. Harry normally gets to work 30 minutes early, so he felt he would still be able to get to work on time. Unfortunately the next train to Harry’s destination was cancelled. Harry then begins to play out what is going to happen. First, the next train will also be cancelled and secondly he will get to work 2 hours late, his boss will be at the door as he walks in. He will then be taken into his boss’ office and will be reprimanded or even sacked. The reason for his train of thought is …’One thing follows the next, you do something wrong, you get punished.' Remember we are born, we grow etc….. Harry runs his 2 hours late to work thoughts, through his mind for 45 minutes and then waits a further 15 minutes before calling the office, to let them know he is going to be late. The person who answers the phone tells him not to worry, most of the office, she says, is going to be late as there has been some issue with the trains today. Harry was wrong to think, he’d be reprimanded, Harry worried in vain. One of my issues with Harry’s way of thinking is that he used one hour of his life worrying. I won’t even go into what his body went through for that hour. Harry couldn’t hear his intuition tell him that ‘it’s going to be alright’. Putting intuition aside, for a moment. Harry wouldn’t hear it from his best friend, who happened to call him while he was waiting for the train. His friend said ' I bet most of your office is stuck trying to get to work, there has been an issue on the lines'. The train lines that were going to and from Harry’s final destination.
Harry lives in a world view bubble of ‘This is what is going to happen.’ I had a friend like that! I am a very optimistic person and as a psychologist I can see things from different view points. I am also able to suggest different scenario’s to situations. My then friend would always, yes always, give me a rebuttal to every point I made, as she was unable to see her situation any other way than the one she had conquered up for herself, needless to say, most of her dreamt up scenario’s to her situation was wrong. Our conversations would go something like this, ‘ No Kelly, you won’t get thrown in jail because you forgot to pay your bill and paid it a week late.’ ‘No Kelly, they won’t cancel your subscriptions because you called them last month enquiring about a different package.’ It would be strange speaking to Kelly a few days later, when the sky didn’t fall to earth or the sun didn’t fail to rise and her situation, as it always did, worked itself out. Remember, situations always, always work themselves out. The outcome may not always be the one you would have hoped for, but they work themselves out one way or another. If you can do something to ensure the outcome is favourable, then do that, if there is nothing you can do about the situation, then let it play itself out, being mindful that the situation will work out in your favour.
For Harry, our conversation would have been something like this: “No Harry, you are not likely to be reprimanded for being late, this will be the first time in 5 years, that you get in late!” Admittedly Harry, clearly has other things going on! In order to jump to a self-deprecating conclusion to a situation he had no control over, and to stay there for a whole hour! Harry’s self-worth in that company may not be as lofty as should be. Harry had never been late for work in the five years he had worked there. He is well liked and respected. But because his view of himself is so low, a stern reprimand or a sacking is the likely out-come!
Buddhist teachings state, there is a healthy and an unhealthy view that could be adopted, and we are to adopt a healthy view. Harry we can see, took the unhealthy path, as his mind may have even taken him to a scene of losing his job, being unable to pay his mortgage, being thrown out and having no-where for him and Millie to live……..All because he was going to be late for work…WOW.
We have seen how Harry views the world or life and the latest situation he found himself in. The other question I posed earlier, is how a person like Harry would view himself. Do you feel equip to answer that question? I think you are! You have seen how Harry viewed his place of work, one can only imagine that Harry has a warped sense of his standing within his company. I would hazard a guess that Harry has low self-esteem, as he believed that he would either be reprimanded or sacked, because he was late. They was no thought of ‘I have never been late before, so they can’t grumble too much’ Or ‘I’ll tell them the reason I am late, I’m sure they’ll understand.’ There was not even an ounce of ego in his thoughts, regarding saving himself from punishment. Harry could have had a back up speech for his lateness. He could have said, if challenged, “I’ve never been late in five years,” but Harry’s thoughts went straight to punishment. Right view or healthy view of life, may have changed the scenario you read above.
Consider for a moment how you handle situations, is it the end of the world, if you spill coffee on yourself as you are about to leave the house? or do you accept what has happened and change your clothes. For some, spilling coffee on their clothes would set the president for the whole day and way into the following day.
What do you find yourself saying most often? Is it positive or negative?
Do you hold a glass half full view of life or is it more often a glass half empty? I am the type of person that is grateful I have a glass, then I wouldn’t have to cup my hands to get the water!
How you view life in general has a cascading effect on your interactions with others and how you treat yourself, that is your Mind, Body and whether you hear your Soul speaking to you.
Check out the book here: https://loveliveholistically.com/books.php
