Spiritual Health

It is your perspective that defines happiness, not your circumstances.

Spiritual health is just as important as emotional, physical, and mental health. As a matter of fact when we are experiencing dis-ease in any one of these areas all four are impacted. For instances having a bad day emotionally can affect your physical health, just as bad physical health can affect your mental health so on and so forth. As I thought about putting this post together I was on the hunt for a good definition of spiritual health, what I discovered is that it is a personal thing. Peoples view on what exactly makes up our spirit is so broad that it changes the definition for everyone. I pushed forward though with the desire to explain it somehow and ended up in my bible dictionary. I didn’t find the phrase spiritual health there but combing the two words dealt me a definition that I was very pleased with.

Spirit: The spirit is in the likeness of the physical body. Furthermore, all spirit is matter, but is more refined and pure than mortal element. As defined in scripture, the spirit and the body constitute the mortal soul. A spirit can live independent of a body, but a body cannot live without the spirit.

Health: In old English this word denoted healing power, deliverance, and salvation. In Acts 27:34 health=safety.

From this I derive that spiritual health is, when the immortal part of us that is refined and pure has the power to heal, offer us deliverance, safety and salvation. When our spirit is poor in health we will lack the ability to be our best self healers, we will become weak in other aspects our lives thereby affecting our safety and salvation. Chiropractic philosophy contends that "The power that made the body will heal the body." The spirit is an important power that helped make the body, and it has the power to heal it.

Because of my religious beliefs from, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, I take the definition one step further and know that if I am not in tune with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ my spiritual health will be affected as well. This is not only due to the fact that a belief in a higher being is needed for my spirit, but because I know when life is the most demanding I can turn to them for guidance and cast my burdens upon Christ. I do not say this lightly. There have been some experiences in my life when looking back I know that I did not do it alone, that the hand of Christ was there, scooped me up and carried me past through the challenge. I am grateful for this knowledge and know that it directly impacts my spiritual health as well as my overall health.

I believe that when Heavenly Father designed man he did it without flaw. BJ Palmer said "Nature needs no help, just no interference." When we are willing to learn the power that our mortal body combined with our spirit holds we are able to unlock the keys to self healing, and more importantly continual health. Our bodies were designed to be healthy and we have a choice to nurture this innate desire. This is done when we take into consideration the six things I shared a few weeks ago, here they are again:
1. What you eat.
2. What you drink.
3. How your exercise.
4. How your rest.
5. How and what you breath.
6. Most important, what you think about.

When we are taking responsibility for these 6 things in our life we are making the choice for overall health. When I say responsibility I mean the same thing I do when I say research vaccines before you just do it. Research what you are putting into your mouth, read the labels on the food, and understand what the ingredients mean. I focus on my four ingredients, aspartame/splenda/nutrasweet/sucralose, monosodium glutamate, high fructose corn syrup, partially hydrogenated oils. I have found that by choosing to avoid these four ingredients I have found healthier ways to nourish my body. What we drink falls into the same four ingredient test, it’s why I gave up Diet Coke and severally limit my intake of anything accept filtered water. Exercise comes a little harder for me but I recognize the need and importance of it, currently it consist of walking slowly on the treadmill and stretching my body. I struggle with getting enough sleep but I am to the point where I can admit it is me that is causing the deficiency and no one else. I am practicing my breathing, and know that just by taking a moment to do some four squared breathing I can alter my entire state of being.

Lastly what we think. I believe this directly impacts our spiritual health, my chiropractor told me, "everything we think is a tiny prayer so we need to make sure we are thinking things that we want." At first it is hard to transfer your thoughts from what you don’t want to what you do want, but I promise as you do this your cup with go from half empty, to half full, to overflowing. I feel often that my cup runneth over, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I was directed to this youtube video through a interesting series of searches last night and I believe it is a perfect example of the importance of our thoughts. Henry Ford said "If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right." My mother always said, "It’s not what you say it’s how you say it." I would like to say "It’s not WHAT you think, it’s HOW you think about it." Please do yourself a favor and watch this video I promise you two things, it will improve your spiritual health and you will leave knowing you can.