The media is continually full of news about rampant viruses, whats good for us and whats not and what supplements and vitamins, lotions and potions we should be taking or using to stave off every known illness or complaint under the Sun and how we can avoid the ultimate dis-ease of aging.
This unfortunately is just all superficial camouflage and a cynical attempt to make money out of our fears and insecurities. The real deal and where the pedal hits the metal is the connection between spirit, mind, emotions and body. These are the four levels of existence. If we are to live healthy, happy and energetic lives we need to ensure fitness at these levels – spiritual fitness, mental fitness, emotional fitness and physical fitness. These levels are intrinsically linked so that a lack of fitness in one will ulimately affect the others.
The problem with diets is that they only operate at one level – the body. Starving ourselves of food and/or eating only foods that are supposedly nutrient rich will take us only so far because we have not developed the mental habits and discipline required to maintain our results. This is no different to people who win the lottery and after a few years end up with nothing to show for it. The spiritual aspect is also missing as we do not respect that we are spiritual beings having a human experience and that our bodies are temples for our souls. On an emotional level overeating is symptomatic of burying the difficult emotions that we don’t want to deal with and distracting ourselves with the short lived buzz we get when we feel full.
As Albert Einstein has been quoted as saying “we cannot solve a problem from the same level that created it”. We must access a higher level of consciousness through which we connect to and balance all four levels of existence. Any decision we make in life must be considered at this level otherwise we will either miss the boat completely or end up where we do not want to be. This requires courage and discipline.
Living a healthy life is much more than just eating sensibly and exercising regularly. It is creating daily habits that support being healthy at all levels. There is another old saying that partly reflects this advice which is “mensana corporansana” or “healthy mind, healthy body” . Instead we should extend this to say ‘ spirit centred living with a healthy mind, healthy emotions and a healthy body”.