Do you need help to maintain your self-help practices or keep commitments to yourself when seeking change, mental or physical?
Before starting a practice involving change, it’s helpful to understand that we consist of 4-elements: body, mind, soul, and Individual Spirit. Beyond that is Universal Spirit, or the Collective Unconscious, as proposed by Carl Jung. (See image).
Without fully knowing the difference between our body, mind, soul, and Individual Spirit, we tend to give up on our self-help practices, mainly because we are primarily educated in body and mind (viz, be good academically or excel in sports, and you will succeed in life). Some work is done on the soul in conventional talk therapies, with little to no practices to nurture our Individual Spirit.
At birth, we are body and Spirit, responding to nutrition and the essence of Love. Over time, we absorb input from our parental and societal narratives, and our soul/self (lowercase ‘s’) develops a personality that will respond to the world based on this foundation alongside present and past life experiences. We typically become over-focused on body, mind, and soul, losing our connection to our Individual Spirit/Self (uppercase ‘S’), an essential part of our Being.
Defining ourselves from these limiting perspectives (eg: I’m getting old, I’m depressed, I have arthritis, thyroid issues etc), we develop an equally limiting perception of ourselves, others, and the world. We then resent physical ailments and ageing despite these states being a natural part of life.
From this limited reference point, we struggle to honour our growth commitments, reverting to old habits that don’t serve us. Without a connection to our Spirit/Self, we operate from this lower state of self, which sees us becoming fearful, anxious, or depressed instead of flowing through life.
When integrated, we include our Individual Spirit in all that we do (body), think (mind) and say (soul), feeling a sense of inspiration (in Spirit).
As an example:
Imagine a baby learning to walk, a skill we learn before talking. Connected in body and Spirit, the child does not fear multiple attempts in learning to walk until it succeeds, as its perspective of the world is one of flow, seeking growth and joy. The mindset of perfection is not present, bringing no fear or anxiety in the next attempt. No matter how often the child falls joyfully or in a pool of tears, there is no interpretation of failure. Further attempts are made repeatedly through the lens of inspiration (in Spirit) and flow.
The step before self-help is finding a way to meet your Spirit as separate from your body, mind and soul to ensure it is present and integrated in all your practices. Integration affords one access to Universal Wisdom/Love/The Collective Unconscious, call it what you may, when dealing with challenges and change.
Deeply embedded, limiting beliefs that do not serve us can only change when examined with our Individual Spirit present and integrated.
An integrated approach with equal time spent nurturing all 4-elements of being human affords us discipline, flow, joy and sustainable change.
Body Practices Include:
Mind Practices include:
Soul Practices Include:
Spiritual Practices Include:
There is much to be gained by understanding an integrated approach to self-development and growth through a relationship with our Individual Spirit, our conduit to Universal Wisdom/God/Love/Source.
Do you need help to maintain your self-help practices or keep commitments to yourself when seeking change, mental or physical? Before starting a practice involving change,
Our life journey is not to seek love, but rather to Be Love and take responsibility for the spirit of this wonderful disposition.
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