a healthy spirit
by Steve Rees, Ret. RN, Harpist
In this issue, I am presenting a topic that is not usually considered when talking about health. It is the nonphysical part of a person that deals with emotions and character; the spirit or soul. In my nurse training, we were taught that the person must be considered holistically in our approach to healing.
We are not just physical bodies with all our various anatomical features, but we are psychological and spiritual beings as well. It is to this third component that I am addressing in this article. Don’t worry, I am not going to get preachy or religious. Actually, “Religion” has presented a major obstacle to understanding the importance of our spiritual health in the cycle of life.
Our spiritual health reflects in our emotions and is often difficult to separate from our psychological health. If we are focused on ourselves and ignoring those around us; being happy or upset about what is happening to us personally, we become neurotic and petulant.
Our observations continue to narrow down and we see only what is taking place within our little bubble. Many people in that condition are also expressing many health pathologies and are often seeking medical attention and pharmaceuticals to help alleviate their physical conditions.
If we lose sight of the idea that we are not just here by accident; if we foster the idea that we just happen to be here by chance and there is no real purpose in life but to ‘’eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die,” then we are missing one of the greatest health conditioners that life has to offer. If we think that life is all about, “What do I get out of it for MY pleasure,” then we truly are in a state of ill health, and pharmaceuticals cannot fix a deficiency of spirit.
A wise king once wrote in an ancient manuscript that has been preserved:
“I give thanks to You, For I am awesomely and wondrously made! Wondrous are Your works, and my being knows it well. My bones were not concealed from You, When I was shaped in a hidden place, Knit together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body. And in Your book, all of them were written, the days they were formed, while none was among them. And how precious are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great has been the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more than the sand; When I wake up, I am still with You.”
Psalm 139:14-18
How different it is to realize that we are not just an accident but rather we were planned with a purpose. We were actually “knit together” by an intelligent designer who knew what to produce in us to be able to have a full and fulfilling life with a healthy spirit.
In another part of that ancient manuscript, we are told by this designer:
“For I know the plans I am planning for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and an expectancy.”
Jerimiah 29:11