The body mind and spirit What does this mean?
April 4, 2023
Lisa Jackson
Lifestyle
Are they separate or one of the same?
My twin sister and I recently spent 10 days helping a loved one who could not help herself. Her mind and spirit were seemingly so detached from her body. She said she was happy and “fine” even though her physical and material world was crashing around her. Her addictions had hijacked her body, mind and spirit.
When we opened the door to her apartment the smells nearly knocked us over. She could barely walk and almost fell 1/2 a dozen times. We discovered a day later that her home was covered in mold. Our eyes, nose and lungs burned after a short time in the apartment. We were told that all the furniture had to go. We purchased respiratory masks, goggles and gloves and began the days of work to clean every piece of clothing and whatever we could salvage.
How could someone live in this environment and still believe and state they were healthy and happy? It’s simple, her brain was hijacked. See my previous post for the science. The reward center in her brain had overcome her frontal lobe, the region for reason.
It’s like the story of the frog. If you put a frog in a pot with warm water on the stove, it will be comfortable and stay there. You can then slowly turn on the heat and the frog will stay put until he is boiled to death.
This is how habits can easily turn into addictions.
Versus putting the frog in hot water where he would simply jump out.
This is why it takes a village. Leaving life to our own solitary devices, we can easily find ourselves over our heads in hot water.
This is when isolation is dangerous.
I believe that this is why pain is a gift from above. It’s a wakeup call. It’s a call for change. If we touch a hot stove, we immediately remove our hand in pain.
At every moment, you have two choices. You can either react out of fear or respond out of faith.
Alcoholics Anonymous has a phrase, to “live life on life’s terms.” To me, this means accepting what is, then making the decision to do the next right thing.
This requires faith.
Our loved one was also a hoarder. One reason why mold was able to multiply.
Without faith, it is easy to over value material wealth. We see this rampant in our society.
What is wealth without health? How many of us are addicted to our work and status at the expense of our physical, mental and emotional health?
We were given the gift of free will. We can stay comfortable in our warm water (which, believe me, I understand, feels pretty good!)
Or we can embrace life on life’s terms, and when we feel ourselves or someone we love struggling, we can choose to take loving action.
We can choose to accept that pain is a necessary guide for our growth and development. It tells us to change course.
We can either numb our feelings and thoughts with addictive behaviors or we can have the courage to change.
My closing prayer,
God, Grant me the SERENITY to accept the things I cannot change,
The COURAGE to change the things I can, and
The WISDOM to know the difference.
Carpe Diem
With love and gratitude for all, the good, the bad, and the ugly too.
Lisa Jackson
