In Part 1, the importance of the spirit on your health was discussed.  The focus of this segment is in understanding and managing your mind through understanding and dealing with emotional stress.  You will never be able to achieve or maintain overall health until you truly understand the significance that stress has on your body and health.  It is physiologically impossible for you to achieve optimum health while overly stressed. As mentioned in Part 1, the mind is where stress originates.  The spirit knows no stress, the body is only the recipient of stress, so it can only come from the mind.  So, let’s begin.

The mind, what is it?  It, like the spirit, is invisible but very powerful.  We cannot see the mind; we can see the brain where the mind functions; we can chart brain activity but there has never been a doctor or research center, despite all their incredible technology and skills, that has ever been able to document seeing an idea or a thought while studying the brain.  They’ve never been able to look inside your brain and see the pictures or memories that we know reside there.  Again, like the wind, you can’t see it but you know it exists because you can see the results.  You may say that they’ve documented brain activity, electro-chemical activity, but again I say, that is not a visible thought or idea. 

So what is the mind?  Simply put, it is a collection of experiences, past and present that make up our intellectual decision making processes.  The mind, being a finite energy force, relies on experiences - both actual and received for its input and decision-making processes.  Your mind starts collecting data while you’re in the womb.  It already has a database received from your parents at conception.  Just as we receive genetic characteristics we also receive emotional history.  Carole Truman, in her book, Feelings Buried Alive Never Die does a wonderful job explaining this and documenting this phenomenon.  Her work definitively shows how life-long emotional feelings are rooted deep in our unconscious mind and are directly tied to our parents’ emotional state of being before our birth.

Consider this analogy that was used by a counselor, Harvel Hendricks, several years ago.  Your parents each have a tool-bag, comprised of a set of tools such as emotions, beliefs, traits and experiences - their own unique tool-bag, maybe not complete but theirs none-the-less.  Your tool-bag will be the accumulation of their combined tool-bags, just as theirs was the accumulation of your grandparents and so on.  The best you can hope for is the accumulation of what they had in their tool-bags.  You get their tools two ways, genetically and then through experiential affirmation.  Their actions reinforce what you’ve already received from them through genetics.

Now, few of us ever completely embrace all of our parents’ tools so the net result is that each successive generation potentially keeps and uses fewer tools.  This is not necessarily bad because we are not limited to the tools we received, we can choose to add whatever we feel is missing.  As we go through life we can, through experiences, recognize what’s missing and if it’s important to us we can add it to our tool-bag.  In the same way we can discard any poor or bad tools and replace them with good or positive tools.  In my estimation the mark of how successful a generation is becomes evident in how it either just accepts what it gets or decides to add to what they were given – to improve their tool-bags and consequently the ability of their children to receive better tools.

We must also be aware that the mind functions in two fundamental ways, intellectual and survival, which are key in producing our emotional (or lack-of) responses.  The intellectual part is where we learn and grow; the survival part is how we protect ourselves, both physically and also from experiences that overwhelm our intellect.  This survival part is also referred to as the primordial brain.  It manages fundamental physiological survival and maintenance functions that are essentially auto-reflexive in nature; that is, they happen without our conscious control, like breathing, the fight-or-flight reflex and the myriad of other functions the body performs without our knowledge.

The intellectual part of our mind will only grow in a nurtured and protected environment.  This is the environment painted by such motivating and uplifting words as; loving, caring, nurturing, forgiving, sensitivity, patience, etc..  Absent this positive environment we develop a sense of fear, foreboding, distrust; essentially an environment absent of all those positive traits.  When we have experiences that contradict or shatter that normally spiritually nurtured and protected environment the mind goes into survival mode to protect itself from these damaging experiences.

Sadly many people in our generation, as a consequence of past generations’ influences, have been exposed to damaging experiences, from either before birth or early in their lives, that triggers’ a survival reaction which in turn suspends their ability to intellectually grow.  There’s actually a form of growth, but only from a survival standpoint, devoid of any positive emotions, growth primarily dedicated to existing or surviving, not intellectually growing.  This is what is commonly known as “street smarts”, very skilled at taking and using, doing whatever is necessary to survive but very lacking in the caring and giving emotions and the resultant positive experiences necessary for a healthy and balanced life; essentially existing not living. 

Sadly, our generation - and the two following ours, are becoming more and more dominated by adult-children; people emotionally stunted and trapped in this survival-induced mode.  They are physically adults stuck at a much younger emotional level; their intellectual growth stunted by survival experiences that has essentially kept them from trusting and thus never growing in a positive emotional way.  The sad thing is that many of these people desperately want to find a way out of this debilitating state but are kept there by fear and shame.  When the ability to trust is damaged by some people it becomes hard to trust other people to help fix it.

Your mind, being finite does not have the benefit of the eternal truths in and of itself, it needs the spirit for that input.  When it receives such input it creates a balance that causes a sense of calm and hopeful balance.  Your mind only knows the little it has experienced.  It is therefore rooted in what is considered contemporary (finite) truth as compared to spiritual (infinite) truths.  All that your mind knows is what it has gathered in the few scant years of actual life experience and what it has gleaned from historical data of past generations.  Although, when survival is the predominant trait, the mind is not particularly interested in broadening itself unless of course the information could be deemed necessary for survival.  A culture or society can be judged by what traits it displays.  Looking at our current society leads one to fairly conclusively believe that we are indeed in a survival mode.  Barring a major crisis, we seem to be much more interested in what we can get rather than what we can give.

Again, this is important to understand because if we do not recognize the limitations of the mind and the strengths of the spirit we can never hope to understand the necessity for choosing to grow this symbiotic as well as synergistic relationship between these two invisible and powerful life forces.  (It is indeed a war of principalities.)

Our current society, as a result of our generational influence, has fallen to dangerous levels of fear-based survival reactions.  We have, generally and collectively, chosen to use our ego (intellect or mind) only, ostensibly disregarding any acknowledgement or assistance from God through the spirit for any direction or gifts.  This ego-driven state is narcotic and temporarily satisfying, but never enough because fear never satisfies.  That is the essence of fear; it is a void, the antithesis of love.  So, it becomes more and more necessary and consequently addictive and at the same time more and more debilitating, which causes a further denial of any spiritual necessity, which leads to a more pronounced state of dis-ease between the spirit and the mind; the classic downward spiral to and definition of the phrase ‘hell on earth’, because not knowing love and acting only out of fear is a torment.

Those of you who are biblically aware know that the majority of the themes in the bible are about this constant spirit-mind conflict.  The Jewish Pentateuch, the Old and New Testaments, the Psalms and Proverbs; all deal with teaching us about this struggle.  But sadly we, as a survival oriented generation, are not able to learn this because our minds evidently do not see this as important, consequently we continue to deteriorate; right before not only our eyes, but those of the whole world. 

How do I know this is true?  By looking at how we view and treat and consequently are viewed and treated by the rest of this world’s inhabitants.  I am confident enough to admit that our actions speak louder than our words; that there is a tremendous dichotomy between our words, which are very intellectual and profound, and our actions which are sadly very telling about what is really important to us; namely staying captive to our fears and inherited survival traits as demonstrated through our insatiable appetite for control. 

Also remember, that all information is filtered.  There is no pure information.  Each one of us sees, hears and feels things based on our experience filters.  Fear-based people see and re-act through resentment, rejection, domination, anger, etc. while love-based people see and act with a deep abiding confidence in the eternal truths as demonstrated by compassion, caring, nurturing, etc.  Simply put: fear-based people see things that will harm them; love-based people see things that reflect on their past actions, that they want to learn and grow from.  Fear-based people stay locked in fear, while love-based people accept fear for what it is, a natural human emotion that can be limited and balanced by their spirit.

We demonstrate our true nature at every turn.  Others see it, sometimes we choose not to.  It is so evident, the only requirement to see it is to slow down enough; to actively seek and develop a healthy spirit – mind balance that will create a more honest sense about this.  How does one develop a more honest sense?  By listening to your own internal spirit as described in Part 1 and consequently developing a balance between your mind and your spirit.  This would inherently start to contain and naturally diffuse the anger and fear that feeds these negative emotions, traits and the resulting actions.  How do you do that?  Again, as listed in Part 1, by just believing, trusting and nurturing the spirit within you that is directly linked to the eternal Spirit of God which is the source of all love and peace.

How will you know when you are actually doing that?  When the nagging deep inside of you becomes less noticeable and the peace and calm in your mind becomes more noticeable.  How will you know when you have achieved a working, daily balance?  When that nagging feeling in your mind has been replaced by thankfulness, a satisfying joy and peace; a satisfaction created from a deep abiding faith that manifests itself through a desire to help others with their needs.

Again I ask you to trust me, it really is that simple and certainly that noticeable.  But don’t take my word for it.  Dare yourself to try it.  Actually, I’ll dare you, ‘matter of fact – I’ll triple-dog-dare-you to try it!!!  (That’s the ultimate dare isn’t it?) 

Seriously though, acknowledge that you’ve been negatively influenced by our overly intellectual society, that you feel a deep spiritual nagging and that you want to achieve a balance; then commit to it, discipline yourself and then just do it.  But don’t kid yourself, this takes discipline; which is also part of positive, emotional growth and becoming balanced.  After all, intellectual discipline is nothing more than getting rampant fear under control; washing away the acid of fear with the more powerful alkaline of love.

Your reward will be indescribable.  There is nothing like the sense of comfort, awareness and energy that you receive by surrendering to the spirit, to God, and receiving the blessings of His eternal and unwavering love, encouragement, protection and yes, His peace. 

And that, my friends, is the ultimate definition of quality of life, being a balanced and peace-filled joyful giver.  And do you know what the most illogical and best part of all this is?  The more balanced you become, the more you’ll want to give and the more you’ll get back.  Still don’t believe me?   Take a quiet moment and ask your spirit. Then just be quiet; and wait; and listen. 

Ah, yes.  It really is true, isn’t it?