The Mind-Body-Spirit Connection

When we have a healthful mind, we are taking care of our mental wellness, seeking help where we need it, providing our minds rest, nourishment, stimulation. We are managing our stress, we are feeding our minds with thoughtful words, media, literature, social media. We feel sharp, have sound decision making, and can trust ourselves.

When we have a healthful body, we feel vitality and strength. We feel equilibrium in our physical state—our systems are all firing properly and our bodies feel balanced. We are nourishing our physical body with healthful food, moving our bodies, and providing it self-care. We are resting and getting good sleep, we are addressing any ailments that come up.

When we have a healthful spirit, we are living authentically. We allow ourselves to be seen by others, and we are actively forming and fostering deep connections. We feel fulfillment in our work or our creative outlets, we feel like our life has purpose and meaning, and our spirit feels light. We have connection to a greater sense of humanity, and perhaps we have  connection to a higher power or belief system.

And when we have health and vibrancy in all of these areas, we have alignment and ease. No one system can sustain us for long on its own; they’re deeply interconnected and influence each other greatly. When our spirit is misaligned, it begins to show in our physical body or our mental health. When our physical body is ailing, it can damage our sense of self and purpose in life. When our mind feels like it’s failing us, that manifests in our health and spirit. It’s all interconnected, and if we’ve been ignoring this connection, we are not living to our highest good.

Today, take inventory of the current state of your mind-body-spirit connection. Where does this triad feel off balanced or misaligned? What do you need to attend to, to foster and heal? Have you ever felt well aligned in all three of these categories, and if so, how did that reflect in your life?