Balancing Body, Mind and Spirit

Another year begins, and with it, the annual ritual of deciding whether or not to adopt a New Year’s resolution.   The most common resolutions probably have to do with improving our health or appearance, or maybe to shed a bad habit or two so as to improve our mind or our finances.   What this really boils down to is how we intend to spend our time in the coming year.  Each year is limited to an exact amount of days, hours and minutes.  It’s easy to say we don’t have enough time for the things we resolve to do more frequently, such as exercise, read, or pray.    In reality, it is not time that limits us, but the choices we make from hour to hour and day to day.  Bishop Fulton Sheen pointed out that we will spend time on the things we value, and therefore it is thought that controls how we spend our time, not time that controls us.

 "It is never true that we have no time to meditate; the less one thinks of God, the less time there will always be for him. The time one has for anything depends on how much we value it. Thinking determines the use of time; time does not rule over thinking! The problem of spirituality is never a question of time; it is a problem of thought. For it does not require much time to make us saints; it requires only much love." (Bishop Fulton Sheen)

Time is the most precious thing we have in life, because each of us has only a finite amount of time to live.   When we’re young, things seem to take forever and we think we have lots of time, so it is easily idled away.   But as we get older and realize we have only so much time remaining, time passes more quickly.  The question then becomes, how to best spend the time we have remaining.  This begs the question of what we value, and the choices we make with respect to our daily activities.    How can we best allocate our remaining time to the various elements of our being?   Before trying to answer this question, it might be helpful to remember that we are more than just our bodies.   We have been created in the image of God who is the perfect union of three persons, one of whom is The Spirit, One who took on a human body, and of course the Father who is all-knowing.  Like the Trinity, we are the integration of body, mind and spirit, all three making up one person.  God did not create us as spirits alone, like angels.  Nor did he create us as simple organisms, like plants and animals.  We are the embodiment of mind and spirit, infused with the spark of divine love that makes us constantly yearn for more than this life can offer.  It is our spirit that enables us to love one another.  Love is of the spiritual realm, and when we love, we are closer to God, closer to immortality.  

If we value one aspect of our being greater than the others, we will spend more time on that part of our life, and perhaps neglect the other realms.  In our secular world, many of us focus almost exclusively on our bodies or minds, while ignoring our spiritual nature.  Maybe that’s why so many people with great bodies or minds are still “dispirited,” and struggle with emotional issues.  The spiritual realm, although a mystery, is the most real aspect of our being, because, unlike our bodies, our spirit is immortal, and transcends time itself; yet is often the aspect of our being we value the least.  Faith, informed by reason, gives us hope that the ravages of time will not put an end to our existence.  This knowledge frees us from the burden of our dying bodies when we realize that life is more than body, and more than knowledge; it is a sharing in the immortality of God Himself.

Because we are the integration of body, mind and spirit, it is a mistake to think we can improve on one aspect of our being while ignoring the other two.  It is impossible to improve our health if our minds are troubled, or our spirit disabled.  Conversely, we cannot hope to improve our spiritual life while neglecting our body or mind.  The mind-body connection has long been studied and well-documented, but seldom do we incorporate the spiritual element of our lives as well, because we are so preoccupied with the physical and mental demands of daily life.   Over the past few decades several well-known psychologists have bucked the secular trend and demonstrated the importance of faith and spirituality in healing and maintaining a healthy psyche.   They have demonstrated that faith in God helps us cope with the emotional and behavioral challenges in life.  

The best way to improve ourselves is to keep all three attributes of our being in balance.  When we fixate on only one aspect of our life, there is a danger that it may become a compulsion and other facets of our lives are likely to be neglected.   The old adage about ‘too much of a good thing,’ applies here.   What good is it to be in great physical shape if we are neglecting our spouse or family?  The key to success in this life seems to lie in maintaining a healthy balance among our body, mind, and spirit, and the best way to improve ourselves is to work on all three simultaneously.  I have found that exercising my body is easier when combined with reading or prayer.  There have been many times I didn’t feel like getting up early to exercise, but did so because I was immersed in a book, often a book on spiritual matters.  When I was an avid runner, prayer made my daily runs more alive with an awareness of the beauty of creation at sunrise in the morning dew and mist.   

As the new year begins to unfold, consider combining your physical, mental, and spiritual activities.  You may discover that all three are easier to accomplish when done in tandem.  Time is not the enemy, it is the opportunity God has given us to become more fully human, more fully alive in body, mind, and spirit, so that when are born into eternal life we are better prepared to experience the Beatific Vision.