Spirituality, Mental Health, and Self-Care

Today's guest post comes to us from Jewell M. Simmons, the creative force behind Hormones and High Heels.  Read her thoughts on Spirituality, Mental-Health and Self-Care below, and then head over to Hormones and High Heels to discuss, inspire, learn & laugh while exploring the realities of women and girls on a journey of womanhood.  

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Spirituality is our intimate gifted relationship with Supreme Intelligence.

And contained within this gift is Power and Wisdom and Light and Love that springs forth into our beings.

Spirituality and Power is an internal refuge where we draw our strength and ability to exist and create. 

Spirituality and Wisdom is the inner voice that speaks, guides, and implores our process as we navigate through our life cycle. 

Spirituality and Light is our interior trust and honor that God has a purpose for our life.  

And Spirituality and Love is our within that outwardly demonstrates our spark of Divinity.

  

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No wonder David said in Psalm 139:14  “I will praise Thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are Thy works and that my soul knoweth right well”.

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So armed with this insight and holding Spirituality as the central theme in this trilogy of connection between Spirituality, Mental Health and Self Care, I am encouraged.

 And for a moment, I want to stay on this side of the equation.  You know how they say “give me the good news first…” When we access our Power and Wisdom and Light and Love, our minds find solace and a quiet place to sit, think well or not, and just be grateful.  Because ultimately, our minds need to rest, be still, be comforted, and pampered with wondrous and wonderful imaginings and ideas and stories and laughter.  And though we may not always be mindful about our minds the truth is that our mental well-being is dependent upon our ability to welcome and engage in relaxation, repose, kindness, gentle thoughts, sounds, and colorful things.  And not just at night when we go to bed.  That is for sleep. But I am talking about purposeful and planned time to caress our mind in a soothing embrace of ease.  This profound and life sustaining union between Mind (Mental Health), Body (Self Care) and Spirit (Spirituality) is the ultimate love relationship, safe-guarding our being and keeping our sanity intact and from under attack. 

Acts of Self Care and of Mindfulness are ultimately our expressions of Power and Wisdom and Light and Love that we give to the world.  By doing so we are saying I am valuable, I am worthy, and I am an example of what God wants you to know.  So what are some of those actions and behaviors and choices and decisions?  They are what causes us to eat a meal that will create energy and provide us with healthier outcomes for our bodies, or performing an activity that will increase our muscle mass and produce a facial glow from the accomplishment of the task, or maybe even reading a book that will stimulate our brain activity and take us to galaxies within the realm of God’s majesty where we may become acquainted with our potential because He/She/It materialized it in our minds and hearts.   Positive Self Care and Mental Health Well-Being in concert with Spirituality is about letting the possibilities of life catch you doing things that leave you invigorated and captivated, frightened and excited, reaching, pursuing, stumbling and then straining toward that Light/promise that God has purposed for you. 

But before we go any further, let me correct my own self regarding what I said just a moment ago about the good news - there is no downside to what happens within this combination of Spirituality, Mental Health and Self Care. 

  However, I live and exist in this world and know that we have been and will be challenged by the trials, tribulations, troubles, turbulence and tantrums that befall all of humanity at one time or another.  Some things we will stand against and others we won’t be able to withstand, some things will put unimaginable pressure on us and some things will knock us down, and then some things will bow us low and others will leave us on our knees.  Spiritual showdowns, mental molestation and bodily battles will come up.  Some we will win, others we will lose and still others we will tap out on or draw a tie.  Oh yes, for as long as we are on this side of the soil, all of those things will individually or collectively find their way back to our mind address, heart city, and spiritual zip-code.  Some we will give directions to and others will google us.

All the more reason to get back to the Power and Wisdom and Light and Love that is ever-present and available as an aspect of Spirituality.  And we take that and gel and knead it into our mix of Mental Health and Self Care and come to the knowledge and understanding that we cannot exist as a schism.  All of these components dwelling in harmony are necessary for healthy and holistic living. 

Too many of us brothers and sisters live in shame and isolation due to our imperfections and as a result we don’t get the assistance needed to bring us back to or as close to wholeness as we can be. 

Let me express it this way,

It may not always pretty but a limping man can walk.

 And truth be told, we all have a limp but it just may not be in our limbs and therefore outwardly or readily apparent.   

 However, through utilizing the fruits of Spirituality, we can raise the quality of our mental health outcomes and self-care behaviors so that our limp is not only less noticeable but less debilitating.  And while Spirituality sits at the helm, its’ engagement for positive results in Mental Health and Self Care render it as part of a reciprocal relationship.  We need not be embarrassed to receive these blessings because Supreme Intelligence gave cures and therapies and apparatus and medicines and scientific minds to scientific minds so that we could appreciate and relish in the benefits of His beneficence.

My limp is my unique opportunity to share my experience of the Divine.  I don’t always get it right but I have learned and continue in the lessons of  using my Spirituality to refocus, calm and discipline my raging and rage-filled, unruly, far-flung passions and passionate, stagnant and stuck thoughts, and behaviors when my mental health needs to be realigned, re-positioned and settled down and my body needs me to make better choices for sustaining, strengthening and respecting its’ capacity and responsibility.  I need this trilogy / my triplets to be in harmony so that my Power is disciplined and balanced, and my Wisdom is rightly directed and utilized, and my Light is brightly and appropriately illuminated and my Love is experienced and shared in the fullness and truth of itself. 

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“I will praise Thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are Thy works and that my soul knoweth right well”.

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