Today's post is written by Sister Elder Iasia Bailey, who has an M.A. in Human Services and Family Counseling. She is a metaphysical scholar, a poet, and motivational speaker and can be reached at asiawrites@gmail.com.
In 2013 The Huffington Post posted an article about Spirituality being the key element of Mental health. The writer inferred that the power of a patient’s spirituality and belief in God was the golden ticket to better treatment outcomes. I agree and had wished there was a more in depth discussion of why.
I believe, we must look at our existence holistically. The connection between Mind, Body, and Spirit is essential when considering the Total function of the individual. Mental health is just as important as physical health, and both are offspring of spiritual health. Mental health is an umbrella for many other aspects of being such as emotional health.
Without knowledge of self, knowing what you really are, it becomes difficult to maintain the holistic healthy function of the entire being. So what are you? You are spiritual energy being expressed on the material plane. Your inner reality is intangible, however it receives stimuli from your outer reality. When there is a breakdown of function of either mind body or spirit, it impacts the function of the whole. The separation of body, mind, and spirit is an illusion. They are interwoven with spirit being the ideal foundational support of the other two. Therefore the ideal condition is that spiritual health promotes health to the mind and body because spirit expresses through mind and body.
If you are able to accept yourself as spirit and affirm that spirit expresses through mind, then you can understand that spirit has a direct connection to the health of the mind. However, if it is hard to see yourself, your true self as spirit, then any other concept of a relationship between the health of the mind and body through spirit is not possible.
The power to be healthy to heal lies in where we are spiritually. There is a saying, “you are what you eat”. Let's remove the word eat and insert the word consume, “you are what you consume”. We consume not only physically but mentally. What are you consuming regularly? Whether if that which you are consuming is internal or external if its garbage that's what you will produce. And a consistent diet of garbage will eventually produce an adverse mental condition.
Let's look at Romans 8:5-6 (KJV) For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Life and peace are most desired conditions. When we speak of life we also speak of health, good, and abundance. The spiritual mind is preventive medicine!
The mind is powerful. And if it is not fed of the spirit, governed by the spirit and led by the spirit, the mind has the ability to create a reality that is a mere illusion that the external has perpetuated. This happens most when the spirit is not allowed to function as it should.
Mental illness is the absence of mental health, or healthy function of mind. Mind is consciousness. The mind is the seat of perception of the things we see, hear, and feel (Fillmore). Thus the cohesive relationship between Mind and spirit, is important in mental health. And the healthy function of that relationship can promote mental health, and additionally I believe has the power heal.
Most of us have been in a place where we no longer felt we were in control mentally or really dealing with reality mentally. I’ve come through my own mental struggles. But the more I learned about myself, and my awareness of God and spirit and the relationship between God and man increased, I was able to do two very important things. The first is the ability to discern whether or not I’m at a healthy productive mental state. And the second is to tap into the inner resource, give way to the inner man, increase the movement of spirit and open myself to receive of The Holy Spirit, to bring healing and peace and any trouble of mind I may be exprecing because of certain external conditions or what I like to call internal neglect.
Spirit is what we are. Its Powerful and if we allow it to have dominion over lives, we can find ourselves consistently rooted in Isaiah 26:3 (KJV) Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.
References:
Ingrid Peschke, https://www.huffingtonpost.com/ingrid-peschke/spirituality-and-mental-health_b_3348434.html
Fillmore, Charles. Metaphysical Bible Dictionary.
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