Trying to maintain spiritual balance doesn’t work in a physical world, and it is not meant to. Balance often implies a precarious position, such as a need to shift from one leg to another to achieve walking, or a “hanging in the balance” of things. Balance implies the need to control choices, such as when and how much to eat and sleep. All physical bodies, whether they are the human body or luminaries in space, operate within physical laws which include many laws of balance. Balance is important and necessary for our physical bodies. But spirit is not physical, and is not limited to physical rules. And this is why when we try to apply laws of balance to our spiritual nature, it simply does not work.
The human body has basically two parts; body and spirit, and literally the two of them together makes a living soul. The spirit is the life-force gifted to us by God, and the body is the physical domain in which it resides. We are fully both. And just as there are many parts and layers to the physical body, such as the outer skin, the muscles and fat, internal organs, bone and blood – there are also layers to the spiritual one, which might be likened to vibrational qualities or densities. The majority of the spirit has a medium density and basically looks like a golf-tee in the body, flowing down the spine with most of it in the head area. There is also a very tiny dense spot located in the upper-middle of the head that is the central core of our spirit, it is the main connection to remembering who God is and fully knows who we are too. This core essence of spirit is unshakable and contains all the facets of love we have already learned and also those we are currently polishing, and contains our full personality beyond exterior labels or interference. There is yet another layer extends through all this, and overflows the physical limitations of the body. This one is of lighter density, and usually dissipates the further it extends out. This is the one seen by some people to be an aura of colors around the body. It is also the part that influences much of our emotional perceptions of the immediate world around us, such as feeling comfortable or uncomfortable around a person, place or thing.
There are conscious choices we make with our physical body, such as using our hand to turn a doorknob. There are also automatic workings in our body that happen on their own without us giving much thought to them, such as cell division, digestion, etc. This does not mean it is impossible to influence the automatic system. It is very achievable through mental determination to slow our hearts, lower our blood pressure or even stop our lungs from breathing for long periods of time. Sometimes people have made these choices consciously because they want to achieve something. However, sometimes when people do not want to live anymore, or feel overwhelmed, they will wall themselves off by making firm mental choices, often unconsciously, that the body obeys. This can include stopping the heart from beating, eyes from seeing, ears hearing, or even signaling the body to stop repairing itself.
Just as we can mentally influence unhealthy choices in our physical body, so we can with the automatic workings of our spirit. Think of our spirit as similar to a dolphin’s sonar. Since our spirit includes receiving impressions and feelings from the area around us, if we have mentally determined not to feel those perceptions (perhaps because fear or a past hurt), we can lose much of what makes us aware and healthy humans. What would happen to a dolphin if they lost their sonar ability? They would have a very difficult life functioning in their world. The same happens for us. How do we influence our spirit negatively? For one, if we are constantly telling ourselves that ‘relationships bring only bring pain and I will end up spending my life alone,’ our mental state affects our subconscious spiritual mechanism and instead of receiving the vast array of information around us, we close in tightly around ourselves. This will correspond to feeling very much alone and isolated, even if we are in the midst of a crowd of people. And since the outer layer of our spirit normally connects and intersects with everything around us, we lose out on a myriad of intuitive impressions if we shut it down. These might be as simple as which fruit is perfectly ripe, or as important as something wrong with the car, or proximity of a potential marriage partner. Remember that making a wall around oneself does not protect us from pain, but rather it makes a prison, one that we have built with our own hands. We must be consciously aware of what we think; we must be aware of how we are thinking deep within.
Our innermost thoughts are central to our free will choices and it is important to be mindful of what is repeating itself in our head (such as the negative concept “I don’t deserve to be healed; happy; loved; etc.”) and choosing to think differently. Free will is crucial to how we make choices on our life path, and our body is strongly influenced by it, and God works with it too. This is also why if are praying for someone to get well and their spirit has made a decision to let the body die, we need to be OK with that - even if they have verbally told us something else. As we have noted, sometimes we give unconscious signals to our bodies that they obey, so a better choice is to spend time in meditation (time with ourselves) and prayer (time with God) to dig deeper and to know what choices we are really making. Integrating our core spiritual desires and our conscious choices together makes a powerful package. This is the true meaning of working with our prayers, and will accomplish much more than being divided within ourselves with saying one thing and feeling another.
We have control over much of what goes into our minds and hearts, thereby affecting our spirit. Our choices of entertainment at the theater, internet or on the television; what kind of literature we read; and what we choose to speak of will give us a good indication of what is in our heart, for “out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.” (Matthew 12:34, NIV) For example, do we search out the TV shows that highlight the good that mankind is accomplishing and the beauty of the earth, or do we watch cheating and murder shows? Do we gossip and pass along information that is not encouraging? I know if I do not feed my spirit regularly, I may begin faulty thinking and it may affect my confidence that God could utilize a person like me, or any of humanity at all, thereby setting myself up for loss of hope and lack of faith. That kind of thinking makes our spirit very weak and makes is more difficult to embrace the gifts and blessings that Divine Love gives us. The apostle Paul was led to write: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me – put into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.” (Philippians 4:4-9, NIV)
So what are some ways that we can strengthen and expand our conscious spiritual awareness?
(1). Recognize that part of our spirit is always in connection with God and hears him, knows him intimately, and that we are fully forgiven, fully accepted, and fully loved beyond what we could imagine or experience on earth. Done deal!
(2). Because we live largely in a fast-paced, result-oriented “show me” world, we often make the mistake of only counting as important or necessary the things that we can see, monitor or finish. In other words, we count only the physical aspects of our life – what we look like, what we weigh, what we have created, what we have earned, what we own. So recognize that unless you were divinely given a tangible gift that can be measured (such as miracles, healing, medical intuition, resurrection, finding missing persons, etc) the work of the spirit may be invisible, and you need to be OK with that. Having a gift that can be measured does not make any of the other gifts less important; in fact I personally think it takes more faith to know you are making a difference without seeing the results. For example, everyone is given the gift of prayer - and prayer does change things - yet we may never have tangible proof that our prayers helped lessen a severe storm and turn it from a town, or aid a rescue worker hear an Angelic voice guide them to dig in a certain location. We all have gifts, and all of them take confidence and faith. “Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.” (Hebrews 11:1 NLT) And the greater the amount of faith we have, the more we can be utilized to use it.
(3). The spirit is always hungry and always needs to be fed. Putting aside time for meditation, prayer, saying the Divine Decrees, study of the scriptures and spiritual fellowship are all needed, and to be admirably congratulated. But, these intervals of time for the spiritual nature are not enough. More is needed! Never is the spirit comfortable or at ease living on spaced out meals, and it is not meant to. It is a constant eater! We have already seen that our spirit and body are intertwined to multi-task in this life together – both are fully here for us at the same time, and both possess unconscious automatic features and thought-activated ones. As such they are made to be utilized together at the same time as well. We do not have to live under the presumption that “this time is set aside for spiritual, this other time is set aside for physical.” Please notice that time is NOT an issue in integrating a fully spiritual life into your physical one, because there are no recuperation times needed for your spirit, there are no limits on spirit at all, only the physical body has limits, balance, and timing issues. This means that you are completely free to be fully spiritual at the same time as being a physical, human being.
This may sound like a simple concept, but it takes some initial effort to put it into practice. But once we have trained ourselves it becomes the second nature it was supposed to be. In our imperfect world we see so much dualism, the “this or that” of black or white, hot or cold, asleep or awake - that we have often categorized into seeing everything that way. I myself struggled for years to find “balance,” between body with spirit, and because balance does not work, in my desire to constantly feed the spirit my physical body has often been neglected. It has been interesting to note that most healers I have seen, and those who focus on spirit, also have neglected bodies. And along the way, most of us haven’t really cared because the body has not been our focus. As for me, I had often seen my body only as a constriction to be put up with until I could be free with Father again. However, learning to be fully integrated in the body while continuing my spiritual nature adds power to make greater transformations around me – God does not need to wait on as much recuperation of the body when it is in shape. It is like having a care that is taken care of, tuned up and a full gas tank ready to go where Father says to go.
How do we integrate feeding our spirit full time while living in a physical body? Only one thing - learn to live with one ear to the heavens, and one ear to the earth. We were created to multitask in our hearing, we always hear a multitude of sounds at the same time. Yet, we can choose to be aware, and pinpoint clearly one distinct conversation out of a crowd, such as our dog barking out of all the others in the neighborhood, or our own quiet thoughts in the middle of a loud business meeting. In the same way, we can choose to hear the Spirit of God, the whisper constantly compelling our own spirit, and in our awareness of it make better conscious choices. If each of us did nothing else but this, our spirit would never have an instant of starvation again. This is the fully integrated life, living our lives in an undertone of prayer, tapping into the God-spot of our spirit full alive in Divine Love.
God speaks to us in whispers in our mind and in our heart and in our spirit, and we can consciously choose to turn up the volume on that one voice while still listening to everything else around us and live even more successfully in our physical world. Until that comes automatically to you, why not set up a trigger every morning to remember to pray to ask God to recognize his voice and hear him more clearly than anything else? This is about conversing with God in our mind, and listening for replies. Each one of us already talks to ourselves non-stop inside our brains – just ask God to join in, and take the lead. If you have questions about if you are hearing God or yourself and how to know for sure, please read the article by that same name at TiffanySnow.com.
We are spiritual beings currently living a physical existence. To help us to remember our integrated nature we can use physical triggers to remind us, and these can take many forms. Placing these triggers around our homes, workplaces and automobiles can help us remember who we are until it becomes second nature. Any of our five physical senses – touch, sight, sound, taste, and scent – can help activate our sixth sense of conscious spiritual awareness. What inspires or reminds one person of spirit may not remind another of the same thing, not all triggers are universal. Choosing what your reminders are is a very personal thing. For example, while putting up photographs of a sunset on a Hawaiian beach may soar the heart in one person, for another it may represent a memory of faded love. Remember that these spiritual triggers are there to remind you to listen and converse with Divine Spirit while doing physical things.
Here are some ideas that may help you choose your spiritual triggers:
(a).What colors make you happy to look at? Yellow? Purple? The rainbow? Splash these colors around everywhere - wall coverings, curtains, tablecloths, bedding, carpet, rugs, shower curtains, and also with the clothes you wear. Bring colorful silk flower arrangements in your favorite colors.
(b). Are you inspired by creation? Bring unique rocks, wood or shells into your home. Paint a ceiling to look like the heavens with its shining stars and constellations. Hang photographs or paintings of scenic views of National Parks or animals in their natural habitat. Remember to place these where you work and do your activities - near the sink while you do dishes, above your computer.
(c). Play recordings of rain and thunder as you shower, bird songs as you make breakfast, a babbling brook as you drive to the office, crickets or waterfall sounds as you get ready for sleep. Instrumental music that lifts your spirit and inspires, favorite hymns or songs of praise sung by a favorite artist.
(d). Divine objects of affection. Do you have a crucifix on your wall and above your bed? Favorite scripture quotes on your refrigerator or above your front door? A Bible in various places (including the bathroom for quick reading)? Paintings or replicas of Jesus, Mother Mary, Angels or the Saints? These objects can also add a blessing to your home and help remind you of Divine forgiveness, perseverance and love.
(e). Incense or smells can be an instant trigger of emotions. Who doesn’t like the smell of a fresh Christmas pine or a batch of cookies? There are many scents available by lighting a candle, using automatic air fresheners or putting on perfumes and colognes. Fresh flowers on the table are always a treat.
(f). Display photographs of your best life memories – holding a your newborn baby, a wedding picture, a graduation day, a fish caught with grandpa. Make sure to choose only photos that inspire without any accompanying sadness.
Living in an environment that triggers you to ask “am I listening,” will help you create a pattern that you will keep no matter where you go or what atmosphere you are in. Does it work? Yes. Does looking at a weight scale or an exercise device remind you of what you want to do with your health? Yes it does. The benefits we receive when we exercise our spirit is a life without limits, even while living in a physical body. We become aware of our full connection with God and learn to hear and converse with him constantly, in an undertone of prayer. We also learn to bring to our conscious awareness any mental or spiritual decisions and make better, divinely guided choices. We also gain the peace of God that excels all thought, and learn that while there is balance needed for the body, there are no recuperation times needed for our spirit, for there are no limits on spirit at all. We are completely free!
