The Formula for Renewal

In early 2000 amidst the most unimaginable trouble (like today’s pandemic crisis) an answer became obvious: I could not change anything or anyone else. I needed to work on me! Consequently, I began to wonder when and how I had lost sight of me, my life, and how I fit into this world. I think it was always the need to feel secure, to feel good about myself (have a good self-esteem), and to be valued. The separation from God happened when my search for solutions was external and never really pointed internally. My thought: “If God won’t do anything about this, then I have to make something happen/change.”
 
I found security in being married—this wonderful state of having a spouse to care for me. I felt good about myself because of the abilities, gifts, and talents I had. I was valued within the many roles I played. Those roles throughout my life’s journey were steps that brought me closer to the realities of today. When things “changed” in my life, with one loss after another—severe and continuous illness, financial lack, death, and relationship turmoil—all that was left were me and God. He was not a stranger to me, but I soon learned that there was much more about Him and who I was as a Christian to be understood.
 
It was learning about the process of connecting body, mind and spirit—a place of balance, progress and peace— that changed everything!
“Beloved, I wish above all things that you prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers.” (III John 2)
 
The soul prospers by filling it with the Word of God, pondering and studying, and then applying it to your everyday actions, beliefs, and dreams. It affects the level of health you live with. I was surprised by the answer of body, mind, and spirit coordination for better health, mostly because I’d tried them each separately over and over without success. 

It’s All About the Connections
 
There’s nothing traditional about aligning the body, mind, and spirit to experience greater wellness, peace, and prosperity. People determine for themselves what they believe and how they use those beliefs to live. The decisions you made in the past are what have driven you to seek different ideals and solutions for yourself today.
 
These body, mind, and spirit connections are the fullness of what Creation has to offer you. Learning to recognize their congruence is the foundation of implementing change. It is definitely a delicate operation pushing aside the fear of obstacles to keep hope/faith alive that will—if you don’t give up—turn into a space that just feels like home. This viewpoint helps us to stabilize ourselves right in the middle of our circumstances and gain the balance we need.
 
Creating and following a plan of action is how implementing change is possible. Prayer has to be backed up with action. Faith, both a noun and a verb, is the ingredient that makes movement and change a reality. The advantages of developing a plan of action for yourself are:

• To stop the madness going on in your life right now. (And, by the way, if you don’t have any madness right now, it will come—life happens.)
• To give you some basic tools that will help keep you on a level playing field with your life. These tools will give you options for dealing with hurts, help to avoid depressive attitudes, and increase awareness to ward off self-destructive behavior. Things happen, pain comes, but…
they do not have to stay. We can make decisions for “wholeness” and “happiness” in our lives in spite of troublesome events.
• To encourage an approach to life that is balanced, permitting you to ride the storms of life out as you learn how to dance in the rain. This idea of merging actions of body-mind-spirit isn’t really a new idea. But the concept is both easy and hard at the same time. We all have heard people speak about times when they just undertook a thing with a leap of faith. The hard part of the equation is letting go of our internal manipulations while we allow God to do what He alone can do on our behalf. It’s almost as if when the student is ready, the teacher will appear.
 
The major factor that we must mix with this faith plan is our “will” to want to change our situation—to strive for peace and enjoy our life.