The sadness, constant overwhelm, exhaustion, achiness and overweight I was experiencing was a physical condition that greatly affected my mind. By mind, I mean mindset, attitude, mental clarity, focus, mood, how I feel and think about myself and my body…how I feel in my body affects how I feel about my body and my energy affects my performance and ability to contribute to the world and to my relationships, to my work and to my own growth.

In Search of My Mind/Body Health

Many Christians I know may be wary of this phrase “Mind/Body” because it can be associated with things they perceived to be non-Christian such as yoga or meditation. As I was discerning whether or not to leave ministry and go into my work as a healthy lifestyle coach with Isagenix and home school, I really did a lot of soul searching. Leaving work that was very satisfying was very difficult, especially when it wasn’t clear that my line item in the budget for my position would be protected. I had my own soul-work and integrity to concern myself about with this decision, but I also was concerned the church would not replace my position so there would no longer be a director of young adult ministry if I left. I was encouraged to put my vocation to my family first over my commitment to ministry outside our home. This seemed like questionable advice…was my own self-care and my family’s needs really to be weighed over the work of the ministry? My own habit of not caring for my mind and body health was apparent here. Just because it would make me less stressed, more prosperous, have more time freedom, was that an okay thing for me to do? It may seem silly as an outsider or now that I look back with the 20/20 of hindsight, but at the time I really wasn’t in the habit of choosing with regard to kindness to myself, and it was a really, really tough decision.

Modern Science Supports Physical and Spiritual Health

During this decision making process, I discovered 3 John 1:2 Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers. God wants us to prosper in our physical body as in our spiritual body. That insight and other counsel helped me to make the decision that to coach people on their physical health was a thing God would find pleasing work; a different kind of ministry.

But I want to push this discussion for Christians a bit further. In my decade now of working with people in their physical health, I have learned to not just think of regard for my physical body because it is a temple of the Holy Spirit, or because God wants us to thrive in every way, including physically. I have learned that there is an intimate connection between our Soul and our Body. “Indeed, flesh (what is physical) is necessary for the body to live out the faith the Lord works in” (Gal 2:20). Our physical flesh is an essential part of our mission on Earth.

My daughter and I cut 11 inches off our hair last year when my 7th friend who had breast cancer died. We wanted to make a statement, make a small difference through donating our hair. We wanted to do something in the face of such seemingly futile suffering. Have you ever experienced the impact of your own depression or anxiety, or physical sickness? Have you ever been the caretaker of someone who is gravely or chronically ill? Have you ever mourned the things that will not be done because they are incapacitated?

I suggest to you that God/ Spirit has seeds of greatness and purpose in each one of us. And when we are ill, depressed, exhausted, working all the time, not able to sleep, having our hormones out of balance so that we are moody, impatient or physically in pain, we have so many more obstacles to living in our purpose and expressing our contribution to the world. When we are relying on sugar, alcohol, caffeine, prescription drugs to just make it through the day, our mind/body health is poor and the rest of our life suffers. When we are plagued with negative thoughts of judgment about ourselves, it is easier to be in judgment of others. Likewise, when we are in impatient judgment of others, we are easier to be critical of ourselves.

God wants us to prosper in our body as in our Spirit, not just because it is a temple of the Holy Spirit, the Divine living in us, but because our mind and body are essential parts of being an incarnated being. In the early Church, sarx was a Greek word they used to discuss the nature of Christ’s body. Was he just “appearing” in human flesh? (Phil 2: 5-11) Was his body really physical? Could he have sinned? Was he truly tempted? In other words, ‘was he truly and fully human?’ The early Church Fathers rejected the idea that Jesus’ flesh, his body and nature, was anything but completely like our own. In other words, thinking of our body as something that is fallen, or not worthy, is not the orthodox Christian understanding. The students of the Apostles who came to compile the New Testament and their students who wrote the Creed, affirmed Mind/Body connection. They affirmed that God wanted us to thrive as people, and in that perspective, the body is an essential part of that.

Modern science is supporting that unitive view of the human totality. As Dr John Gray points out in his runaway best-seller The Mars and Venus Diet and Exercise Solution, there is a “brain chemistry of possibility.” Hormones are chemicals, physical substances running through our bodies, and they affect everything about how we look, feel and are. When we are exhausted or concerned with our own survival through the day, it is difficult to be present to the needs of our friends, spouses or children, much less the opportunities at the school or civic organizations or causes or the message to the world that remains buried in our hearts under the layers of fatigue and exhaustion. Growth of any kind entails change, and change takes energy. When we are depleted physically, having a truly healthy mind is exceedingly difficult.

Of course, that mind and body relationship goes the other way too, and Dr Bill Andrew’s research that led to the Nobel Prize in 2009 has come to illustrate that negative thoughts, depression, anxiety and stress causes accelerated physical aging. Similarly, Stanford University recently published a study showing that stress/ worry causes decreased bone density, lower immune system, loss of muscle mass, weight gain, interrupted sleep and actually shrinks the brain. We need to be healthy in our bodies to support a healthy mind, and we need to be healthy in our minds to support healthy bodies.

Mindset

“Mind” can also refer to “mindset.” While many are skeptical about the field of “positive thinking,” or “personal development,” there are millions of people who have experienced deep and lasting positive change in their life as a result of turning their focus into changing their “mindset.” And there is a growing field of psychology called cognitive behaviorism in which clients can break cycles of pain and hurt and self-defeating behavior by uncovering and changing self-defeating beliefs. Physics too now is discovering in the area of subatomic particles that quarks and other parts of matter behave in the exact way that the observer expects and that when there is no observer other than a camera, those same particles behave completely differently. The work of Jack Canfield and many other personal development gurus illustrate repeatedly that our thoughts and emotions directly affect our physical reality and our experience of it.

I heard it said once that the most expensive real estate in the world is the six inches between our ears. I have seen it in my life and in the lives of hundreds of people I know personally that when we have a healthier, more open mind, more present in the moment, less bound by the weight of past hurts or generational fears, we can become happier, healthier, and more free in every area of our lives.

Physical toxins interrupt hormones and affect mood, sleep, brain function and physical health. Mental toxicity, toxic thoughts about ourselves and others, create acidity, oxidative stress and many other physical issues.

Focusing on mind/ body health is essential to True Health.