As a teenager at the age of 15 I felt alone, bewildered and lost.  Often teenagers feel this way and like most people they wouldn’t want to relive that time of their life again – especially with the raging hormones!  At 15 is when I began my spiritual journey that I am on now, but before I touch on that I want us to understand the significant role that our spirit plays in our life.

In many languages the word used for spirit is very different in its connotation than it is in the English language.  As an ordained minister I have studied, meditated, pondered, and prayed concerning much of this.  Both in the Hebrew and Greek languages the word for spirit has a underlying meaning of air, breeze or wind.  The Greek word is pneuma from where we get the word pneumatic, as in pneumatic tires.  So we could fairly easily understand that our spirit is the breath of our being, the essence of life, the core, our life force that goes beyond the soul and the body , but yet is so intrinsically connected and almost without seams.

As a minister, psychotherapist, and holistic nutritionist which may appear to be a bit much, but in more distant times or distant lands often the spiritual leader, though maybe quite archaic, was all of those things.  The spiritual leader was the priest, the rabbi, the witch doctor, etc., which people would go to get help for their spiritual needs, counselling needs, and physical pathologies.  This was because of the spiritual understanding of how we as people synergistically function.

Now, based on the premise that we are a spirit, we have a soul and we live in a body we can possibly understand a bit more clearly that the spirit is the primary, the life, the true us – the essence of our being.  Why is this important?  Well, when we look at problems in our life, be they emotional or physical that is when we need to be looking at the condition of our spirit.  Our spirit’s condition determines the well-being of the rest.  In terms, the unconscious or subconscious mind is actually our spirit.  This further gives us a clue about where to look and how to begin to resolve our problems or ailments.

In psychotherapy we often want to uncover the hidden self beliefs that we call negative cognitions that sabotage our well-being.  These negative beliefs are not simply surface or conscious beliefs but much deeper!  They are core beliefs that our spirit holds.  These beliefs can cripple even our very bodies.  For example, have you ever heard of a person who is put in a position where they don’t want to do something or be somewhere and they get sick or have an accident or circumstantially get bogged down to the point they can’t do or be?  Is it coincidental or does our spirit cause inner and outer sabotage?  I do realize this may not hold true 100% of the time but probably much of the time.

To be honest with ourselves, to truly speak truth in our hearts with our selves, takes courage!  But, we usually can’t do it alone.  We usually need a qualified individual who can help us make this inner journey of discovery and not leave us in the abyss of our own beings but rather we need that person to go with us and help us to discover, to transform, to heal in order that we might truly live the abundant life.

To be the best we can be, as you probably have already figured out, isn’t easily done, we need help, and most important of  all, it’s a journey.  We are all looking for hope, desiring to be loved and loveable, to be worthy and capable of healthy choices – the freedom to choose!

Our spirit (unconscious mind) is always reaching out to be satisfied but what it embraces is what filters into our minds, and our bodies.  In my personal journey I was physically ill and emotionally distressed with a deep sense of emptiness that I knew needed to be filled but did not know how.  Through a series of events that I believe were the result of divine guidance I had an opportunity to go to a church service that led to an encounter of Jesus Christ for me and in that encounter it became more than an encounter it became a covenant union that brought me healing for the body, peace to my distressed mind.  I may be daily confronted with opportunities of distress but because of my spirituality and healthy core beliefs they have unleashed for me a way out, hope, and peace.  My core beliefs have been transformed and as I continue on my journey through life I continue to work on my core beliefs using spiritual tools, sessions with my therapist, and with help from my holistic nutritional therapist  my life finds some healthy balance.

If we don’t work on our core beliefs that are obscurely hidden in our spirit (unconscious mind), then we can never achieve the highest and best for our lives!