How to Rest Body, Mind and Spirit
Jun 14, 2022SUMMARY
The body, mind and spirit are interconnected. They must be in harmony for all of them to function well. When the body is not well, it is not easy to remain calm. When we are controlled by fear or hatred, there are manifestations in our body. When there is spiritual joy, the body can suffer anything. I give my proven strategies to rest the body, mind, and spirit:
- Regular disconnection from digital screen during meal times.
- Relaxation through walking.
- Benefiting from nature’s therapeutic power.
- Knowing which elements of nature do not give you rest.
- Appreciating nature with family or friends
- Regular spiritual retreats and prayer
- Mindful reading of books or listening to audiobooks.
- Having sufficient sleep.
INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES
TRANSCRIPT
How to rest body, mind and spirit. These three come in a package. They must be in harmony for all of them to function well.
What I will share with you are two things:
- what I believe in the interconnection of mind body and spirit wellness
- what I practice in order to rest and re-create mind body and spirit.
First of all, I am not a practitioner of holistic medicine. I am not a doctor, nurse or psychotherapist. I am a simple natural believer that the body, mind and spirit are different separate creations, and they affect one another in distinctive ways. Not one exists in a vacuum.
There was a year when I went for physical tests and laboratory exams, there was nothing wrong with my body but since I was encountering some emotional problems, I felt weak and my resistance to sickness was low. The body’s immune system is indeed influenced by the mental state.
When the body is truly unwell and in pain, it is not easy to achieve calmness, and the mind does not have the clarity to deal with problems. Here is when a person’s spirituality can give the energy needed to do anything.
A co-researcher of mine whose name is Maruja Moragas, whose life story I translated from Spanish to English was diagnosed with liver cancer when she was then 61 years old, given 6 months to live, and yet she was able to write her autobiography with extraordinary depth and maturity.
I met a lady who at 70 was always almost daily talking about how she will die soon, although she had no worse ailment. She died at the age of 90 and her loved ones think she could have still worked on many projects for those 20 years of waiting and wanting to die.
So Maruja was actually very sick but her spirit was extraordinarily well, that she had that fighting spirit to battle the cancer that was consuming her body until she could finish all her autobiography. And my other acquaintance was actually well but she she moving through time in a purposeless journey, just going through life, not doing anything significant, just wanting to encounter death at any time.
Sometimes, the body has no particular ailment, but the mind needs healing. Take the case of the mental state being affected by strong emotions such as fear or hatred. The body can be affected by our mind, that our movements or actions or decisions are ruled strongly by our mind. It is said that we are what we think. For example, some people are controlled by fear and the sight of what they fear like an animal can make their body immobile. I have not reached that stage although I am afraid of dogs or cats.
What about hatred? someone said that hatred is like cancer that consumes the body, even superhero movies can depict the enemies with body contortion and face distortion showing how much hatred can affect the physical features of the body.
Going back to the example of fear, it is possible that it can be diminished by a strong spiritual life when for example, someone who is afraid of airplanes thinking he would meet his death in a plane crash can abandon his form of death to God, whenever, wherever and whatever way God will allow him to die. That spiritual conversion can minimize any fear not only of a plane ride but any form of travel.
Another example of the power of the spiritual courage over mental fear is this. I remember a movie about the early Christian martyrs in Rome (it could be quo vadis? 1951 films, and how the emperor gets really mad to see that faces of martyrs and how they showed happiness after they were fed to the lions. In this regard, the body could be in pain, but the spirit is happy to know that the death was for a worthy cause.
In contrast, some people might have all the amenities in life, no bodily pain at all but they can feel an emptiness of spirit that they are not getting anywhere, they are still not happy.
So what can I share with you as my proven strategies to rest and re-create body, mind and spirit?
What has worked for me is regular and constant separation from my usual tasks working on the computer. The meal times are rest from the digital screen and reconnection with family and friends.
And although I do not do this on a daily basis, I find time to relax through walks. Some Filipinos like me are not used to walking, we have the tricyles or jeepneys to bring us to short distances. It was only when I studied abroad that I got used to walking. In London, I would walk 32 minutes to Imperial college where I did my Masters degree. In other days of the week, when school was not my destination I would take 14 minutes walking from home to the underground station in Sloane Square.
When I spent 4 years doing the doctoral degree in IESE Business School in Barcelona, I would always take the time to walk down the hill, and it would take me half an hour to reach home. And the pleasant sight of trees reduced significantly the stress of the doctoral studies and the conversations in different languages of Spanish and Catalan.
Coming back to my country, even if I would take the jeepneys and I would sense that the destination is near, I would clarify with fellow passengers or the driver and they would say like 4 to 5 blocks away but I would not mind walking, I get more stressed sitting in the traffic.
I would say that nature is my greatest therapist for all mind body and spiritual ailments. I love walking especially during the golden hour before sunset to appreciate and sometimes take photos of the contrasts between the shadows and the bright lights. I love sunsets or sunrise if there are opportunities to witness them especially in out-of-town trips or long vacations. The sunset or sunrise is a great democratizing factor, it shows itself to the poor and the rich alike. In one photography Facebook group, someone remarked that a sunset photo was much better in a European country. But I disagree with that. I think the sunset is plain beauty by itself. and it can just be edited to make it look better. Recently I missed the sunset but I was still able to take several photos of the lights. I shared that as IG reel and got many likes. I took those sunset photos in one province here in the Philippines.
Not all of nature relaxes me, and that’s very important to know which does not give you rest.
Strong winds make me recall the time that we got caught with strong winds in La Costa Brava which is the Spanish Coast. The owner of the motorboat we rented sensed that strong winds were coming so he drove us back to shore in a very fast way that I could see the walls of waves at my left and right. I sometimes think that then I was given another chance for life. I still take the boat I didn’t have trauma I would rather wait for peace and calm to return to the see to ride any boat.
Another experience of strong winds was one day I was walking in the streets of London and the strong winds came, my friend who was used to it told me to hang on to a street posts and when I saw the movie Mary Poppins with her and nannies being blown away, I could say that almost happened to me too.
It’s better to appreciate Nature with others like your family and friends, they don’t have to be with you all the time, but they help you with tips of what to notice what to focus on. I remember take a road trip from England to Scotland with a Scottish friend and along the way she would tell us how the grass is literally physically greener once we reach the borders. Of course, I was all prepped to see the greener grass and my vision cooperated such that I really agreed with her that the grass has a different special green once we reached Scotland.
Here in this nature’s sanctuary in the campus of the University of the Philippines, I have friends who share with me their love for birds, and cats and dogs. And I normally don't like cats and dogs but I could live with them now.
Last week, I went to my annual spiritual retreat. For me its typically 5 days of silence where I and other participants get 4 half-hours of meditation preached by a priest, then there is Holy Mass which is half an hour and benediction which is a quarter of an hour, the rest is individual reflection. The day’s activities finish at around 545pm and from then on, we could go walking or swimming. I normally would walk around but one day I accompanied a friend who was swimming and I walked around the swimming pool. We had an accident before when one was alone swimming so we make sure we have a companion while swimming.
But I don’t give time to spiritual exercises only once a year, I have daily practices to converse with God in prayer which is half an hour in the morning and half an hour in the afternoon. Prayer keeps me grounded, it helps me find meaning in my existence, gives me grace in any suffering, feels me with hope for the future.
For resting the mind, I turn to topics that are not related to work. It can be listening to other books I like listening to the online courses of Prof. Greenberg in Audible. When my mind could race so quickly to my tasks for the entire week or month, Prof Greenberg’s course can easily shift my attention from my usual tasks to listen to his lively and oftentimes funny lectures, interspersed with short examples of concert music.
Other times I get a mental rest is when I watch a Korean tv series and I get mentally transported to a different culture. On other days I can be listening to podcasts of other educational topics.
In all of these, one integrative rest is having sufficient sleep. Without sleep, the body and mind get lethargic and even my times for prayer can make me sleepy rather than conversant with God.
In contrast, having slept enough like 7 to 8 hours can give me physical energy, better memory at work and alertness in the moments of prayer and reflection.
These are examples of my philosophy about and tips on resting your mind, your body, your spirit. Fortunately, tomorrow I will take a two-day trip to the Sierra Madre mountain range just near here. It could be a one-hour trip from here and I will go with some friends. We will stay the night there and I hope you can follow me in Instagram, you will be seeing the photos I will be posting on the hiking trail and summits, the sunset, the sunrise, the sea of clouds, and all the wonderful scenery there in that mountain range.
Hopefully it can encourage you to take your rest with nature.
