Role Of Spirituality In Promoting Healthy Lifestyle Choices
We all think lifestyle choice is something that is only related to food or exercise. For example, if someone has a habit of eating untimely or unhealthy food or if someone does not exercise regularly, we say that the person has a bad lifestyle.
But what is a lifestyle choice, in terms of Spirituality? In terms of Spirituality, our behaviour becomes our lifestyle choice. For example, we can choose to be angry or we can choose to be in anxiety. We can also choose to live with fear or choose to have a bad mood. These choices become our lifestyle choices. But they are more involuntary because of our ignorance. We human beings are driven by worldly pleasures and consider ourselves to be the body, mind and ego. We fail to realize that this body is not our identity. We were not born with a body, rather, this body was formed in our mother’s womb after we were born. This body is always evolving and aging and one day, it will die. When we die, we don’t take this body along with us, rather leave it on this earth. Thereafter, it is destroyed by burning or burying. So, when we are not born with this body and do not take it along with us after we die, then how can we identify ourselves with this body? So, we must realize that we are not this body. Then, comes the mind. We human beings think that our mind is the king; it is everything! But we don’t realize that the mind is not there. We can touch all the parts of our body and see the images of even the brain, heart, lungs and other internal organs. Have we seen the mind? No, we haven’t! In reality, the mind does not exist. It is just a bundle of thoughts. When thoughts bombard us, the mind appears and when the thoughts are controlled by our intellect, in the state of consciousness where thoughts come one by one, gently, the mind disappears. Therefore, we are not the mind either. Then, are we the ego that says, ‘I, me and mine'? We are not the ego because the ego is a false identity.
When we realize that we are not the body, mind and ego, we will realize what we truly are. What are we? We are the SOUL, the Spark Of Unique Life that came into existence when our conception took place in our mother’s womb. We are the Life energy that makes our heart, beat and lungs breathe day in and day out. And the Soul is a part of the Supreme Energy that is birthless and deathless. It is the Supreme Immortal Power, SIP, whom we all call, God. Just like a wave emerges from the ocean and goes back into the ocean, the Soul emerges from SIP and goes back into SIP at death. We are the Divine Soul. This is the Truth and the ultimate goal on the path of Spirituality is the Realization of this Truth, Life-Realization and God-Realization.
Therefore, a healthy lifestyle in Spiritual terms is being happy, being positive, living in peace and with contentment. Spirituality helps us realize the truth about ourselves, the truth about God and the truth about life. When we realize that we are not this body, mind and ego, that we are the Divine Soul, we transcend the suffering, namely, the pain of the body, the misery of the mind and the agony of the ego. Hurt, pain, misery, jealousy, enviousness, hatred and revenge no longer have any effect on us because we have realized that the Soul is beyond all this. These negative thoughts occur when we are in the state of mind, when we are in control of our mind.
Spirituality helps us flip over from the state of mind to a state of Consciousness, where we are enlightened with the truth. The negative thoughts that cause poison called NEP – Negative Energy Poison, are flipped to positive ones or PEP – Positive Energy Power because in the state of Consciousness, in the state of Enlightenment, our intellect is activated and it discriminates our thoughts and helps us activate and fill our life with positive thoughts and positive energy. Thus Spirituality plays a significant role in having a positive and healthy lifestyle.
About the Author -
Spiritual Leader and Founder of AiR Institute of Realization and AiR Center of Enlightenment
