“We enter this world with a screaming heart, thrusting ourselves head first into the open...fighting against our knotted umbilical cord, to leave nurture for nature...in zealous desire to begin living. Sadly we lose ourselves somewhere between creeping and walking...that unsteady gait made for stumbling...then to standing in a world we thought we knew...but never loved...to crouching with cane to wheelchair to bedridden. Then to leave this world with a whimper. Program terminate, riddle unsolved. Without His grace, the journey is pointless.”
You are what you eat. That which you allow to enter this temple...is what this temple shall become. You are living, breathing thought.Think...Examine the nature of your “food for thought”. What energies (physical, spiritual and emotional) have you “ingested” within the past 24 hours? If you’re not feeling your best today, chances are...you thought yourself into it. What? Are you going to blame your lack of well being on a bunch of battery operated chemical reactions that know nothing apart from their inherent ability to keep natural order? Stand up, be a real man (or woman) and face your problem. But there’s one other problem apart from the actual problem itself, which is the fact that the problem itself...is you. We must now engage the most daunting of questions: Can you face yourself? Or rather...do you have the guts to? (The word ‘guts’ being used both playfully and symbolically here). Theoretically speaking, we are, at the core, first person...but we live in the third. And no matter how “developed” your country of residence, we are all, individualistically, third world. Not only is it comforting to know that no man is an island, but also quite humbling a reality that it’s not all about the “I” but rather the “He”, “She”, “It” and “They”.
Tell me...how much of you is actually you? I mean...how much of you is there in you? (No really...stop laughing/frowning and answer the question like the good girl/guy i know you are). Look...the language and grammar system on Microsoft Word ’07 attempted to correct my improper English by suggesting that i substitute the word “is” after “you” for “are”. Then the question would read: “I mean...how much of you are there in you?” But then, grammatically speaking, the question still does now sit well unless the word “much” is changed to “many”. The grammatically sound question would now read: “I mean...how many of you are there in you?” An irrevocable sense of plurality is evident. It is therefore no surprise that we so often struggle with issues of identity. The question “Who am I?” has passed unsolved into the graves of some of the world’s leading theologians, philosophers and scientists. And again, it all gathers in the abyss of our third world nature. In semblance of the classic third world economy, we, as singular physical, emotional and spiritual entities, “import” a lot more from the external than we “export”. We are broadly “receptacle bases”, consuming, storing (and conditionally) excreting various energy inputs arising from our external sphere of existence. The receptacle theory, in itself, adequately and rationally spawns the familiar adage: “You are what you eat.”
Indeed, a broad spectrum of the various energies (both positive and negative) we allow to enter our being, is stored within us. In fact, our receptacle nature has made us so open to external energies, we often become the subject of their manifestations. The right energies are those which, when consumed, will build who we are, foster spiritual, emotional and mental growth, and improve our overall state of well being. The wrong ones, on the other hand, will crush character, compromise our physical, mental and emotional integrity and fracture self esteem. Depress-o-genic thoughts like “I’m not good enough”, “I can’t do this” and “I don’t fit in” are toxic in nature, metabolize rapidly to poisons in vivo, cause extensive emotional and spiritual injury, and are in general poorly excreted. Poor excretion is often linked to the ability of a given thought/idea to adhere to the framework of our conscience/subconscience. Once firmly bound, they exhibit a marked tendency towards propagation or mass attraction – one thought leads to another: negative attracts negative. Any substance under our consumption (whether material or otherwise) that resists excretion will essentially become a part of us, provided that the ultimate effect of its ingestion is non-lethal. So...“what doh kill...does fatten.” Notably important: the ingestion and storage of material substances affects WHAT we are. Conversely...that of non-material entities will affect WHO we are.
The sound mental and spiritual diet is one that seeks to limit our consumption of negative/destructive energies, and makes maximum use of positive ideas, words and reflections. When we “fatten” ourselves on the wrong energies, we grow to reflect the fruits of disorder within our being. We become the product of our consumption: depressed, angry, corrupt, envious, apathetic. We lose sight of happiness and our passion for living. Careful control of what thoughts and energies we harbour within ourselves is the first step towards achieving true happiness. So let’s begin with metacognition – thinking about what you’re thinking first of all...tame the subconscious tongue into speaking positive thoughts about yourself. Naturally, then, we become less prone to ingesting and storing the unhealthy energies of our external sphere, but rather, the light within us attracts light from the external. Essentially, we internally become magnets of positive power.
2 Corinthiamns 4:712 confers the analogy of the human being as “a vessel of great spiritual treasure” – “But we hold this treasure in pots of earthenware, so that the immensity of the power is God’s and not our own. We are subjected to every kind of hardship, but never distressed, we see no way out but we never despair, we are pursued but never cut off; knocked down, but still have some life in us; always we carry with us in our body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus, too, may be visible in our body...”We have little control over what the world feeds to us, but we do have the full power to control what we eat, and what we make of it. Understanding and embracing the great treasure and light force at the core of our being allows us to fall...and yet rise again, pressed on every side...but not crushed, struck down...but never destroyed. Because above all, we are built to hold the great treasure of life, the power of light, and the gift of happiness.
Today i shall respect my mental gut, with the right diet of word, thought and cognitive energies.
No comments:
Post a Comment