When you break your life down and put all of your activities into a category, all things we do can be placed in the body, mind, or spirit group. Each of these areas makes up the three sides of your person and your life. It is the great challenge of living to learn to develop a balance between these three areas. Taking care of and strengthening your body in physical fitness through some healthy diet and exercise, continually improving your mind through education, and developing your soul through creative activities and the way you treat the world and its people, including yourself. When you look at your life at any point, the times you are close to achieving a balanced life in all three areas are the good times. Of course, life is continually throwing things at you to force you out of balance, so you have to learn more, develop your body differently, or change your perspective on your soul. It is like standing on a skateboard while life is throwing rocks at you. Development is not an easy path but one we are all on, even if we are not consciously aware of it.

Continual Search for Fitness

Fitness is a goal for everyone. Even though we live in a society that seems determined to undermine any of our health-related goals, all people have an inner desire to be in shape. Most wish it would happen magically by taking a pill, but we all know that is not the way it works. Although we all have the desire to be in shape, we see it as stern and distant. When you are overweight, it is straightforward to give up. But don’t! A life of better physical fitness is simple to accomplish, but of course, it is not easy. Put a consistent exercise program in your life and learn to eat a healthier and more proportionally appropriate diet.

Exercise doesn’t have to involve a gym, an expensive online program, or even cost you any money at all. It can be as simple as walking for about 30 minutes a day, five times a week. You can lift weights, do yoga, run, bike, row, paddle, swim, hike, or any other thing getting your body off the couch and moving around. A consistent commitment to physical activity will be the first step in living at a healthy weight. Of course, there are benefits to your entire body. Diet is much the same. To me, portion control is critical. Don’t eat for any other reason than when you are hungry. Eat less food that is processed and more that is natural. It can be as simple as eating more fruits and vegetables. It isn’t complicated; your body will do what you program it to do and be as large or as small as you train it to be. Anyone can do it. A healthy body is a base for a healthy life because this is where your mind and soul reside.

Your Greatest Weapon

The ability to think is the most excellent tool to create any life we choose. Like a computer, the mind creates a program to guide your life. It is estimated we think somewhere around 70,000 thoughts a day. That is amazing until you realize that only between 3-5% of those thoughts are original, and the rest are all repeats, the same thing we think every day. If you look at your life, are there things you do every day without real thought? A routine you follow or a habit you have that you follow almost unconsciously? We all do because routines are great tools to allow us to accomplish many of our daily tasks. I know my workouts would not be possible without routines. Original thought is the key to mental growth, and we are responsible for this.

Changing your thoughts and developing your mind happens by introducing new information into your experience and reading new books, watching educational videos, and having conversations with people allow you to build your brain. It is estimated the bulk of our mental programming took place before we were seven years old as we tried to figure out how the world works and how we fit in it. Too often, limiting beliefs about money, love, and health were developed then and continue to rule our lives now even though they are not valid. We should evaluate the ideas we follow and how they affect our self-esteem and belief in ourselves. All opinions can change with a bit of effort, and the power of this is you can accomplish the things you always dreamed of doing.

Living from Inside Out

Too often, I have looked for happiness and fulfillment from things on the outside. A relationship, a success in my professional life, how someone treated me, or how life’s circumstances were playing out. The problem with this is that when you look to things and people outside of yourself for happiness, you are at the mercy of those things. You have given all of your power away to something you have no control over. The good news is that it is a minor adjustment to start looking inward for the things that will give your life meaning and bring you a life of joy and enjoyment.

Inside each of us is a creator. Bringing something into the realm of the physical world, which once only existed in your mind, is a magical thing. Some write, paint, draw, and create artwork out of scrap metal; whatever it is you feel called to make, do that. Not for recognition or money, but to express the inner light and love you carry inside. Creativity will bring you home to who you are and allow you to understand your soul’s calling, understand yourself, and hopefully find some form of self-love. We are not encouraged to seek our soul song because it often contradicts the script we learn we should be following. Get an education, get a job, have a family, work for 30 years, retire, and then wait to die. Life is more than this, and we are each more than this. Accept who you are and know your inside greatness, and the outside expectations will matter much less.

How is Your Triangle?

Now it is up to you to look at your life and see where your triangle of body, mind, and spirit is today. It is alright if you are not where you ideally want to be because we are all on a journey. Each of us is moving toward something. I have heard it said we are either in a crisis, coming out of trouble, or moving toward crisis all the time. Through all of these journeys lie the opportunities to develop ourselves and learn about the things we love to do and the ideas which make us happy. No two people are the same, and it is in these differences we find the things only we can bring to the world. Yet, we are all connected in our journey as we all seek the same things in life. To enjoy the experience of living aims to balance your body, mind, and spirit. It is a constant journey to find the balance which will bring us fulfillment. No two people are going to have the same ratio of body, mind, and spirit. But we all gain equal value in the pursuit of it. Enjoy the ride.

“The key to keeping your balance is knowing when you’ve lost it.” Anonymous