Do you know where your strength comes from?
Yep, let’s lift up that rug and check out what’s hiding under there!
Go ahead and take a true look inside yourself.
Established deep inside each of us is the core of our existence, our foundation. We each have multiple components that collectively unite to create who we are. Let’s call them our “bodies” for lack of a better term. When all of our “bodies” are functioning well, blockages and challenges seem more manageable. When one “body” is off balance, the others attempt to compensate and many times keep us on a forward track. Other times, when one or more of our “bodies” is too weak we ourselves become weak and lose our footing.
“It is not the beauty of a building you should look at; its the construction of the foundation that will stand the test of time.” — David Allan Coe
An example of losing our footing is when we start a great workout regime and diet. Let’s think New Years! It’s all awesome when we get started. We are enthusiastic and we start counting our calories, we buy a few new outfits and we go to the gym everyday, we snack on healthy snacks, and we cut out alcohol. It’s cool to get healthy… at first! It’s hard; but, we are determined. We glide through the difficulty with ease because we are inspired and there is energy behind our endeavor. We envision ourselves being healthy and we can see ourselves slipping into our Spring Break bathing suits. We tell ourselves that we can do it! Some of us resolve to do it ourselves and others reach out to family and friends to build a community of support, each of us trying our best to keep up the momentum. The problems begin after that enthusiastic energy has waned. The problems begin when things get tough.
“At the beginning of a race, everything and anything looks possible. Maybe you can even win! It’s not until you get slapped in the face, kicked in the gut, stepped on, and left bloodily behind that you turn inward and find your true grit and determination or lack of it.”
Our foundation is what we have to tap into when all the helium leaks out of our birthday balloon. It’s definitely not easy. We each can do it though! The key is to understanding what our foundation ACTUALLY IS and then STRENGTHENING IT! So let’s first figure out what these “bodies” are that make up our foundation so that we can figure out how to make them strong enough to carry us when we are tired, beat up, and weak.
Our Physical Body:
“To keep the body in good health is a duty… otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear.”— Buddha
Our physical body is the container where everything is housed. It is where our spirituality is located, our thoughts housed, our physical manifestations rooted, and where our creativity physically flows from. The physical body is how our emotions are expressed. The body in a physical form is how we tangibly understand what is happening. We can touch, taste, smell, see, and hear what the other bodies are trying to tell us. This body is physically subjected to everything around us: the food we eat, the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the relationships we expose ourselves to.
Our Emotional Body:
“The advantage of the emotions is that they lead us astray.”— Oscar Wilde
Your emotional body is plain and simply put, every emotional experience we have ever had: good, bad or indifferent. Did you know that the Latin root for the word emotion is Movere, it means: “energy in motion?” That’s what our emotions are, they are the movement of our feelings. They are our reactions to everything that has happened in our lives: positive and negative. Each one of our memories leaves an emotional impact. Imagine having one big moving emotional cloud hanging around each of us. Our emotions move with us every step of our lives.
Our Mental Body:
“Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.” —Albert Einstein
Our Mental body is our brain and our thoughts. The brain keeps the body functioning and keeps us alive. The brain helps us devise solutions and arrange methods of survival. It tells the lungs when to breathe, the heart when to pump, and the foot when to wiggle. The thoughts that run through our mind are energetic impulses. The thoughts in our brains are recordings. They replay over and over again. We logically use information learned from past lessons in an attempt to predict future events. Now, this is brilliant in some capacities for we have been taught our entire lives to learn lessons and keep ourselves from failing. The problem is, our mind is a muscle replaying a memory that we learned before. Our predictions are based on past events and are therefore not always accurate. We can try and predict the future; but, for the majority of us. We haven’t hit the lottery yet. Because we attempt to “think through” our problems and be “logical” a lot of times we forget to apply the other parts of our being to come up with rounded solutions.
Our Spiritual Body:
“Intolerance is itself a form of violence and an obstacle to the growth of a true democratic spirit.”— Mahatma Gandhi
The Spiritual Body is the connection of all the bodies to our inner voice. Without disrupting anyone’s personal sensitivities, some may consider this voice in the brain and call the thoughts “original ideologies.” Some may put this voice in the mystical heart and call it an enlightened inspiration and expansion of the spirit. To understand the concept of the Spiritual Body, it doesn’t matter what you call it. The Spiritual Body is simply your inner voice!
These 4 bodies are our foundation. As we age and experience life, that is how our foundations get established. Understanding first what the bodies are gives us an ability to distinguish the differences between them so that we can recognize when one or more is strong or weak. The idea is that when the four bodies of existence are in balance and in harmony we can be at our strongest. When we are at our strongest we can accomplish what we put our mind to and succeed in our endeavors.
When you succeed or fail you are establishing patterns in your life!
These patterns are how you view yourself. Climb With Integrity isn’t about anyone else! This is about how YOU see YOURSELF! We are together creating situations where you can be successful and feel empowered!
But, let’s look deeper. I want you to take a true deep look at the reality of how you feel when you attempt to accomplish something and you fail. Imagine having the ability to control more of the circumstances and be empowered to fail less.
Imagine not only being able to fail less often; but, not feeling as destroyed in those situations when you do not succeed. We are human and we are going to learn lessons. Lessons do not have to always mean failure. By strengthening our foundations, we can tap into the ability to know when we should not take on a project and when we will be able to find success. With that power, we can more clearly determine our strength and our weaknesses. We can raise up our own opinions on ourselves by not getting involved in projects and relationships that will lead to failure and disappointment.
Always ask yourself: What message do you want to send out to the universe??
The idea of Climb With Integrity is to gain self empowerment and balance. During times of challenge, we can find ways to encourage ourselves to stay motivated. Projects and relationships fall apart and energy wanes. That does not mean that we have to fall apart with it. Knowing when to push through the lull of slow energy and when to change paths is in our grasp.
Your foundation is YOUR strength! No one can take it from you! Build it, cherish it, relish in YOUR power and know that you have the capacity to do anything and be anything you put your mind to. Let’s build our foundations together! WE will make them strong and we will make them determined, and most importantly we will make them ours.
Ask yourself, which way do you want to go? And let’s chart a course to find your dream.
This 5 part series will go through each step to help you tackle each of the bodies so that you can build a fortress of your own to help you take on great challenges and make beautiful changes in this world.
I know you have it in you! WE are in this together and we will go One-Step-At-A-Time.
But, we need to start. And TODAY is the perfect time to do so!
Go look in the mirror and make today the first day of the rest of your life!
Love, Success, & Positive Energy!
~Theresa
