Before you jump to conclusions, I want you to know that today’s blog is not named after a musical group. I know it sounds that way. Matter of fact in the 60s and 70s there was a musical group called the fifth dimension. They did songs, such as Up Up and Away and Age of Aquarius. I want to talk to you about the four elements in our life that for so long we neglected. Even when we did pay attention to them we never fully gave them the attention that they deserved. We usually viewed them as independent of one another while dismissing their dependence on each other. The dimensions I am referring to are (not necessarily in any order) physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. In the past, you have heard me share about alignment. We’re going to touch on that a little bit today and then we are going to address two points of each one of these dimensions and see how when combined and in alignment, they give us the balance that escaped. It escaped us when we were being controlled by our addiction and over negative behavior. Before I do that, I want to define each one and I think you will readily see the interconnection of them.
- Physical of or relating to the body
- Emotional a state of feeling
- Mental intellectual response of an individual to external reality
- Spiritual the activating or essential principle influencing a person
Looking at each one of these we see the main building blocks of who we are. To neglect any of these as being essential to the total makeup of who we are is at our peril.
As a Person of Recovery and a formerly obese person, I understood how neglecting my body can cause such great present and even future damage. The emotional dimension is often based on who I see in the mirror. If who I am seeing is an unhealthy person it is very likely I will have a negative emotional response. Mentally I choose to evaluate things independent of emotions and most often I do when it is abstract or unrelated to me as a person. Having said that, most rationalization is processed emotionally and if my emotional response to my perceived negative physical condition is negative it will affect my mental or intellectual process. By this time, all three have a chain reaction and no matter how I want to lean in a positive direction I begin to lean the other way. Once I then add the spiritual as an essential influence to my view of me things begin to become even more distorted. Since the spiritual is intangible and therefore can’t see it, the likelihood of that perspective overriding the other three is near impossible. Therefore, it is incumbent on me to take care of the physical side of me and to maintain a healthy condition by eating, sleeping, and staying active. I can stay focused on my emotions and not be distracted by my health. I can focus on making healthy emotional choices and how I process events in my life that do more with how I feel. When it comes to my mental support, I want to make sure that what I consider on an intellectual level increases my understanding and awareness while giving me insight into patterns of thinking and processing thoughts that can serve to support the emotional and physical direction I have chosen. Once those three areas are secured and aligned I can more fully focus on my spiritual conditioning that involves meditation and relaxing rest that can only come when I feel good about how I feel, have a good feeling about who I am when I am processing thoughts that elevate not tear down and when I can find the spiritual peace and balance to get the rest I need. Thanks for your time. Be well and stay blessed.
Robert Pardon
Robert is the Recovery Guy. Getting clean and sober on April 25, 1986 has given me the insight and practical skill set to not only stay sober, but to also re-invent myself to the person I always wanted to become. Showing others how to do this is my life goal.
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