To be truly fit, one must take care of and nurture all three aspects of our humanness -- body, mind and spirit. Conscientiously paying attention to these aspects of our existence goes a long way in ensuring a happy and long-lasting life experience. Taking care of body and mind seems to be what we most often concentrate on, but what about spirit? What is spiritual fitness, anyway?
To my mind, fitness of the spirit deals with our ability to cope with the everyday stresses and strains of our lives and does not necessarily refer to our religions inclinations, although the way we deal with religion can be either a benefit or detriment to our spiritual fitness. Our attitude and ability to cope is a critical skill, otherwise we can become overwhelmed by our mental baggage and if we don't give sufficient time to the fitness of our spirit, or soul, we may lose the ability to function altogether.
One of the most common problems an increasing number of modern day people who have given less attention to their spiritual fitness have to deal with is anxiety and/or panic attacks. These attacks may be very mild or extremely severe. So what is happening when an anxiety attack strikes?
Well, an anxiety or panic attack is actually a form of shock. You might even call it "soul shock" because there is nothing physically or mentally wrong that should cause this illness. In actuality, it's the person's spirit that has lost control.
This loss of control can last for just a few moments, or it can be an ongoing problem that lasts for years. What can be the most debilitating is the inability to function while trying to accomplish the person's normal routine. Even short trips to the grocery store may become difficult because of the anxiety or panic they have created within themselves.
Most of us have experienced some form of anxiety or panic attack even for a brief period of time, so it's easy to understand the debilitating reality they bring. It's a frightening occurrence that, unfortunately, tends to spiral into even more panic. The person experiencing these attacks feels as if they have lost control over their ability to function.
Often they can't meet deadlines and they suddenly find it difficult to provide for themselves and their family. If they continue down this path without trying to discover the root cause of their problem, their life could become a constant fight to maintain their focus on taking care of their responsibilities and obligations.
In many ways, the hectic pace of modern life makes it even more imperative to give our spirit, our soul, our inner voice an opportunity to be heard. Too many of us drown out any chance to connect with ourselves throughout the day because we schedule everything, multi-task everything, and leave no down time for a conversation with our self. It's difficult to listen to your inner needs if all your time is spend being busy -- talking on the phone, listening to the radio, watching TV, interacting with co-workers, your children, neighbors, the family pet, and so on.
The irony is, we now have many more chances to meet our spiritual needs and actually schedule planned downtime. Utilizing audio, video, or even going to a massage clinic provides the opportunity to slow down and connect with your inner self. There has never been so much help available. All it takes is some discipline and devotion to your own health and well-being. While it's fine to be focused on being a super-human, in reality, the only way to sustain the super-human person that you are striving to be is to keep that person -- all aspects of that person -- well.
Spiritual fitness can only come through concentrated effort, discipline, and devotion to all aspects of our humanness -- body, mind and soul. The fitness of our spirit or soul affects all the other parts of each person, as clearly shown by the presence of panic attacks, mental breakdowns, and the inability to cope. It's imperative to consistently schedule time to take care of your spiritual fitness -- in fact, it should be added to your daily "to do" list. This is probably the most important gift you will ever give to yourself and one that will keep on giving throughout your entire life.
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Glenn Cutforth is a writer, eBook publisher and graphic designer.
Visit his websites at: Conquer Anxiety and Depression.com and
href="http://www.howtoclassics.com">HowToClassics.com
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Published by Glenn Cutforth on May 3, 2006 09:34 AM
