How does spirit affects our health?

same same but different

​In an age where digital connection is becoming so prevalent and ubiquitous, it is ironically easy to feel dis-connected from each other and from our spirit. How does the inspiration of spirit affect our health? Heck does it even work? And if it works for some, why not for others? 

Spirit is different for every one of course and identifying the source this spirit is a difficult topic. Trying to rationalize the irrational is not impossible, it is just a giant headache! 

Mainly because it represents the unknown, the invisible cause or origin of creation. The stuff that science dreams of ‘understanding’ but has often been shy to admit. 

The idea of source even being a contentious one: Does the river come from the stream or the ocean? The answer: neither and both. Ya, that's not our favorite type of answer! So what is 'it'? 

It runs through us and we can feel it but humans have waged wars of alliance around the belief that one story of enlightenment and connection to it, is more true than another.

​I know many who cringe at the mention of it, let alone with the reference of terms like God. Spirit forms a core facet of what it is to be human but as the diversity of beliefs on the planet can attest, the vision is different for everyone. 

For some spirit comes from connection with the moment, from connection with our intention to participate in the change, from connection with mother earth. with Love. with Allah. with Yaweh. with Jesus, with Vishnu, Shiva or Ganesh, or nothing at all, just to be and for some, these things are not different. 

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Spiritual fitness? 

But how to hear it? If we travel far enough into the forest can we hear it? If you breathe deep enough can you inspire it? Feel it? Connect with it? Is this ‘it’ an incorrect identifier?

Developing a sense of familiarity in this mystery allows us to connect with our inner guide when we need it and is of great importance for everyone.

But can anyone really know for sure what is going on here? Many faiths and traditions point towards a transcendental knowing. A recognition that what we are trying to get at is not an object, in the sense that it could be attained but that our personification and/or objectification of spirit is a tool and not an end. 

As we unconsciously personify spirit, however, against the advice of the wise, we incur in it the limitations of self. When I look at the word belief it dawns on me that we might be better to be a leaf on the tree of life than to have belief in it.

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Photo by Chris Lawton on Unsplash

Biophany of belief ?

In running with the leaf metaphor, perhaps, the fruits of life can only grow when the tree has been given the ingredients it needs to blossom. In other words, If we don’t or can’t spend the time to connect with our source it is difficult to be connected in a meaningful way. 

So much strife and tension surrounds the topic of spirit and belief. From dinner table arguments to full out international conflict, the topic strikes a cord that runs deep and different for us all.

​Our biophony of beliefs can be at odds with life when we can’t see the echo system’s need for diversity.  But how to tune our ears to the music of totality? How to be in sync with the great equation if it has no measure? Or is there a measure, in the musical sense, that would apply? 

birds of measure

Many if not all religions have some measure of prescriptive rules. Commandments like the commands in a computer program that play out as behavior on a screen. We are of course not computers but we are programmable.  To what benefit I have always wondered? 

Muslims pray 5 times a day, Hindus pray 3 times a day, Christians meet once a week, what is with the rhythms?

I have always admired the spiritual consistency of many religions, faiths and traditions but never fully understood them until I began creating some of my own and seeing the benefits.

Like trying to start a fire by spinning one stick on another, it is the consistency of contact that allows it to catch fire. Add just a little oxygen and bam!

​Love, mutual respect, inclusiveness and tolerance become strong enough threads to permeate through the whole of society and our biosphere. This must be the path forward. But how to accomplish this in such a diverse ecosystem of beliefs? 

As they say, birds of a feather flock together but what does this mean? I have always wondered what makes birds, schools of fish and swarms of insects move as if guided by an invisible controller but this has been computer modeled and then studied on both nature and in humans. It turns out that this behavior is predicated on a few simple rules: 

1. Separation - avoid crowding neighbors (short range repulsion)
2. Alignment - steer towards average heading of neighbors
3. Cohesion - steer towards average position of neighbors (long range attraction)

Basically, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself”. 

A pretty common sentiment among every tradition no doubt but as we have distanced ourselves from nature, so to have we forgotten the obvious. 

Too much space and the flock breaks apart, and the crippling nature of loneliness sets in. Too little space and we begin to crash into each other. Indeed it would seem that love and mutual respect are the antidote to war, violence and intra-species conflict. 

Our flock is now global and the spacing is even now being prescribed as social distancing. Will we listen? How much distance is too much? So much is at stake and finding the inspiration to bravely overcome our differences has us looking for the spirit to do so. The bubbles of our individual freedoms have popped and our goals no longer can exist in isolation. ​

SPIRITUAL risk? 

Civil liberties? Social gathering? Protest? … climate crisis, deforestation, mass species extinction ...

On one level the total amount of war and violence on the planet is on the decline but on another, tensions are high and the war within us rages on. The Black Lives Matter movement in the USA and around the world is a testament this reality! 

Whatever our definition of spirit, our ability to hear it and to find peace within, will have a huge impact on our ability to come together as a people of the planet.

In this very strange moment for humanity our set of collective dilemmas will be against the clock of our ability to act in accordance with the rules of spirit. 

As we feel forward in the dark on our search for light, OKM urges the world to transcend our religious and ideological differences in exchange for mutual respect, love and understanding!

As the religious leaders of the Elijah Interfaith Institute urged its followers to do in 2017, to make friends!

All minds are one in the here and now in love and in kindness and whatever gets us to celebrate, amplify and visualize this truth, together, is truly spirit.

Slow and steady of course but bold and brave as well! We have some serious issues and slipping back into them should be of great concern for all of us.

​I’m sure you’ve seen the memes around about returning to what is normal? 

Is a homicidal economic machine that undermines environmental sanity and equality a sane thing to start back up? We may not get to chose but we must over time begin to create a new path. 

The path forward

Something is afoot and we would be wise to move cautiously back into the normal so that we do not fall back into the slumber of global denigration. We need to pivot before the headless corporations of the world steer us off a cliff, no shits given! The planet will survive but humanities future is truly on the fence. Will we watch in delight the flames of our ambivalence or will we nudge ourselves back from the brink?  

I’m not so sure that spirit knows not the carnage and joy of life like we do. It does not discriminate the lion from the lamb. It breathes life into all of us but it is up to us to use each breath with deep respect and gratitude. To pay the gift of life forwards in whatever way is our unique way to contribute. What is yours and are you connected? And if you are not feeling so, what step are you taking to get back to it? 

We have all felt lost in the fog of life at times. No hope, no reason, so spirit. A tough place that almost everyone knows. If you're not there then reach out to someone who might be and if you are then dig deep if you can, listen as hard as you can and you might just hear it. 



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When we come together powerful things happen

Jesse is the Co-founder and director of the ONE KIND MIND project.

"I believe in the human spirit to overcome and that we are one. Creating a beautiful future is within our grasp! Let's do it!"