Healing the Mind, Body and Spirit: Part 4: The Mind

The mind is so complex that I will only touch upon a few things. Our mind is used for consciousness, perception, thinking, judgement, and memory.

Our consciousness is an awareness of ourselves and others. Our consciousness enables us to experience and feel things. Consciousness is our being, our alertness. It is how we communicate, respond and so forth.

How people perceive things is all made up in the mind. Our past experiences, our attitude at the present moment and our current outlook on life play major roles in how we view things. So, everyone’s ideas and thought processes are very complex. We have an average of 50,000 to 70,000 thoughts per day. We are in constant thought. Sometimes we tend to overthink a thought or idea making it much more complex that it truly is.

We judge based on facts and through our own knowledge based on experiences. Sometimes the mind, based on previous events, does this automatically. You judge things all day long; the food we eat, the clothes we wear and other people. Sometimes, people compare themselves to other people.

There are three types of memory; sensory memory, long-term and short-term memory. Our mind is like a large database with many folders, and in those folders we store memories that are so important to us. Regardless if you look at an object for a moment and remember it, or if you remember something from 30 or 40 years ago, our memories help make us who we are.

What about mental illness? An estimated 26.2 percent of Americans ages 18 and older or about one in four adults suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year. There are many types of mental illness, please refer to the link provided for you. http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/mental-health-types-illness

The Mind, Body and Spirit are all connected. Regardless if you are in a meditative state, remembering something from your childhood or smelling the wonderful aroma of flowers, everything affects your mind, body and spirit. Your mind has an idea. Your body language helps to relay what is on your mind. Your spirit relays it to the world. Once you become aware of how all three works together will help you find balance. One is not more important than the other, they all work together and where one is lacking the other two are enhanced.