***Spirituality – Self-Sacrifice or Self-Care?

Do you consider yourself a spiritually-connected person? I do, and yet I sometimes find myself falling short of caring for my physical body in a way that best serves me. I skip breakfast or the morning workout so I can cram in one more errand on the way to work; I commit to more tha
I can comfortably deliver and end up short-changing my time for spiritual practices and meditation that I need to rejuvenate myself; or I eat too fast or don’t get enough sleep because someone I care about needs me.

We lead busy lives. We work hard, we care for others, we have a lot to do – too much to be so selfish as to take time to care for our own bodies. And yet, what are our bodies? And what has caring for your body got to do with your spiritual well-being?

Our bodies are a miraculous system of life that transport our spirits through their jou
eys while on this earth. What is your body without your spirit? When your spirit leaves, your body dies; your body has no more life. While you are alive and traveling on this earth, your body is the bridge for your spirit to this material existence. Through your body, you sense, see, hear, feel, taste, experience, reason and analyze. Through your body, you learn the important lessons that your soul has come here to learn.

Through your body, you manifest the purposes for which your soul was brought here and you experience the challenges and fulfillment of those manifestations. And through your body you can bring forth new life through which another soul can travel and experience and learn.

Your body is much more than flesh and bones. When you neglect to care for it, you are neglecting to care for your soul and spirit.

When you repeatedly short-change your time for yourself, you are short-changing your soul’s opportunity to receive what it needs from its limited journey in this plane of existence.

Therefore, to truly care for ourselves, we must be connected to our hearts, our souls, our spirits, and God’s intention for us on this earth. And if we are truly connected to our hearts, souls and spirits, we will place optimal self-care at the top of our priority lists.

Being spiritual is not about self-sacrifice. It’s about self-care. And in order to know how to care for ourselves, we must be self-aware and connected to our souls and spirits – why we’re here, how we relate to others, what we need and how to care for all of this. After all, this is all part of the journey – the “why we’re here”. It’s the journey of illumination and the illumination of the journey.