As part of the Divinity number search and the merge of the Venn diagram, most people will agree that we human can be defined as the Body (Physical), the Mind (Metaphysical) and Spirit (Spiritual). These 3 realms is what defines us as humans and there is a lot of research being done on each, but in my understanding we need all 3 to be fully human.
"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience." - Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
How do I understand this? Well without the Body, nobody will be able to see us, as we experience life through the physical. If we had no Mind, we would either be dead or be mentally ill and the last part is the spirit which is ourselves in life, else we would be an animal as the mind is carved through the spirit and emotions flows from the spirit.
We strengthen the body to still the mind -- and we still the mind so as to free the spirit. The power of this intention is often lost in the pseudo-spiritual gesturing that has regrettably become the hallmark of ‘New Age' teaching. What it really boils down to is be the best you can be with the resources that you have available to you because what you have available to you heralds its own sort of perfection.
The body is the only house that we ever truly own, and, even then, it is something of a rental. It is vitally important that we care for this house in the same manner that we attend to the not-so-necessary "necessary objects" of our daily lives. Rather than let the body sit around and get flabby, or fill it with poisons, or drive it mercilessly away from rest, take the time to invest in this fragile vessel that provides us with a tangible vehicle to do the work of mind, soul and spirit.
Investing in ourselves means investing in a lifestyle, and developing a personal culture that thrives on holistic health and wellness. That investment will look different for each of us, and the degree of diversification in that investment will depend on the resources, in this case physical resources, that we can muster.
Some of us may lift weights, while others jog or row. Some practice Yoga, Tai Chi or the martial arts. We may swim, walk or climb mountains. The point is that we do something, and we do a something with which we connect on a very primal level. We need to take care of our bodies to ensure we can go though life, and also experience it.
Attention to the physical component of the "body-mind-soul-spirit" continuum is essential for holistic human development and the realization of our potential. It is through this that we build a bridge from our exterior world of experience into our interior life and landscape.
Lets just look at each aspect on its own:
Body
Our human body, our physical body which we use to move around our physical world. With its senses we can interact with the physical world. We use our eyes to see, our ears to hear, our touch to feel, our mouths to taste and our nose to smell. All these senses feed information to our mind. Physical well-being is defined as the optimal condition of each of the body's physiological systems. These include pulmonary, cardiovascular, nervous, immune, reproductive, urinary, endocrine, musculoskeletal, and digestive.
Mind
Mind, is the part that gathers all the information from the senses and decides what we do with it. It uses logic to come to a decision about the information and then suggests what to do next. For example, we look at and feel a piece of fruit to see if it is ripe, we smell it and we taste it. Our mind uses memory, one of its allies, to remember similar fruit from previous experiences. It measures the current piece of fruit against that, if it is happy with the sight, touch and smell, it suggests we taste it. Depending on how it tastes we’ll get a decision to either continue eating or else get rid of the fruit.Mental well-being is understood as the ability to gather, process, recall and communicate information. Like a computer, the mind can gather and store mass quantities of information.
Spirit
Spirit, is the element which holds our worlds together. We as individuals can just about control our bodies so Spirit looks after the planets, the environment, the way things work together and keeping all the atoms spinning in the right direction. Other names for Spirit are, the Holy Ghost, the Life-force, the Universe, the God Force, the Force, etc. Emotional well-being is best defined as the ability to feel and express the entire range of human emotions from anger to love, and to control them, not be controlled by them. Spiritual well-being is defined as the maturation of higher consciousness as developed through the dynamic integration of three facets: relationships (internal, how you relate to yourself and a higher power, however you conceive this to be; and external, how you relate and interact with all people in your life), a personal value system, and a meaningful purpose in life.
