Self Care For Balanced Wellbeing - Mind, Body and Soul

Most of us have said it to ourselves at one point or another: "I have to take better care of myself." Unfortunately our commitment usually comes on the heels of illness, fatigue, or worse, some life altering event. We understand the importance of self care and yet we repeatedly put ourselves on the back burner. Interestingly enough, even people who are not motivated to take better care of themselves, find greater motivation once they begin. The key to getting started is just getting started. Once you begin, it's like your whole system follows. Our organism is geared toward maintaining balance.

Taking care of ourselves involves a lot more than taking our vitamins and hitting the gym. Our bodies are just one aspect of our total wellbeing. A balanced self care routine, involves the mind, body and soul. Often our emotional and mental wellbeing can have a significant impact on our physical wellbeing. Some of us take great care of our bodies, but pay little attention to our feelings, our stress level, or the negative self talk we engage in daily; all just as dangerous as the toxins found in our food and environment. Some of us, (raising my hand sheepishly) take great care of our mental and emotional wellbeing, reading books, listening to inspiring audios, attending seminars, meditating, being with and expressing our emotions in healthy ways but pay little attention to our bodies' signals and pleas for help.

As a life and spiritual coach and woman on her own journey, I am constantly looking for ways to create more balance in my own life and the lives of my clients. The following are what I consider essential parts of a balanced self care routine.

Easy Ways to Maintain a Healthy Body and Healthy Mind

Memory lapses are a natural part of growing old. As we get along in years, we will find it harder and harder to recall names of people that we once knew so well, and we will often have a difficult time finding things that we use all the time. This kind of memory loss is quite normal, but that doesn't mean we just have to watch it happen. There are several things we can do in order to prolong having a healthy body and a healthy mind for many more years. The deterioration of our memory is a direct result of the reduction of neurons in our brain. In order to prevent or at least postpone the loss of memory, we have to find ways to maintain a good level of active neurons in our brain.

A very easy way of doing this is to constantly exercise our minds. What usually happens with people is that after retirement, we are no longer required to think on our toes as we were while working. Just like our bodies, the mind becomes weak when not exercised constantly. For this reason, you should always find ways to stimulate your mind and keep your memory and cognitive skills up to par. Other ways to maintain a healthy mind include getting adequate rest, eating a balanced diet, doing regular physical activities and avoiding very stressful situations.

When it comes to exercising the mind, there are several ways of doing this that are fun and entertaining as well. For instance, you can take up the hobby of answering crossword puzzles or other cryptic exercises. One of the many perks of retirement is having a lot of time on your hands. Use this time wisely by reading as much as you can. Not only will this entertain you without end, but it will also keep your mind as sharp as it had been twenty or thirty years ago.

The Mind, Body and Soul Connection to Feng Shui

In my previous article, "Making Decisions and Taking Actions with Feng Shui During Uncertain Times", I explained how the lesser known temporal aspect of feng shui is a powerful element in helping people make decisions to obtain their desires. Coupled with the more familiar practice of physical feng shui - the movements of energies from and around objects and structures and the directional energies - temporal feng shui can be a truly powerful secret tool to maximize the positive results you want from your decisions and actions. As I mentioned in that article, to maximize these positive results from the temporal and physical practices of feng shui, a person must act with good intentions and do good deeds. The cosmic energies are most helpful to those who live a productive, useful and helpful life - both to ourselves and to others.

Living a useful, productive and helpful life can mean different things to different people. If it is based on a moral compass that espouses charity, generosity, no harm to others, and no harm to oneself, then it is most likely the correct way of living. However, there is more to correct living than these moral compass points, although they are by no means unimportant.

Just as feng shui is based on natural forces of cosmic energies that have their own logic, flow and progressions, so do peoples' existence on this world. For us, the natural energies, whether positive or negative, flow in a circle from the mind, to the body, to the soul, and back to the mind. That is, the mind controls and feeds the body, the body feeds the soul, and the soul then feeds the mind. If the mind, body and soul are in harmony and balance, then there are sustained positive energy and happiness.