Living a Balanced Life

Living a balanced life is the key to being well and staying healthy. I’m not talking about juggling schedule, and the hectic lifestyle that many of us have found ourselves in or are currently experiencing. Rather, the balanced life I’m referring to is in four main areas: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. In striving to stay healthy we may go on a food diet only to revert back to our previous ways of eating after a short time. Or we may strive to maintain good and emotionally healthy relationships but neglect eating properly. My relationship with God is very important, but when I find not as consistent as I want to be in the spiritual disciplines of Bible reading and prayer, I often find myself lacking in the other three areas of my life. Too often we emphasize one area, only to suffer in others. Another way to look at it is like a spoked wheel. If one spoke is missing or broken, it will affect the rest of your life in negative manner.

Brant Cortwright in his book “The Neurgenesis Diet and Lifestyle” puts it so well when he says:

“Every level—physical, emotional, mental, spiritual—has its own “consciousness” that is experienced through the brain and contributes to the whole that is you. Only by considering all four levels can the brain be fully understood and thus allowed its highest development. “The Neurgenesis Diet and Lifestyle Neurogenesis Diet and Lifestyle” by Brant Cortwright  PhD

Here is a brief overview of these four areas. I find it difficult to think of any one of these areas too long before realizing quickly how it also is connected to and is intertwined with the rest of ourselves. The impact each of these areas have on each other are either negative or positive, depending on how toxic the environment is that we allow ourselves to be in.

Four Main Areas of Brain Balance

Physical . Our physical body is an incredible creation. Check out these and more at http://www.factslides.com/s-Your-Body

*if the human eye was a digital camera it would have 576 megapixels. #19

*your Heartbeat changes and mimics the music you listen to. #23

*your brain uses 20% of the total oxygen and blood in your body #24

*if uncoiled, the DNA and all the cells of your body which stretched 10 billion miles, from here to Pluto and back #28

*sleeping less than seven hours each night reduces your life expectancy #31

Emotional . The center of our emotions lies in the limbic system of the brain. The limbic system is located in the center region of our brain and is responsible to guide us and give direction to many aspects of life. It gets its messages from thoughts that we have in the prefrontal cortex, translates those messages into action and sends those messages to the brain stem which drives our actions or behavior. Emotions help us understand and interpret our world.

Mental. The mind, refers to the primary region of the prefrontal cortex where reason, thoughts, calculation, language, and problem solving skills originate. Neuroscience now tells is that the brain, especially the mind and prefrontal cortex does not fully develop until one is 25 years old. Our brain develops from the bottom up beginning at birth with the brain stem, followed by the limbic (emotional) system, and lastly fully develops in the prefrontal cortex area by around age 25.

Spiritual. If we go through life striving to be well and stay in healthy and either forget or ignore the fact of who we are and where we came from, living life will be in vain. Reflecting and meditating on God’s truth about us is a great exercise toward increasing wellness in our spiritual life. These verses below from the Bible are some of my favorite ones.

             “Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I stand up; You understand my thoughts from far away. You observe my travels and my rest; You are aware of all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue, You know all about it, Lord. For it was You who created my inward parts; You knit me together in  my mother’s  womb. I will praise You because I have been remarkably and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, and I know this very well. My bones were not hidden from You when I was made in secret, when I was formed in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all my days were written in Your book and planned before a single one of them began.” Psalms 139:1-4, 13-16 HCSB

So I challenge you to begin taking inventory of your life, and begin to develop a plan of addressing these four areas of well-being. I look forward to sharing with you in future posts. Until then, be well and stay healthy.