My Everyday Mystic by Jan Puta: blog for the soul

Trim back, take out the dead wood, get more light in – a great prescription for yard work and personal maintenance.

It all began with the purple sand cherry shrub that was losing large branches to disease. What wasn’t dying was wind blown and bowing down under the weight of the heavy canopy of its leaves.

As I watched the branches being cut out, pruned back, and trimmed, I thought that this is the way it is with our mind, body, and soul. Every part of us, and every level and layer of our experience, needs some kind of regular maintenance.

Bodywork is easy to figure out. There’s everything from healthy eating to regular exercise, massage, and chiropractic care to consider.

Mind workouts aren’t that difficult to ease into your daily routine with 15 minutes or more of brain exercises, or listening to CDs that actually create right and left brain integration.

A spiritual workout might be challenging unless you have some practices you are already familiar with, and like to come back to. These could include:

• grounding yourself with a quiet walk in nature,

• walking your dog or riding your horse in a very mindful state of awareness,

• reading poetry or spirituality books, and then doing reflective journaling,

• having a Reiki or Spiritual Response Therapy session to balance your chakras and clear your energy field,

• working out in Tai Chi or another discipline that emphasizes focus and personal energy alignment.

Body, Mind, and Spirit all need more Light. There may be some habits to prune out. There may be some deeply rooted self-limiting beliefs and perceptions to dig out and get rid of. There may even need to be some trimming back of the things you are doing, places you are going, ways you are spending your time in order to get back to the priorities.

You will be the first to notice how good it feels to be more energized, more optimistic, and more at peace. These are some of the great side effects of having more Light in your life. And best of all, Light has a tendency to shine out from you and to touch others.

What do you like to do to workout with your body, mind, and spirit? What are some of your favorite ways to bring in more Light into your life experience? Please drop a line in the response box below (or click on the comment link in Facebook) and share your thoughts with us.

I’m looking forward to hearing from you.

Janice M. Puta
Author of Pathways: Tales for the Spiritual Seeker
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