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Dare I ask, how’s everybody doing out there? I started sharing yesterday about a time of crisis in my life and the valuable lessons learned about how to keep peace and joy regardless of circumstances. Today I want to talk about the practical, physical side of the fight against fear. I’ll be linking a few of the resources that helped along the way.
I talk a lot about the “journey” to freedom, because journey just seems like the right word to describe what it takes. It’s not easy, but it’s worth it. We will not reach the final destination here on earth, and we are constantly coming up against new challenges, but we are also overcoming obstacles, and having new, memorable, life-changing experiences that mark greater and greater progress.
What we need to keep in mind is that the height we climb to is determined by our conditioning, spiritually, mentally, AND physically. We often forget that last one when dealing with our “mental” health, and yet it’s pretty important. God has created us as 3-part beings, body, soul (mind, will, and emotions), and spirit. It takes all 3 in balance and agreement to walk in freedom.
You cannot be perfectly healthy in your body while being frustrated, confused, and stressed in your soul. And you won’t have perfect peace when your exhausted and fighting illness all the time. God has given us specific instruction in his word as how we are to take care of our bodies, and souls
Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body. – 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God. – Romans 12:2
Jordan (my main man), was the perfect example of stress-induced illness. His struggle caused us to really evaluate how we were managing (or not managing) stress. There had to be a better way than ice cream and angry rants. If you’re not convinced, it’s ok, remember, “journey”.
The goal to eating right is not so we can brag about the organic, vegan, sugar-free, dairy-free, gluten-free, flavor-free kid’s lunches on Instagram. The goal to an active lifestyle is not so you can post bikini pics on Insta. It’s so that you can live long enough and healthy enough to live a life worth living. You are here on this planet for a reason. The sick, tired, weak version of yourself cannot accomplish what you were created to accomplish.
I hesitate to say this next part, gulp, but truly, friends, if we are busy without being intentional, we are being lazy and unproductive as far as eternity is concerned. Being busy does not equal success.
If we are eating fast food and calling it “dinner”, drinking energy drinks to keep up with the workload, or spraying some form of aerosol cover-up-the-smell-spray that says lavender on the can, we are being lazy with our health. A little bit of common sense should tell you that those things are not health-promoting products. A single search on the internet will confirm they are actually highly toxic for your body.
Still, most of us don’t care enough to make a change. I know, because I was one of those people. I lived on chips and diet soda in college. The healthiest thing I ate were fries made out of yams. It wasn’t until my husbands life was in question that I was shaken up enough to make some changes. I hope you can learn sooner than I did.
When Jordan began rapidly losing weight and we had been to every walk-in clinic and the ER only to receive confused stares and no answers, we decided to visit a natural path doctor instead.
What we found was astonishing. A simple examination of his blood showed that he was toxic, couldn’t digest properly, was being overwhelmed by stress, and had struggling liver and kidney function.
We spent way too much money, that we didn’t have, on natural supplements that we hoped would work, but still saw very little improvement in his body. However, now we had some idea as to where the problem places were.
Food was the next area of our lives that we overhauled. I mean completely overhauled. He did a nasty gallbladder and liver cleanse (I can’t believe I’m linking this, but it did actually remove gallstones from his body, so if that’s what you need, here you go, https://www.livestrong.com/article/122564-olive-oil-lemon-juice-cleanse/ )
Then we started at rice and beans and watched to see how his body would react, then slowly we began introducing different foods into his diet to see what he could and could not digest.
Beans were a no-go for him. Poor choice of starting point, but it reveals where we were at in our journey. I, unfortunately, had to endure the journey of no-good-food as well. Yes, poor me.
I read every book I could get my hands on concerning food. I highly recommend The Bulletproof Diet. I don’t follow it exactly as the eating plan can be a bit hard to stick to exactly. However, Dave Asprey (the author) has more than done his homework, and I think it’s important to know what foods are doing to your body so you can make wiser choices when it is in your power to do so.
In the middle of a pity-party rant one day to a friend, she recommended essential oils, and I almost laughed out loud. But I didn’t, because I’m not rude like that…..But I almost did.
After a lot of skepticism (because, come on, plant oils?), and a truckload of research (did I mention that I’m a highly skeptical personality type?), Jordan and I felt that we could trust her recommendation, at least for trial. I should say it this way, the company’s honesty and transparency were such a rare treat that we felt we could trust the product not to inflict worse damage. I, however, was not convinced that it would work, either.
The results were a hit to my pride. I had to admit, these hippie oils worked, and they have since become a staple in our home. I humbly link those here. https://bit.ly/39ZOXzx
Based on the oils that had the greatest impact, we quickly learned that the issue in hubby’s body was inflammation. Guess what else we learned, stress causes inflammation. Pieces began to come together.
Inflammation, in case you didn’t know, is incredibly dangerous in our bodies, and yet almost everything in the average north-american’s diet and daily care products is inflammatory.
We began to learn what foods were anti-inflammatory (not beans) and slowly introduced those into Jordan’s diet. We maintained a consistent oils regime that made a world of difference. We switched out the products in our home that we learned contained harmful ingredients (thus causing inflammation in the body).
We drank more water. We got our bodies moving again, and of course, as I shared in my last post, we were doing a lot of faith work.
If you feel like garbage in your body, you will think garbage thoughts. Or maybe you feel like garbage BECAUSE you think garbage thoughts. It’s not a step 1 equals step 2 scenario. Sickness doesn’t follow a pattern, it just leaps upon vulnerability. Vulnerability appears when there is disagreement between body, soul, and spirit.
What does that even mean? My favorite example comes from Andrew Wommack’s book, Spirit, Soul, and Body.
He explains that you are like a pipeline through which the Holy Spirit can be released here on earth. When you are born again (when you ask Jesus to be your Lord and Savior and repent of sin), your spirit is made brand new.
That is what allows God to look at you without seeing a spot of your sin. He sees you cloaked in righteousness because your old spirit has been reborn.
Your soul is your mind, will, and emotions, and it acts like a valve in the middle of the pipeline. The valve can be opened or shut depending on what you believe. When you believe God’s word, you are agreeing with His spirit. That is the renewing of your mind.
When your soul agrees with God’s perfect spirit that has been placed within you, the valve is opened and the Holy Spirit’s empowerment is free to flow from your redeemed spirit, into your thoughts, feelings and desires. It influences your actions and impacts the world around you through your physical being.
If we want God’s freedom, we have to agree with God’s word. He has given us every instruction that we need in order to live in perfect physical health, and mental and emotional wellness. If you don’t want to follow, or even learn what his word says, you cannot expect the results of obedience.
That’s all for today friends. Praying for you in this crazy days.
Be blessed, and may your toilet paper be multiplied in Jesus’ name.
P.S. If some or a lot of what you’ve read is new to you, or you’re not sure what to make of it, head over to my Books & Resources for some of the teaching resources that have taught me on my journey to live by faith.
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