Monday, September 1, 2014

Body, Mind, and Soul

"Health is a complete harmony of the mind, body, and spirit.  When one is free from physical disabilities and mental distractions, the gates of the soul open." ~ B.K.S. Iyengar

As River has some chronic health issues, keeping her healthy through proactive means is critical to keep the recurrence of her health issues at bay.  This involves ensuring she eats the proper diet, drinks enough water, has regular farrier and vet appointments, and gets exercise. It also requires a lot of observation on my part, since River can't tell me if she doesn't feel well.

Proactively managing one's own health is crucial not only to operating at peak performance physically, but emotionally and spiritually as well.  A lot of what I do for River, I need to be doing for me as well:  making healthier food choices, drinking lots of water, getting enough sleep and exercising.  River helps with the latter.  The care of a horse involves a lot of physical activity, but I have to be responsible for the former items -- easier said than done!

When the body is not feeling good, it is hard to be on your game mentally, much less in touch with the spiritual.  It is when the body is healthy and the mind is engaged that the larger universe and all the wonder it entails becomes truly visible to us, as B.K.S. Iyengar reminds us.

With the hectic pace of our lives, it is often hard to focus on our own health; but tending to our own physical, mental, and spiritual health makes us more available to do more things -- for ourselves and for others.  Tending to our health enhances the quality of our lives in multiple dimensions.

Today, I am committing to making healthier choices to benefit me, my family, my friends -- and my trusted equine coach, River.   How about you?