Mortal Soul and Mortal Psyche #4 Psyche, According to the Holy Scriptures

Psyche, According to the Holy Scriptures

Psy·khe′ appears by itself 102 times in the Westcott and Hort text of the Christian Greek Scriptures. We may assume that when we have so many references to the same word or subject we would have enough opportunity to make it possible to get a clear concept of the sense that these terms conveyed to the minds of the inspired Bible writers. When you compare one verse in one book with another verse from another book in the sample of Bible Books, as a reader you should be able to get some idea what they really meant by those words[1]. It should give a clear concept of the sense their writings should convey to the readers mind. An examination shows that, while the sense of these terms is broad, with different shades of meaning, among the Bible writers there was no inconsistency, confusion, or disharmony as to man’s nature, as existed among the Grecian philosophers of the so-called Classical Period.

The New Testament uses the word psyche to refer to life. Though Jesus says psyche is more than food or drink or clothing, it is clear from his words that psyche depends on these things (Matthew 6:25; Luke 12:22-23). Without food and drink the psyche would perish because the body would perish. Psyche is also subject to other frailties. The psyche of Epaphroditus was near to death due to illness (Philemon 2:30). Jesus, healing a man’s hand, asks whether it is better on the Sabbath to save psyche or to kill psyche (Mark 3:4; Luke 6:9). Psyche is something that can be harmed or even killed, and requires healing. Those “souls” with Paul on his voyage to Rome were in danger of shipwreck (Acts 27:10, 22, 37) and eight “souls” were saved from the Flood in the Ark (1 Peter 3:20). As child, Jesuspsyche was threatened by Herod (Matthew 2:20), and Elijah’s psyche was threatened by Jezebel (Romans 11:3). In all these cases it is clear that psyche means life, not some immaterial substance.

The fate of the psyche is equally clear in the NT. Far from being innately immortal, the psyche can be destroyed by capital punishment (Acts 3:23), for example. After death the psyche, rather than floating off to some other realm, resides in the grave – just as the psyche of Jesus did (Acts 2:27, 31). There is no verse in the NT that ascribes immortality to the psyche.

English: The Soul of the Rose, oil in canvas b...

The Soul of the Rose, oil in canvas by John William Waterhouse (British, 1849-1917), shows the mortal Psyche admiring the Eros’s magical garden, the Greek god of life. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If psyche referred to your personhood or personality, to who you really were, then many expressions in the NT simply wouldn’t make sense. When Peter is willing to die for Jesus he says “I will lay down my psyche for you” (John 13:37); if Peter is his psyche and if that psyche survives death then what would Peter be laying down? Similarly, when Jesus gave his psyche (Matthew 20:28; Mark 10:45; John 10:11, 15, 17; John 15:13; 1 John 3:16) what was it that he gave? If Jesus’ soul survived death then obviously the one thing he didn’t give was his soul. Paul says “I do not account my psyche of any value nor as precious to myself” (Acts 20:24); which is a bizarre and contradictory thing to say if he is his psyche. In all these cases, psyche would be better translated “life”. When Jesus talks about the danger that you might lose your psyche (Matt 10:39; Matt 16:25-6; Mark 8:35-7; Luke 9:24; Luke 17:33; John 12:25), he cannot be referring to an innately immortal, immaterial, substance that is you. Again, in these cases psyche is better translated “life”.

One potentially odd verse is Matthew 10:28:

Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the psyche. Rather fear him who can destroy both psyche and body in Gehenna.

This verse is clearly incompatible with the immortality of the soul, since here Jesus says that the soul can be destroyed. However this verse might be read as saying that the body and psyche die separately, that mere men cannot kill the psyche, and that the psyche will be finally destroyed in Gehenna. The parallel in Luke 12:4-5 does not mention the psyche, saying:

I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into Gehenna. Yes, I tell you, fear him!

This sounds like there is some part of you that survives the death of the body that might be cast into hell. However once it is understand that Gehenna is a metaphor for complete annihilation after the final judgement then any appearance of the immortality of the soul disappears. According to Luke’s account Jesus is effectively saying “don’t fear death, fear a negative judgement in the Last Days”. Matthew’s account presumably has the same meaning. Psyche in Matt 10:28 cannot mean “life” (in a mundane sense), as Jesus implies that human adversaries cannot kill the psyche, but nor can psyche here mean immortal soul, as Jesus implies that God can and will destroy the psyche of the wicked. The phrase “cannot kill the psyche” in Matthew 10:28 cannot be taken in an absolute sense, because it is clear from Matthew 2:20 that, in Matthew’s own terminology, the psyche can be killed. The best way to make sense of Matthew 10:28 is to remember that Jesus believed in resurrection. Jesus believed that he would give up his psyche (Matthew 20:28) but that he would get it back. In the same way, the believer should not fear those who might take their lives because God is able to give them back their lives.

The Supreme Being, the True God that made the world and all things therein, being Lord of heaven and earth. He is the only Immortal Being (1 Tim 1:17). All the other beings have a beginning and an end to their existence or ‘being’. Their psyche came from nothingness or dust and shall again become nothingness or dust, not able to think or do anything. This will be so for plants, animals and mammals like human beings exactly the same; none of them shall be able to take anything with them in death or could do anything in death. We are all, believers and non-believers, doomed to pass away, just perishing and not going to continue to live in another form, but all coming to nought.

 

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[1] Studying the Bible demands such a comparison of verses to get a right insight of what the text really may mean.

 

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Preceding:

Mortal Soul and Mortal Psyche #3 Historical background

Next:

Mortality of man and mortality of the spirit

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Additional reading:

  1. Creation of the earth and man #9 Formation of man #1 Cure of souls
  2. Is there an Immortal soul
  3. Bible sayings on the situation and place for the dead
  4. Jesus three days in hell
  5. Grave, tomb, sepulchre – graf, begraafplaats, rustplaats, sepulcrum
  6. This month’s survey question: Heaven and Hell
  7. What date was the Flood?
  8. Is God behind all suffering here on earth
  9. God’s wrath and sanctification
  10. Darkness, light, burning fire, Truth and people in it
  11. Autumn traditions for 2014 – 2 Summersend and mansend
  12. I Can’t Believe That (1) … God would send anyone to hell
  13. Jesus … will come in the same way as you saw him go
  14. To be prepared and very well oiled
  15. God’s Plan, Purpose and teachings

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Further reading

  1. The Journey of Self-Realization, is to Realize the Truth, Each Day.
  2. Von Belastbarkeitsgrenzen und der Sache mit dem Lernen
  3. A Return to Self
  4. Out of the Way (Mark 8:35)
  5. Emotional body’s set flexibility?
  6. Taking Care Of Your Psyche > Taking Care Of Your Psyche
  7. Mentality: Psyche, Slumps and the Perils of Hope

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People Seeking for God 5 Bread of life

English: Garden Tomb - sign

Water element of life. / Garden Tomb – sign (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In their search to live, people always had to take care to have enough to eat. Without food we can do not much. Water is the most important element of earth we need to survive. In the coming years that shall be the source where many countries shall fight for. But also the grain to make bread is going to become a problem with the global warming. Without bread people also seem not able to live.

About two thousand years ago there was a strange man, who could do special things and could talk like nobody else. Once that special preacher only had five loaves of bread and two fish but managed to feed a multitude of people. The Jews remembered that their fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and looked at this man who gave them bread from this world but where surprised there did not come an end of giving bread, like this time it also came out of heaven to eat. Jeshua, or Jesus like he is know better today, said unto them

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, It was not Moses that gave you the bread out of heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread out of heaven.” (John 6:32)

English: Port Charlotte,FL.,8/25/2004--Volunte...

Port Charlotte,FL.,8/25/2004–Volunteers from Bread of Life load food and supplies for homeless into a truck following Hurricane Charley. FEMA Photo/Andrea Booher (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The people there where hungry like today we can still find many who are hungry and thirsty. Many of those who are in need of food are mostly concerned with their daily life and the natural elements around them. Not many of them are busy with the spiritual food.

We should know that just as natural food is vital to sustain physical health we do need even more spiritual food. Our being only exists because are brain is working. As soon as our brain does not function any more we are considered death. The region of our brain as such may be considered as the region of our being what we are. As soon as something goes wrong in the skull or a cerebral hemisphere is damaged, the person can become a total different being.

Mental training is very important for our brain. The food we do have to give it, is not as such material food. The brain-teasers, intellectual exercise is a necessary element for growing into the adult person who can think reasonably well. It does not only needs mathematics but also a daily intake of God’s word to ensure the growth of spiritual well being.

The Lord Jesus likened himself to life-giving bread:

“I am the bread of life…the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world…This is that bread which came down from heaven…he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever” (John 6:48, 51, 58).

It may sound strange to find something which came down from heaven, now not as manna or white flakes, but as somebody who could be seen, touched, bleed and have his bones broken. He spoke about his heavenly Father Who is a Spirit, can not be seen by man or they would die, has no flesh, blood or bones and Who is omnipotent. Somebody Who knows everything and can alow anything to exist or not to exist.

English: Egg, rye and multigrain bread loaves.

Egg, rye and multigrain bread loaves. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Those who heard that man telling the onlookers he was “the Bread of Life” and that their ancestors ate the manna bread in the desert and died, but that now they could see a Bread that truly came down out of heaven, made some cross.  It looked madness when that man also said that anyone “eating this Bread will not die, ever”.  But every decent man knew that we all shall die. So how could this man claim to be “the living Bread”! — “who came down out of heaven”?

What they did not know is that the worker’s son of Joseph and Miriam (Mary/Maria) was placed in a particular way in the womb of his mother. By the Force of God this man was born. It was decided in heaven by the Most High Creator that the young girl or virgin would be blessed with child, without intercourse. There he stood in the flesh and was speaking about presenting “bread” that came to the world so that people living in that world could eat and live of it and not die. He even saying that he is that bread that he will give to be his flesh, which he will give for the life of the world. At this, the Jews started fighting among themselves:

“How can this man serve up his flesh for a meal?”

But Jesus didn’t give an inch.

“Only insofar as you eat and drink flesh and blood, the flesh and blood of the Son of Man, do you have life within you. The one who brings a hearty appetite to this eating and drinking has eternal life and will be fit and ready for the Final Day.”

Only after he had died and was taken out of dead, his followers started to understand how the flesh of their rabbi is real food and how his blood is real drink. We to should come to understand that this man is the one who can get us to know his heavenly Father, who is the Only One God. By getting to know Christ Jesus and figuratively eating his flesh and drinking his blood we shall be able to enter into him and he into us. This becoming in Christ and like Christ shall not make us to be Christ like Jesus, who was in God was not God Himself, but stayed the son of God, Christ enabled us also to become the children of God and to be a son or a daughter of God.

In the same way that the fully alive Father sent Jeshua to the earth and Jesus lived because of Him, so the one who makes a meal of Jeshua (Jesus Christ) lives because of him and shall be able to come close to Jesus his Father, the Only One God. Jesus said such things while teaching in the meeting place in Capernaum. (see John 6:48-59)

These profound statements caused great consternation even among his followers, some of whom left, never to return. If only they had put aside their own prejudiced interpretation and listened to his simple explanation:

“The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63).

The Son of God was the figurative bread from heaven because he spoke the words of God that were the source of spiritual strength and health.

To Abraham a great nation was promised and initially only they were on the lookout for a Saviour sent by their God. Jesus at first, was sent only to the Jews, a fact confirmed by his conversation with the Canaanite woman:

“She came and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master’s table” (Matthew 15:22-27).

Remarkably, this Gentile recognized what the children of Israel had failed to see, that here was the antitypical manna. Nothing daunted, she humbly begged for just a few crumbs to fall her way.

The world today also does not recognise that meal for our life. The heavenly bread is not known by many, but those who got to know it should share it with others.

"Bread of Life Shop" sno-Balls and f...

“Bread of Life Shop” sno-Balls and food to go window shop, Jackson Avenue, New Orleans. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The world should get to know the One Who is behind all what we see around us. In the things we can see and feel we should get to see and feel the Master-hand. All the beauty of nature which science tries to come to understand is incredibly put together in a very smart way people often can not understand.

In seeing all that beauty and recognising what we all may have around us, though we do not deserve it, should make us think. Is it not special that we can have all those things. By which mercy or grace do we earn it?

From the Old Books we get to know that people have made a mess of those things which were given in their hands. god had His Own chosen people, but they often riposted against their Creator. He was so patient with them and so willing to even adapt certain regulations, not having Him the one who changed but having Him changing things for the good of the people. Many lost a good relationship with the Most High Divine Creator. In God’s mercy the Gentiles now have the opportunity to enter into covenant relationship with this God of Abraham through the blood of His son, the Nazarene Jew Jeshua, Jesus Christ or the Messiah.

The essential factor being knowledge of His Will and Purpose and a dedicated attempt at obedience:

“And this is life eternal that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John. 17:3).

Yes it is important to come to know the Only True God. He also has given us many possibilities to get to know Him. There is His Word written down in the Bible or Holy Scriptures. He also has given His son who can bring us to him if we carefully listen to his words and follow his commandments. An unlimited supply of the bread of life is readily available to us but we must hungrily seek it in the word that has been miraculously preserved for our use. If we take the initiative, God immediately responds:

“Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you” (James 4 :8)

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Preceding articles:

Finding God amid all the religious externals

Seeing or not seeing and willingness to find God

People Seeking for God 1 Looking for answers

People Seeking for God 2 Human interpretations

People Seeking for God 3 Laws and directions

People Seeking for God 4 Biblical terms

To be continued: People Seeking for God 6 Strategy

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Please find also to read:

  1. What is life?
  2. The business of this life
  3. Cosmos creator and human destiny
  4. The truth is very plain to see and God can be clearly seen
  5. Created to live in relation with God
  6. Human Nature: What does the Bible teach?
  7. Two states of existence before God
  8. Thirst for happiness and meaning
  9. Power in the life of certain
  10. Being religious has benefits even in this life
  11. Many forgot how Christ should be our anchor and our focus
  12. Not he who prays most or fasts most is the greatest saint
  13. Humility and the Fear of the Lord
  14. Leaving behind the lives we have touched.
  15. Dying or not
  16. What happens when we die?
  17. The Soul confronted with Death
  18. Dead and after
  19. Immortality, eternality – onsterfelijkheid, eeuwigheid
  20. Destination of righteous
  21. Destination of the earth
  22. Happiness is like manna
  23. Food as a Therapeutic Aid
  24. Words in the world
  25. We should use the Bible every day
  26. Life in gratitude opens glory of God
  27. Being Religious and Spiritual 7 Transcendence to become one
  28. A Holy week in remembrance of the Blood of life
  29. Israel Gods people
  30. Sealed in their foreheads
  31. Jerusalem God’s City for ever

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  • Wonder Bread (ponderingtheheartofjesus.com)
    Have you ever heard of “Wonder Bread?”  For a time it had disappeared from grocery stores, but it is back and making many a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to feed  many people! Good news!  Today, though, a different kind of “Wonder Bread” that feeds many people comes to my mind.  It is said in our Father’s word that there was a believer in Jesus by the name of Stephen.  He was a man full of God’s grace and power and he did great “wonders”  and miraculous signs among the people.
  • Jesus as the Bread of Life in the Book of John (the-scarlet-thread.com)
    Early Christians were often accused of practicing cannibalism because they talked about eating Christ’s flesh and drinking His blood. But this refers to our communion with Him by faith. This is symbolized in the bread we eat at the Lord’s Supper.Not only is bread a staple, but Jesus spoke of Himself in this way, as “the bread that came down from Heaven”, to draw His hearers’ minds back to the wandering in the wilderness; to the manna God fed to His people.
  • In a Manger (sherreesblog.wordpress.com)
    We know that Mary gave birth in the quiet, dark stable and, having no other option, laid the baby in the manger used to feed the animals every day.
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    The word ‘manger’ is from the French word meaning ‘to eat.’  In French Bibles, the word for manger is ‘mangeoir’ or a place for eating.  What do you put in a manger? Food.It occurs to me that Jesus is, on some level, food.  John quoted some of Jesus’ thoughts on this in John 6.          Jesus said, “I am the Bread of life.”  John  6:35

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    Just as we take in food to sustain physical life, we must take in Jesus to sustain spiritual life.  Feeding on Jesus, our daily bread, we fuel a life that will never die, a life that grows more abundant and blessed with every passing day and year.

  • A Prayer A Day – ‘The Bread of Life’ Is All We Need… 1/23/2014 (dailyprayerprayertogod.wordpress.com)
    When I was in my late teens I loved to make bread.  I would make cinnamon bread and cheese bread or just plain bread from scratch.  I loved to knead the dough and I loved the smell of the dough with the yeast and it always amazed me when I would set it aside covered with a clean towel and come back later to find that it had risen and expanded and it smelled so good.  There is nothing like the smell of bread in the oven baking.  So the Lord brought all these memories to my mind this morning as I was awaking from sleep. Bread.  When we look up the word bread we find that bread is nourishment, bread is provision and bread is sustenance.  Bread is food or sustenance; livelihood.
  • Desire for Bread (levelupgeneration.wordpress.com)
    Food are so important to us that we plan for it in advance. Some people buy in the market their food for one week and some for two weeks. When we get our wages, normally every 15th and 30th of the month, the first thing in our list of priorities is food.
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    When typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) hit Leyte, Eastern Samar and some other part of the region, we are all witness of how important food and water is. People there is saying, money is worthless. For them everything is worthless but food and water. People there are willing to kill or be killed for the sake food to eat and water to drink.
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    Jesus is saying, “I am the bread of life”. We should be hungry for Him everyday. We should desire for Him more than anything else.
  • A Bologna Sandwich or the Bread of Life? (easttexasaglow.net)
    Sometimes I wonder if the Church has fed the world a lot of baloney (properly spelled bologna).  In our efforts to be relevant to the culture in which we live, we have packaged Jesus as if He were just so much lunchmeat.  We have dressed Him up, tried to make Him look cute, and diluted the Gospel.   Sometimes we have even added processed cheese to enhance our presentation of Truth!
  • How many calories of the bread of Life are you consuming… (thewearypilgrim.typepad.com)
    You see if we really want to feed on the bread of life, this Manna…first we need to pull out our maps and see how far we moved out of Egypt. Or have we just navigated lines across the page in our bibles, and in our minds convinced ourselves we’ve travelled a long way…when in reality we haven’t moved an inch.
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    How much of my life, am I willing to sell? Do I really want the bread of life to be my daily diet…or is the biggest portion of my diet going to come from Egypt…while I get take out, manna, when I feel desperate. Maybe I’ll feel a twinge of guilt because the wardrobe I’ve dressed my life in won’t fit anymore…and I’ll try the God diet for a few weeks just to get them to fit again.
  • Jesus the bread of life (mommaandgirls13blog.wordpress.com)
    Sometimes you read the bible feeling like you just read a foreign language other times it’s like woah, And just stunned all Gods done for us past present future.
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    And feed on what’s eternal, not worldly!! Worldly pleasures only last a short lifetime if even that. We need to focus on our heavenly Fathers kingdom, out future home, our eternal home.
  • Bread of life (viktoriaveigas.wordpress.com)
    My child, I sense your hunger to grow. No one who seeks My presence leaves empty. I will feed you, body, soul, and spirit. Come, sit at My feet daily, and we will share together. I’ve baked an abundance of delicious bread you’ve never even tasted. My manna is not of this world, but once you eat it, you will never be hungry again. I will fill you up with Myself.
  • The True Bread (cbcirwin.wordpress.com)
    Jesus provided physical food supernaturally for those who were following Him and listening to His teachings.
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    Jesus is the true bread. He told the crowd, “I am the Bread of Life.” (6:35) But, it requires spiritual eyes to see Him, the hidden manna. To those at Pergamus, Jesus offers the hidden manna to he who overcomes. And unlike the manna in the wilderness, His sustaining power will never cease. For all who come to Him will never hunger and he who believes in Him shall never thirst. (v. 35)
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Food as a Therapeutic Aid

Nobody would say we do not need our daily food. By that most people would only think of the bread, vegetables and meet that comes onto the table. Most would forget how important it is also to have our brains fed with enough life-giving energy.
The daily nutrients of our material food is important to keep our mind going in good order. But it also needs spiritual food, a regular ‘fitness program’ of thinking and considering. We have to keep our mind busy to keep it healthy. One of the most precious nutrients can be found in the Bible or Holy Scriptures. Even those who do not believe in a God Creator shall be able to find enough exercises for their mind, to examine their position on this earth and how we should behave or live.

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We may also not forget the environment, nature but also the people around us. Their are very important to put us at ease.  Family members and people around us who are supportive and capable of giving tender, loving care are the energisers we need. But they also can pull us down, by giving too much negative input. And we better do away with all negative energy which may surround us.

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Thinking positive and looking at live form the bright site will help us to live nicely and to get enough energy to tackle all the minor and bigger problems which we like any other person will get at us.

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The Creator has let us know that we should actively learn new things and should help each other to grow. Therefore we should meet regularly and edify each other. On a daily basis we should feed our mind with the Word of God. We should not be content by reading those words just once, but we should train our brains like a sportsman has to train every day. god has given us nature with everything in it what we need. We should be happy with it and should not try to find more in chemically produced products. We should take care that the world, earth, water and sky the Creator has provided for us stays clean. Recycling, choosing less processed foods, and picking natural products over more commercialized ones can help nourish the environment and keep the bad elements away from our body.

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Looking around we should try to protect the creation of the Most High. Every day we should count our blessings in our life and be thanking others for their generous love and care. Being thankful to others and to God, whose love we should be willing to share with others, so that we can give them also the energy the Supreme Being provides for us.

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Let us not forget that we should give perhaps even more attention to our spiritual health than our physical health. When the mind is not feeling well the body is for sure not feeling well either and even becoming sick.
In a certain way we do have perhaps to prioritize our emotional health and work preventively by providing our ‘soul’ with right stuff.
At the same time we need to learn to deal with our physical and our spiritual health, learning how to treat physical and emotional wounds. We can monitor our mood and self-esteem and take actions to boost them when they are low. We can adopt the daily practice of emotional hygiene. And by doing these things, we can significantly boost our emotional wellness, our happiness and our overall life satisfaction.

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From the article to remember:

  • Food needs are very specific and we require a wide variety to supply all the necessities for our health.
  • People whit problems, may need more or less of some foods than other people.
  • “Spiritual food” is as essential for our health as physical food.  = especially for our emotional health, but even to some extent for our physical health.
  • Body  chemistry, thought patterns and spiritual resources are all factors in emotional problems.
  • Basic to both mental and spiritual health is physical health.

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  • Is Balance Possible? Can Wellness be Achieved? Things I’ve Learned This Past Year. (katshealthcorner.wordpress.com)
    1. Wellness is not one-dimensional.
    2. Balance, Health, and Wellness relate but differ in their meanings.
    3. Stress can be a good thing and a bad thing.
    4. Starvation can occur on a macronutrient and a micronutrient basis.
    5. “Crying is not a sign of weakness. Since birth it’s been a sign of life.”
    6. Laughing is the best kind of medicine.
    7. Sleep is an important nutrient.
    8. “When we stop learning we stop growing.”
    9. Setting goals has an incredible impact on our lives.
    10. Quality is better than quantity.
    11. My body is a temple.
  • What Your Emotional Health Has in Common With Cinderella (wonderfultips.wordpress.com)
    When you sustain an emotional injury like a severe rejection or a big failure, if you’re burdened by unresolved guilt or feel trapped by loneliness, when your mind is hijacked by brooding and worrying or when your self-esteem is low — do you “treat” these emotional wounds in any way? Do you take steps to make sure they don’t “fester” and get worse? Do you take any regular action to monitor and protect your emotional health? What is the emotional or psychological equivalent of brushing and flossing you practice on a daily basis?
  • Input – Output effects on Physical Health (ankurlearningsolutions.wordpress.com)
    While there are certain foods that are bad for all and not advisable for anyone, there is no thumb rule to distinctly classify food as good or bad. Anything in extreme is not advisable. Balance is the key. The following factors decide what food is good for you:
    Your Life-style
    Your Life-goals
    Your Life-stage and gender
    Your Body Constitution
    Mental Constitution (Gunas)
  • Every moment, every thing is spiritual. (hardknocksphd.wordpress.com)
    Nowhere is the spirit something separate – in the Hebrew language it is our emotional, mental, and moral being. It is us. In fact, the last line says that the spirit (specifically referring to God’s spirit) is never referred to as a depersonalized force. The spirit is as much a part of us as the physical. In fact, when the body dies, the ruwach is gone. They are linked. Without ruwach, their is no body. And without a body, the ruwach is gone.
  • Reframing health (inlaurensopinion.com)
    Too often as a society we’re trained on one aspect of health. Levels of obesity, rising preventable disease, more sedentary life styles and things constantly talked about. Magazines cover the latest diet plans and fitness schemes, pledging that we can all look like one celebrity or another within what seems a very achievable amount of time. The whole idea of spirituality is foreign to many simply because it has been tied so heavily to religion, as opposed to connection, a sense of purpose within your life, living to your values.
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    To me, spirituality is about living a purposeful, connected life. Knowing what your values are and doing your best to live a life that is true to them. Practicing mindfulness and gratitude, and adopting reflective practices, are just some ways in which we can increase this side of our health.
  • Feed the Body and Nourish the Soul this Thanksgiving – Eat with an Attitude of Gratitude! (mindandoneness.com)
    Many of us are engaged in a constant battle with food, struggling to maintain good nutrition and healthy eating habits, or battling body image issues or even worse eating disorders, but like so many things this is in part because we have come to see food as ‘routine’ and ‘everyday’ seeing only the physical dimension of food, while ignoring its other aspects. But we now have a wonderful opportunity – with Thanksgiving and the Holiday season fast approaching – to begin to think differently about our approach to food, the way we eat, and how we connect to our food.
  • How To Avoid Spiritual And Mental Indigestion – Harold Herring (findmedicalsolutions.com)
  • Holistic health (slideshare.net)
  • 4 Ways to Eat the Blues Away (practicalpsychblog.com)
  • 6 Secrets To Slim And Stress-Free Holidays (wonderfultips.wordpress.com)

Here's to Your Health!

Food as a Therapeutic Aid

Food needs are very specific and we require a wide variety to supply all the necessities for our health.  Individuals differ in the amounts of nutrients required for their bodies.  Additionally, people who are under stress, or who have allergies, or have certain inherited characteristics, may need more or less of some foods than other people.  Foods that we need are carbohydrates, protein, fats, a wide range of vitamins and minerals, and water.

“Spiritual food” is as essential for our health as physical food.  This is true especially for our emotional health, but even to some extent for our physical health.  There are some interesting analogies between physical food needs and spiritual food needs, as you will find in the chapter, “Beginning Spiritual Life,” in my 1998
“At Eden’s Gate: Whole Health and Well-Being.”

Some people think that emotional or mental problems are “all in…

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