About Mind, Body & Spirit

want to describe what life is like when you live life Head First. I have spent over 25 years perfecting that way of living my life, so I think I qualify as an expert at this. I am really, really good at analyzing, figuring things out, being able to see details and then even take a step back to see how those details fit into a bigger picture, of being organized, of being able to schedule things. My day used to be dictated by my TO DO list.

It was not just that I was good at those things, I was being paid really good money for those skills when I was working in Corporate America. The problem that I had was this … I could not turn those skills off. They would keep awake me in the middle of the night. They began to rule my life. What I found was that the single minded focus required to do all of those things … to be in my head … to analyze … to figure it out … those skills had become a double-edged sword because now I could not turn them off. I discovered that I was losing sight of those things that were important to me, those things that I call the “Mores” … the things that make life worth living. Having a close, strong relationship with my husband. Being available to say, “Yeah! I want to have some friends over this weekend!” What was important to me was frequently postponed and pushed aside because of my single-minded focus on achievement, and succeeding, and doing well in my career and using those skills that I was so good at.

This scenario describes what I call the Western model of the Relationship between Mind, Body and Spirit. In that relationship your Mind is held supreme. Your Mind has the most importance. Your Mind dictates your Life, often at the expense of your Body, and your Spirit. You know what I mean. This is the dirty little secret that no one talks about. It is where you get up in the morning and you feel you are already behind because there is so much that needs to get done. So the minute you put your feet down, you start running through your day. If you are lucky, you actually have a little bit of time to pause and put some fuel into your Body, only to continue running, running, running until the end of the day when you collapse in bed exhausted. And if that’s not enough, you either can’t fall asleep or you wake up in the middle of the night because you are still trying to work through the stuff that did not get done. Sound familiar?

For me, this was the classic model of stress. And for me, it became really, really clear that this was not the model that would serve me best in the long-run. Why? Because I kept getting stuck and then breaking down. The car in the photo is a good analogy for how I felt. At least once a year, I would collapse due to some illness and literally could not get out of bed for 4-7 days and then it would take me another 3-4 weeks to get rid of the symptoms. Without realizing it, my Body was in such a state of depletion that I could not function anymore, until I had rested, recovered (though between you and me, I was out of bed much sooner than my Body would have preferred) and then I would start the pattern again. By age 40, I had a series of wake up calls in my immediate family – by-pass surgery, heart attack and cancer. I knew that at least one of these three were a guaranteed part of my future unless I made a change. The problem was that I really felt stuck trying to figure out what to do differently because this is all I knew.

If this scenario describes you and you are seeking a way out, let me help you tell a new story. I’ve found an escape path which starts with a different relationship between Mind, Body and Spirit. Continue reading and listen to Video 2 where I open that door and give you another perspective on how you might want to live your life.

o I’ve already described the problems I had when I lived my life Head First — never paying attention to either my Body or my Spirit, other than my Body was a handy vehicle that allowed to me to plow through my TO DO List. Now, I want to open you to the possibility of the Mind-Body Connection or the Body-Mind Connection. It does not really matter which word you put first because the idea is that there is a communication that goes on from your Mind to your Body, as well as from your Body to your Mind, which happens so fast that you might as well think of them as connected.

If you haven’t done so already, I strongly urge you to watch the video above because I talk you through a 15-second demonstration, so you can experience for yourself the Body-Mind Connection. Yes, you read that right … in 15 seconds you WILL see and experience your Mind-Body Connection.

Why is this important? Your Mind-Body connection is your escape route, just like that fire escape in the photo. Because your Body at any point in time is telling you the reality of what your state of Being is, whether you are in a state of Stress, or Anxiety, or Overwhelmed or even a state of Alert, Relaxed Consciousness. Your Body also tells you the truth of when you are NOT. I don’t know about you, but my Mind is really sharp. I can talk myself into things just as easily as I can talk myself out of them. At any point in time, I might think that I am relaxed but am I really? But am I really? When I first learned about my Mind-Body Connection, more often than not, when I would check in with my Body, thinking I was relaxed, my Body would tell me a different story. The power is this … once I knew what my Body was telling me, I had a simple set of easy-to-use tools that I could use to shift in as little as 30 seconds.

If you are like me, just opening to your Mind-Body Connection may be the only step you are willing to take at this time. From personal experience I guarantee that it is a step with a lot of depth, richness and amazing information awaiting you. I myself spent eight years exploring just this one step.

However, I recently came across another perspective that is both ancient, as well as more cutting-edge in its application. So if you are ready to go one step farther, then I invite you to continue reading and to listen to Video #3.

bove, I introduced you to two perspectives on the Relationship with Mind, Body & Spirit. First, I shared the Western model of living life Head First. Next, I opened the door to bringing your Body into the equation through your Body-Mind Connection. Now, I want to bring Spirit in. And, another word for Spirit is Energy.

In the Eastern perspective on the human being, both in China and in India, the basis for ancient healing traditions such as Acupuncture, Tai Chi, Qigong, Yoga, and Ayurveda is Energy. In this perspective, human beings are compromised of different layers of energy. The first layer is one that can be seen, touched, felt because that layer of energy happens to be heavy and dense. This layer is what we know as the physical Body – it is your physical Body that you can see, feel and touch. On the other end, the most subtle and lightest layer … hardest to grasp, even to get your head around it … is Spirit. In between, are three more layers, from densest to most subtle: Breath, Mind/Emotion, and Intuition. These are the five layers of energy and they are all fully present within each human being. I find it easiest to think of the human being as a multilayered cake. Ultimately, there are many layers, but it is all one cake.

Why is this important? Because from a practical perspective, if you are willing to bring this concept of Energy or Spirit into this mix, then you get to pick your starting point. You can make changes on the Spirit or Energy level and those changes will ripple out to your Mind and your physical Body. Or you can start with your physical Body and make changes that will affect your Mind and Spirit. Starting with your Mind is actually the hardest because that’s where you are most comfortable living life, but you can do that too and make changes that affect the other layers. In other words, it doesn’t matter where you start, a change will happen. What’s exciting for me is that now you have a lot of different ways that you can empower your change that you want to see in your life. And if you are practical like me, I’ll bet you’re thinking “Well, who wouldn’t want more options?”

onestly, I’ve got to tell you that this step was actually a hard step for me to take. For the longest time, I thought that I do not experience Energy … all of this chakra stuff and grounding, and other Energy-related things that people talk about. It took me a long time to realize that while I might not experience it that way, I do experience Energy. I know when I am feeling hot, I know when I am feeling cold – change in temperature signals a change in Energy. I know when I am upset about something, as well as when I am excited about something – emotions (or e-motion) are Energy in motion. The challenge has been that I did not recognize these experiences as experiencing Energy. Energy has been moving within me all along, but I needed to expand my perspective on what is going on within me.

This phase of my exploration and learning jump-started in November 2010. But first, I need to back-up 15 months and share with you my catalyst for opening to Energy/Spirit. The nine months from June 2009 – February 2010 were a challenging time for me mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually. First, I fell sick three times in four months. Each time I was sick, I was flat on my back for a minimum of one week. The last time, in November 2009, I was sick for over a month. You may wonder “With what?” A simple upper respiratory infection … each time. My doctor actually told me, “Meenal, if I did not know any better, I would have thought that you had just arrived in this country and your Body was exposed to a virus that you had never encountered before. I have never seen this kind of reaction in someone before! There is something wrong here. There is something here that we do not understand.” When I recovered from that last bout, a month later, in January 2010, I found a hard painful lump in my breast (and if you recall, I have a history of cancer in my immediate family). As soon as that was diagnosed and confirmed to be a cyst, in February 2010, my husband was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML).

I was in mental agony, wondering why this was happening. All I knew I was getting a wake-up call, loud and clear … something had to change. During this time, I read Carolyn Myss’ book, Anatomy of the Spirit, and one phrase stuck with me: “Personal Energy, personal Power and Spirit are one and the same”. I had an huge insight, “Oh my gosh! I have been living my life in depletion mode, giving my personal Energy away to everyone!” Giving to others is the foundation for how I live my life. But I had been doing it in a way where I was sacrificing myself. The past nine months had found me so lacking in personal energy and personal resources, this was the reason I was getting sick over and over again.

And now my husband needed me. I could not continue in that pattern. So I started down the path of exploring what would it be like to live life from a Self-Full model. In other words, a life-enriching model where no one gets depleted, where everyone gets enriched, including myself. And the only way I could do this was to pay attention to what increased my Energy and what depleted me. I began to pay attention to where I was leaking my Energy, with the understanding that my Spirit is a precious resource, not a commodity that can be found in every shopping mall. I began to get clear on what is really important to me, shedding what I no longer needed, no longer saying “Yes” to everything. That is when rapid changes began happening in my life.

have to tell you, it has been utterly amazing! In one short year, simply by making a commitment to myself to treat my Spirit as something precious, I am reinventing my life based on my Genius, those natural talents that are uniquely expressed within me that are my true gift to the world around me. I am no longer spreading myself thin, involved in all the distractions that I know I can easily pile onto my TO DO List. I find myself grounded in the questions “What would life be like if I were to live from my Genius? If I were to live from a commitment of sharing the Essence of who I am in a way that would be transformational to those around me and those who come into my life?” That is what I have been exploring since November 2010 as an apprentice to David Morelli.

If that excites you, if that is the type of change that speaks to your Soul, I welcome you to join me. Remember! If you are at the place where you are just willing to take that step of bringing your Body into Programs the equation, I welcome you to join me too because my exploration will always include my Mind and my Body. The difference is that now I am bringing my Spirit in because I want to say “Yes!” to longer, more lasting, more juicy experiences of joy, appreciation, connectedness, excitement, and purpose. That is what I have been experiencing, so why would I go back to anything less?

Welcome! I have got both programs and wisdom to share that will meet you wherever your starting point is … whichever door that you are willing to step into in this moment. Join me … I’ll show you the way.

PS. Fortunately, my husband’s leukemia has been easily treatable with a daily pill that halts the gene mutation.