 March,
2004 The
Dominion of the Body
How
Right Thinking Creates “Feeling Great”
ERNEST HOLMES
It is encouraging to realize that
your very nature is such as to keep you growing, and also to
provide the instrument through
which that growth is accomplished. You have a physical body,
a complex emotional nature, and an intellect. These three phases
of your nature are so closely interrelated, and they react so
definitely upon each other, that you have a triple set of capacities
to be utilized in the process of advancement.
You are better acquainted
with the nature of your physical body than with your emotions
and mind, and it is well
to begin with
it. The body is the house in which, for the present, you are
living and you need to keep it in good repair by a right mental
attitude toward it, experiences, and people. Your body is entitled
to your respect. “Know ye not that your body is the temple
of the Holy [Spirit]…?”
The body is acted upon
by the emotions, and is particularly responsive to your emotional
states. If you are
sad, discouraged, gloomy,
worried, or fearful—all of which are unwholesome emotions—your
body immediately reflects that unwholesomeness and your state
of health is lowered. The word “health” is simply
the modern expression of the Old English “wholth,” meaning
wholeness. If you are not healthy emotionally, you cannot be
in good health physically. Either will reflect the condition
of the other, that which is predominant at the time. To keep
the body in the best state of wholeness is of paramount importance.
An Atmosphere of Health
We know now that there is such a close relationship between the
body and the emotions that we learn to build bodily health
through emotional health. Time ought to be given daily to such
building. It is especially wise to faithfully keep in mind
such expressions as these:
“I am filled with the Life and
Love of God.”
“ I am strong and vibrant.”
“ God-Life surges through my entire body.”
“ I function normally, wholesomely, and effectively.”
“ The Power and Perfection of God flow through me constantly and
keep me in superb health.”
“ I rejoice in physical wholeness.”
When such statements are made with exuberant
happiness, they carry a thrill of joy to every part of the
body. They create
and maintain that atmosphere of health in which new cells are
created and in which they function. The good feeling which attends
such statements becomes an “associated attitude” in
the body, which persisted in becomes a habit carrying with it
the power to continually reproduce itself.
This is very important because everyone sometimes
finds himself below par physically and needs something to bring
him back to
normalcy. One of the best things you can do is to practice the
use of such assertions. And also practice the appearance of a
healthy body, such as the expanded chest, the erect posture,
the free and easy carriage—all indicating good physical
condition. They will become so associated with the positive and
affirmative statements you make that they literally go together.
Merely to begin repeating one of the statements will at once
tend to reproduce the associated good physical condition. These “automatic
reflexes” are wholesome parts of your endeavor. They cost
you nothing in cash; they occupy only a minimum amount of time;
they are pleasant to do, and they bring excellent results. Right Emotional Control
Good health, which
is one of the results of such endeavor, is an important factor
in the development of a fine personality;
it shows that you have learned emotional control. We found
that a good personality brings friendships, happiness, success,
and prosperity. These are all of much interest to you. You
want them. Now you see that they are directly tied up with
the condition of your body; that they are largely the result
of your emotions, and that your personal, social, and business
success are all intertwined with this matter of emotional control.
The relationships are so intimate and close that you cannot
consider one without the other.
You need, of course, to train yourself
steadily in the development of all those fine qualities which
are positive, helpful, creative,
and God-like.
Again we see that all phases of your nature
cooperate. Right thinking brings right control over the emotions.
When you feel
well physically, you are happier. You also know that when
you are happy you can keep your mind more easily attuned to
what
you want to be thinking. So, we also find that the condition
of the body affects the quality of our thinking. When we
use our intellect according to its real nature, we think clearly,
logically, effectively, and have a vastly better perspective.
We see things, conditions, events, and people in their right
proportions. Through such thinking our good thoughts become
things. When you recognize these fundamental facts and understand
the
threefold nature of yourself better you can use your creative
thought to bring to pass those deep desires of your heart
which
mean so much to you. You Change Your Environment
By means
of such thinking you change your environment. For one thing,
you have a higher appraisal of people and surroundings.
You more clearly see the good in them, and much which before
may have been hidden. There is a reaction to this appraisal!
This is something you can easily prove for yourself and, incidentally,
it is something you ought to be proving every day. When you
think well of someone and especially when you express that
approval, you immediately set up a standard for him to which
he tries to measure up. It is the quickest way to bring out
the desired good qualities in any person.
Your environment consists of “things,” as well
as people, but your appreciation and approval of all that is
good,
even in things, will at least sustain their desirable qualities
in your consciousness, thus making you happier. In addition,
it will almost surely bring to mind something you can do to add
to the appearance, condition, or usefulness of those same things,
thus further increasing their desirability. Yes, thought does
change environment. Spiritual Realization
Affirmative thinking makes it possible for you to work out your
plans. This is so important that you can never afford to let
negation interfere. Your thought must contain the best, because
you do want to bring your good to fruition in the best possible
way. When you are free from the negation of emotional conflict
the mind becomes a clear, pure channel through which God-Wisdom
flows, and there is created for you the good you desire. That
is what is needed if you are to be successful. Then, too, the
ability to think without the interference of negative feelings
is necessary to the unfoldment of that deeper spiritual realization
which is your highest aspiration. This is something you cannot
neglect! Such realization is an unfoldment eminently deeper
than intellectual accomplishment. It is such a conscious unifying
of self with the Father that one is aware of a complete oneness.
This is an experience one may not be able to put into words,
but nevertheless it is so real that no one who experiences
it can ever dispute it. It is what all mankind has forever
sought, because it is the inherent nature of man, eventually,
to find his true relationship to God—a son of God.
Clear thinking, health, happiness, friendships,
and prosperity are all important and worthy. They are steps
on the stairway
up which man climbs in his ascent in spiritual realization. • Excerpted from The Basic Ideas of Science of Mind by Ernest
Holmes.
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