The three parts of me

I guess my parents did a pretty good job of raising me, because until about 3 years ago, I never truly understood what people meant when they talked about mind, body, and spirit being the parts that make up a a whole person. I believe that this is the case because being brought up in the family that I was brought up in, all of these things were being nurtured in me and I always felt as one whole person. Then, life happened and I began to become aware of the seperate parts of me, because they were no longer in sync with one another. My mind began to question my spirit. My body began to do it's own thing. Each part began to work as a seperate part of me, disagreeing with the other part, competing to be in the star role of my life. This took on life of its own. For quite some time, my mind took the stage. I went to school and nurtured my mind, allowing it to have the final say in every facet of my life. My mind became very strong, keeping the other parts of me quietly at bay. Once in a while my spirit would speak up saying "hey what about me", and my body would pipe in saying "where did you go, you need to take care of me too". My mind was very selfish, but would ocasionally allow these parts to make an appearance with the occassional intimate moment with a loved one, a good cry, and a week of good excersize and healthy eating. But then the mind would relentlessly take over, and shove it's way back into the forefront ,stating "there is too much too be done to worry about these things" and the body and spirit would not question due to the strength of the mind, and so they would comply and quietly return to silence. Now having one part completely in charge, no conflicts, no questions, created a certain feeling of stability without question. However, no matter how hard I tried, I could never make the other parts of me go away! They would creep up in moments when I least expected, tricking my mind. The truth is that these parts were not actually weaker than my mind, they were just more strategic in their approach, only showing up when the time was right. So, when I finished my Graduate program, the mind became a little bored, and lost some of it's strength, and my body and spirit began to step in to compensate for this change. This sounds as if it would be a good thing, but it was different, and new, and uncomfortable to have to face that there were parts of me that were unsettled, had not been nurtured, and were in need of some recognition. It has been a challenge ,to say the least, to achieve a balance amongst the three parts of me. Everybody has a different formula to achieve and maintain the balance within themselves. I believe that my formula is to quiet the mind enough to allow my spirit some space to grow and be recongnized, and to allow my body to age gracefully and and healthily the way that a body is meant to age. To love my self as a whole person, and to allow the parts of me to begin to flow freely within me, working together to make me a stronger and happier me. Without recognizing and honoring the needs of all three parts, inner peace cannot be achieved. So if you find yourself in a place in your life where you are facing an inner struggle, feeling that there is is something missing, think about the three parts of you, and try to figure out which part is being neglected. Allow that part of you to shine, nurture it, listen to it, and you may begin to feel something within you that you didn't even know was there.