Fitness beyond the body [World Health Day special]

For me, good health involves all levels of the personality—the physical body, vitality, the emotions, the mind and the spirit. The body, emotions and mind are designed to function as an integrated unit. When they are harmonised, we experience a sense of wellbeing. To improve or maintain good health, the rate of our regeneration has to be faster than the rate of our degeneration. For this, we need to activate the Trinity of Power, which results in the virtue of good health.

Good health incorporates will-power, balanced with Love [emotions] and creative intelligence [mind]. In the Hindu philosophy, the Trinity mirrors Shiva [power], Vishnu [love] and Brahma [intelligence].

Why will-power matters

While emotions may bring a desire to change and the mind may generate images of a better future, we are not able to breakthrough negative habits and patterns that carry past expressions of thoughts and emotions forward—even if the patterns are no longer applicable to our life now.

To break through this barrier, you need the crucial booster rocket of will-power. It is the predictor of how likely you are to exercise, to follow a healthy diet, to avoid smoking and drinking or to meditate. Therefore, the level of your will-power is a good predictor for your overall fitness.

Will-power is the four wheel drive to pull you out of the past. After all, to live one's greatest life means to be able to give your all to whatever brings the deepest experiences of success and altruism leading to fulfilment in the present and future.

Difference between emotions and thoughts

There are two other aspects of personality that are not well understood—feelings and thoughts. Survey several people and you are likely to find they have difficulty differentiating these important components of the personality. How often do people respond to a question about how they 'feel' by telling you what they 'think'? On the other hand, how many people tell you what they 'feel' when you ask them what they 'think'?

So, what are emotions and feelings, versus thoughts and the mind?

The energy anatomy

Every person has an energy anatomy that is invisible to ordinary sight. This energy anatomy includes auras or fields of energy that are just beyond the physical body. The Etheric Aura serves as your battery for vitality and stamina.

The next, more refined layer is called the Emotional or Astral Aura. Feelings emanate from here at the emotional level of the human energy anatomy.

The Mental Aura lies beyond the emotional level and is responsible for thoughts.

Thus, thoughts and feelings involve two distinctly different parts of your personality and your energy anatomy.

The emotional aspect

The Astral Aura is an energy field comprising the substance of feelings. Greater emotional health fosters emotional intelligence expressed through love and devotion to others as well as to great ideals and goals accompanied by compassion and understanding. It is also a manifestation of the power of the heart that discriminates right from wrong, which is known as conscience.

The higher aspects of emotional intelligence are demonstrated in the power to lead. Influential leaders have the charisma to be liked by team members at all levels as well as by experts in their fields. A prime example of this would be Mother Teresa. She embodied the power of passion to help the poor, the courage to establish the Mother Teresa Foundation, and the determination and commitment to steer its success. Her personal charisma drew media attention around the world and magnetised influential supporters to help her mission.

The thought aspect

The mind is the mechanism or energy software to think. It produces thoughts and receives thoughts from others. The mental energy field or the mental aura is like a radio; it has seven different frequencies. The first four frequencies are lower frequencies. These form the concrete mind and are an aspect of the personality. The higher three frequencies form the abstract mind, which is part of the soul and is dormant in most people.