Text: “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own. You are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)
The relationship between Christian thought and the body has a long history in the church. Mostly the physical realm has been casted in negative light. Ironically this has been legacy of Greek thought, with Plato seeing a conflict of spirit and flesh, with spirit seeking to be emancipated from the prison of the flesh. This has led to extremes of self-abuse, for example whipping the body to mortify the flesh. While in recent years there has emerged a theology of the body, it seems strange and even unspiritual to be so preoccupied.
In contrast to the Greeks Hebrew spirituality was very earthy and practical. Indeed, Paul’s insistence on the body being the temple of the Holy Spirit shows how the two could be united in his mind.
Principle: One of the most common psychological interventions is to enable a person to practice better self-care. This can be thought of as the practice of taking action to preserve or improve your emotional and physical health especially in times of stress.
Why Self-Care is SO Important
SC covers a number of areas including mental, physical, personal, emotional, nutritional, and spiritual.
If you Google self-care there are plenty of useful resources. I like the idea of a checklist. One is a 31 day challenge with at least one self-care habit to accomplish each day..
But why not create your own? This can focus on what you enjoy most. I would include looking at art books, reading a poem, seeing a friend for lunch, walking Truff with Ann, mindfully eating a keto chocolate bar, drinking a large glass of ice-cold water, playing chess on internet, 20 minutes of exercise, recalling what I am grateful for, a night out for a meal and listening to jazz.
Russ Harris in ACT therapy has drawn attention to the many choices we make. It is stating the obvious, but every choice has implications.
We rightly give considerable focus to the choices with huge implications: who do I marry? Do you have children? Where do I work? When do I stop working? But it is the small decisions that shape a life.
I think it is a good idea to use self-care as a way of highlighting our choice points. For example towards moves may include spending quality time with loved ones, keeping fit and looking after health, the caring and kind towards others, pursuing hobbies or interests, having, fun, playing sport, relaxing, being creative, getting into nature, contributing actively to a group or community, or doing a personal growth activity. Away moves may include withdrawing from or fighting with loved ones, avoiding physical exercise, putting unhealthy substances into your body, losing your temper, being aggressive or unkind, procrastinating a really important tasks, and so on. You can also include psychological processes such as overthinking, obsessive, ruminating, and overanalysing. Away moves are things we say and do that make allies worse, keeping us stuck, exacerbating our problems, inhibiting our growth, negatively impacting our relationships, or impairing a health and well-being long-term.
Now it is not my intention to add a guilt trip. This is not a new form of legalism, since I don’t expect anyone to make towards moves 99% of the time. You can make a big difference by adding just one or two self-care activities in your into your busy schedule.
Ann and I recently made a new friendship by playing chess. This person has a frighteningly busy schedule, but in spite of all the pressure she manages to carve out a couple of hours each month for herself to play chess. That is all she can manage, but I admire her determination and talent – though Ann won the last game!
The idea of choice points, guided by values, enables us to see how small decisions and the cumulative effect can shape the quality of our lives. For example, in the area of health, if we refuse to exercise, eat only junk food, and abuse substances there we are taking years of our lives. This might also be in the face of wanting to live a long and healthy life. So there is a clash of lifestyle and values.
How relevant to Spirituality:
I think the problem with spirituality, is that for most of us it rates high on importance but low on priority. It is easy for anything urgent to ‘get in place ahead in the queue’. I would recommend rethinking your spiritual practices and understanding them in light of self-care. I am stopping to have 10 minutes to myself, to do nothing except maybe talk to God. Or look through a book on mediaeval art (it is almost all religious). Or go on a three day silent retreat.
There are many options such as: reading the Bible or a spiritual book, praying or meditating, attending worship and volunteering to help in a church activity and I could go on. Start with what you MOST enjoy. If you break it down there are many choice points, but remember the importance of awareness that many choices shape a lifestyle which can include a spiritual dimension.
There have been roses since we have been on this planet, but the wild roses in Europe, while all different colours and quite beautiful, would only bloom once a year, and so for most of the warm months you would be looking at a bunch of ugly green canes with thorns, no flowers. But then, some botanists in the late 18th century began experimenting by grafting the Chinese wild rose, which was only green, but bloomed all summer, with the European rose, and after a bunch of testing, created what we know to be the modern rose, which blooms from June through October, but not only in green, but in a myriad of colours.
Isn’t that interesting, so roses as we know them are really a modern invention, and because of the grafting of the wild Chinese rose with the roses of Europe, we have this stronger, much more beautiful flower than we ever had before.
The Rev Dr Bruce Stevens is a supply minister at GUC and Wesley Uniting Church from 1 January 2024.
Featured image sourced from Pexels.