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Avoiding Junk Food for the Spirit
Have you ever thought about the effect negative thinking must have on the spiritual body? It’s sort of like junk food for the spirit.
Finding a job after the Recession wasn’t easy, but I finally found one that looked hopeful and I felt I could handle. And I loved the work, but felt out of place and inept, and started having stomach pains from self-generated stress. It would have been so easy at that point to climb aboard the train of negative thoughts we all ride to try to make ourselves feel better.
You know the routine: a supervisor seems a little sharp because we didn’t understand a procedure, so we scheme how to get even or teach them a lesson. These negative thoughts seem to feel good, even fun for the moment. We get the same false sense of elation when we complain or rationalize some action and the adrenaline is pumping. This is junk food for the spirit. The immediate rush seems justified, but deep down we know too much of it will mean trouble.
This may take the edge off our frustration, but hurts us in the long run. It ratchets up the tension, disrupts our health, often bringing headaches, stomach problems and more, yet it does nothing to change the cause of our anger, embarrassment, or self-pity.
But I know if we can catch ourselves soon enough and make the mental effort to keep our outlook positive, it helps us feel better too. Anger or worry can bring on headaches, but when the stress goes away the headache often does too. So I tried using positive thinking, every day, many times, to change my focus. It started with a little prayer of gratitude before I left home. At work, even though I felt anxious, I was determined to smile and be pleasant to the other employees and my boss. Gradually this worked its magic and I turned my thinking around.
It can be even more advantageous to nurture our spiritual bodies with positive thoughts and words as to feed our physical bodies with nutritious food. If we can make what we say and do to others encouraging, even healing, it helps make their days and ours go by harmoniously, peacefully and productively. If we’re aware that negativity is like junk food for the spirit, we can consciously start to replace the space it’s occupying with more helpful thoughts and words.
I still rely on positive thinking today, though it isn’t easy to stay on the straight and narrow and takes time to change old habits. I still need to remind myself to think positively, so I always say that little prayer of thanks each morning. The rewards are sweet.
Next time those negative thoughts creep in, I highly recommend a nutritious snack of comforting, constructive thoughts. And every day offer some of those positives to your friends, co-workers and family. They’ll really appreciate it, and you’ll soon begin to discover a new, happier, and more confident you!
Copyright © 2017 Lemurian Fellowship
10 thoughts on “Avoiding Junk Food for the Spirit”
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A great anology! Garbage in garbage out, I do okay when I can see a situation coming, but when I don’t, I find myself reacting, rather than acting. My emotions are still out of balance with my thinking, and so I respond out of habit. And if I’ve been eating “spiritual junk food” that’s what is at the top of my habit pile.
I very much understand this article and the ideas expressed about health. For many years, I followed prescribed diets to improve my health. There would be some improvement, but the diets only helped me limp along. I would find some relief with the next new suggestion but never what was expected. Gaining better control of my emotions using the Lemurian Philosophy, especially fear, is when the real improvement began. Fear was definitely junk food for the spirit in my experience. I thoroughly enjoy the more “nutritious” way of living.
Another great reminder to keep thoughts positive! The benefits are so enjoyable one would think this task an easy one. I know for myself, it’s not quite that easy. As one who can be overly sensitive at times I can fall into negative thinking very easily and as the writer of the blog states, it can cause health issues. To help me change my negative thinking I try to be conscious of when I’m doing this, then give thought to why I’m feeling this way. What can I do to change the way I’m viewing the situation to come away with a brighter outlook.
Well spoken! We love the Lemurian Philosophy because it works, not because it’s a magic fix for our troubles. The writer of the blog admitted this too, in saying “it isn’t easy to stay on the straight and narrow and takes time to change old habits.” But when we’ve tried the quick and easy solutions that don’t change much in the long run, and really start zeroing in on Lemurian approaches, after awhile we look back and say, “That wasn’t so hard! Why did it take me so long to do it?”
Thanks for the encouragement!
I needed that! I so have to be careful choosing the food I eat to overcome my health challenges, and I have been working very hard to remain positive in my other life challenges. This blog reinforced very nicely that I have to remain diligent in supplying my mind with the proper food as well as my body.
A very uplifting and encouraging account of Lemurian principles in action. Food for thought!
A really good reminder and example, that we need to pay just as much attention to our mental and spiritual well being as our physical – plus understand more fully the inter-connections.
The analogy of something as commonplace and readily understood as junk food is helpful and really brings the point home. It reminds me how Christ would speak of the everyday commonplace things when expounding on his profound teachings, such as washing the inside of the cup, Or the tower in the vineyard, and so forth.
Very good advice! I see another benefit in exercising your mind regularly with positive thoughts to get rid of that negative “junk food” thought process that builds up like excess weight. I think our ultimate goal as stated by an Elder Brother is “When you can see about you only good, then you may know your heart is right – and not else.”
Useful analogies — negative thoughts as junk food for the spirit, and exercising the mind with positive thoughts. Thanks.