Spirit, Soul Alignment
GODSun Perspective on
Spirituality, Leadership and Business
March 2023 Vol 0323
Spring Flowers taken by Sunday Miller
The last two newsletters have been quite lengthy but I believe that they have established a good foundation for the newsletters that will follow. I cannot guarantee that they won’t be as long but I do want to try and continue to unpack this concept. I am by no means an expert but I am a prodigious observer and have had many experiences that I have tried to understand at the spirit level. This is a process of going to the spirit and soul (mind will and emotions) level of the interaction.
We are on this journey together. I believe that there is more than just the body and soul of a person, which I have already stated. And if thoughts are generated in the mind what is acting on the mind to generate the thoughts? I am putting forward that it is the spirit of a person that acts upon the mind to create the thoughts and the thoughts that are believed dictate the actions of the body.
SPIRIT ☞ ☞ ☞ SOUL ☞ ☞ ☞ BODY
(Mind, will, emotions)
The spirit of a person animates all aspects of his or her being and I am putting forward that our heart is where our spirit resides. We have heard people say and perhaps have done so in the past that when we don’t know what to do, we quiet ourselves and go inward. Inward to what? To our inner person. Our heart to see what we are sensing or hearing. Some call it their gut instinct. I call it the spirit of a person. I have quoted this before but I think it is appropriate here “As a person thinks in their heart so they are.” My paraphrase of Proverbs 23: 7.
In the first newsletter I identified that we were a spirit being with a soul (ability to think, feel, and reason) housed in a physical body. The question we must ask ourselves is whether that spirit is full of light or full of darkness. This is a critical question and the response that we give is vital. Why? Because it clearly shows where we are aligned and then we have to determine whether that is where we want to be or not. If that is not where we want to be then we have to do something different. But I also think that it is important to recognize that when we answer that question what we say will be proven to be the truth or to be a lie based on the results that are in evidence around us. We cannot say that we are aligned with light, love, compassion and caring if every word that we speak or action that we take is tearing down or harming those around us or dismantling good, brick by brick or word by word. Whatever is dictating to us will be manifested in our lives. When I say dictate I mean the thoughts that come to you and you act upon. When someone gives us a directive we have the choice to fulfill it or not. We have free will which is part of our humanity. We have options. We can choose how we will respond. How we respond will be based upon what we believe is the truth about the situation, ourselves, or the people we are interacting with. If we have aligned our hearts to pride, greed, deception, hate, etc. it will be evident from the atmosphere and environment that is being created. If things are going from bad to worse it is because what we have aligned ourselves with is not the good. Good does not create bad and vice versa.
As a leader it is vitally important that you know what is dictating to you. And if you are not sure then I would suggest that you need to find out since you will be challenged to build trust in your team if there is a disconnect between what you believe and what you are doing. There will be a constant internal struggle and a discontent in what you are doing. That is the result of cognitive dissonance. You are saying one thing or believing one thing and doing another which means that your soul and spirit are not aligned. It is vitally important that your soul and spirit are in agreement with each other. The greater the disconnect between beliefs and actions the greater the anxiety and discomfort. If it is a minor disconnect you may be able to rationalize your behaviour but the greater the disconnect becomes the less easy it is going to be to live in a self contradictory manner. Your anxiety and discontent will impact all those around you. Your mental and emotional stress is an energy that will impact the space that you hold and anyone else who enters your space. You know this is true. How often have you been in a room and someone enters and you can see that they are walking under a dark cloud or appear to have the weight of the world on their shoulders. It impacts the room like a wet blanket. Everyone has to work harder to stay upbeat.
Whether you are an employee or a business owner you need to make sure that your soul and spirit are in alignment. If not you will not achieve inner peace and contentment and being around someone who is never content or happy with what is taking place is a burden. And make no mistake, if you are starting or running a business, even if it is a solopreneur enterprise, you are a leader. Even if it is only yourself that you are leading. So it is important that you check your inner self to see if you are anxious or at peace. If anxious you need to figure out why you are feeling the way you are so that you can deal with it. If you are anxious or in a negative state of mind it is very difficult to make good decisions and it is incredibly hard to be creative. Which means you are not able to problem solve because problem solving is being creative.
I would put forward that when most people think about having an impact, they want it to be an impact for good. You have probably been at those sessions where they ask you to write your eulogy and what would people be saying about you. We would want to be remembered in glowing terms. To be identified as someone who has done good and been a blessing to many people. And if there are people crying it will be for sorrow that we are no longer with them and not for joy that we are gone. I want to suggest that those that had the biggest, positive impact on the world, outside of Jesus Christ who had the greatest impact, were people that had strong beliefs. Three people that immediately come to mind are Mahatma Ghandi, Mother Teresa and Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. They believed in the value of mankind. And everything they did confirmed or supported that core belief that they held. They did not violate it even when given many opportunities to do so because of how they were being treated by those they valued. Ghandi and King believed in peaceful demonstrations and they were known for that. If they had violated that core belief that they espoused they would have been called hypocrites and their impact and influence would have been severely diminished even though they would have been able to rationalize their behaviour. Mother Teresa went to the down trodden. Can you imagine what would have been said if she had passed someone by because of their condition. She would have been called a charlatan, a liar.
You may say, “yeah but I’m not doing anything like they were doing. They were trying to change the world.” Yes and no. They would never have been able to hold firmly to their convictions in these arenas and have the great impact that they had if they had violated convictions that appeared to be less important. As a leader in the community or your business you need to know what you believe and why. Are they your beliefs or someone else’s beliefs. Are they cultural or religious beliefs that you embrace or only appear to embrace because it is necessary to fit in. If that is the case you will have cognitive dissonance and anxiety, which is not a good way to live since you will do and say whatever you need to do to remove the anxiety. This is where the rationalization comes in and rationalizing an action or word spoken doesn’t fix the problem. You will still have the anxiety deep down inside. You need to figure out what you believe and why. This will take work. You will need to ask yourself what you believe about mankind? Are they an accident, a freak of evolution and then you need to go further and find out why you believe that.
Being aligned means that you will have to walk in truth even if it is only with yourself. You don’t have to tell people what you believe but we must be honest here, what you believe will be expressed in your behaviour and speech. If you believe that certain people are not as valuable or as important as you are, it will become evident in what you do and how you do it. And this is true for all, whether you are the leader of a country or a household. It is also these things that will dictate the type of world that we live in. We must know what we believe and why. “As a leader the most important earthly relationship you can cultivate is your relationship with yourself.” Ken Blanchard , The Heart of a Leader.
Sunday
