Finding Balance in the Storm: How to Align Body, Mind, Heart, and Spirit

My favourite quote from a dear spiritual teacher of mine is: “Every challenge comes with a gift and every gift comes with a challenge. The bigger the challenge, the bigger the gift.”

Here we are in the community of Squamish and our external world has just gone through a major upheaval. For many of us, the external upheaval has unearthed dormant but unsettled energies within us.

This is a ripe opportunity to recalibrate our choices and align with that which creates balance. If everything comes from within then our part on serving this earth is to do our internal work, to be loving and honest with ourselves then make the necessary choice towards inner peace and balance. We are always, in each moment, moving towards peace or away from it; towards balance or towards off balance.

There are four main bodies of the human being that must each be equal contributor to the balance you experience in this moment.

The physical body governs our ability to regenerate. When we are in balance in our physical body, we trust our innate ability to self-heal. If this body is out of balance, then we look for the quick fix, and we become over-reliant on the outside world to maintain our physical balance. This looks like over-dieting, too many supplements, etc.

To keep the physical body in balance, get out in nature and move your body. Look to your hormones as being key to regulating the physical system. Think Yoga. Think Garden.

The emotional body governs our capacity to respond to life through our heart. Our heart is the unifying field that connects us all, the seen and unseen. When this body is in balance we give without expecting anything in return. When it is out of balance we have fears, we get depressed and obsessed and we don’t sleep well. We misinterpret others’ intentions.

To support the emotional body, touch each other, intimacy. Yes I said it, we humans need loving physical touch by another loving human. We need to talk it out without being judged or wrong. We can do mantras, sing and even talk to ourselves. This moves energy. Essentially the emotional body is energy in motion. It’s when it stagnates it becomes a problem.

The mental body governs our ability to create. This is a big one in the west. Our thoughts create our reality, and our reality in the last few months has been intense. When the mental body is in balance, there is a great efficiency to the use of it. When it is out of balance then we become ego-centric, we lose our empathy.

What can you do? Limit the news. Let go of people that want to be in conflict with you. Mediation is key here. Quieten that monkey mind. If you get triggered, a trigger can only be revealed by another; it cannot be created. Sit with that before you blast a negative remark into the world we are all co-creating.

Finally the spiritual body, this governs our ability to connect to oneness, the place where we are all human family. This is the place where you connect to yourself outside of your personality, you connect to the power within that wants to be creative and create. When this body is out of balance then we feel like we are the victim to the whims of life.

To bring it in balance; pray, meditate and do art. Do something that pours through you and doesn’t come in from the outside. You want to connect spiritually then turn off the social media, turn off the television and give space to the wisdom and love that is inside you. Last but certainly not least is to serve. Find a way to give back to the community, to your neighbourhood and to this world.

The last piece I want to leave you with is to focus on where you want to go rather than where you don’t want to go. I started mountain biking recently, and it’s been an eye-opener in shifting my focus from where I think I will fall to where I want to arrive. It does take practice, and Squamish is rich with opportunities for growth wherever your soul is inspired whether that be mountain biking or a ceremony or a coffee shop, use the moment to bring your four bodies into balance and settle yourself during these unsettling times.

A Squamish resident, yoga teacher, and local healer, Gaia Sophia works as an energy intuitive to assist with the coherence of the human experience.