Prosperity of the Soul – Key to Wellbeing by Olaronke Gbadebo
The call to embrace healthy lifestyle has never be so compelling.
The past one year has brought an awakened call to every soul on planet earth. There is a clearer understanding that life’s traumas can throw us off balance unexpectedly, as demonstrated by the impact of COVID-19. Yet such traumas cannot be allowed to incapacitate, limit, hinder or deter us from living the life we were meant to live.
Key factors that have helped many is giving attention to the state of their soul and not allowing the external events to reshape the condition of their soul
The soul is a powerful space that controls our thoughts, mind, will, emotions. It is a place where we can create with our imagination the kind of life we desire. It is a place where choices that build or destroy are made.
It is a place where the direction of a man’s life is made. It is the bridge between the spirit and the body and without it, man cannot fully live and express himself as he ought to.
It is also the place where the messages we received from our broken past are stored and can lay dormant for years until a serendipitous circumstance reveals it.
It is a place of warfare – darkness vs light, evil vs good.
It is a place where we are shaped and reshaped.
The soul is like a garden where whatever is planted will surely grow, thus there is a need to give attention to what you are allowing into your soul.
Healthy lifestyles cannot be fully experienced, until the soul is in it’s proper state, allowing for positive action that will steer it in the right direction.
The prayer offered for us in the Bible, speaks to that – “Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well”
You cannot go far in life unless your soul is getting along well. The wellness of the soul cannot be underestimated as it colours the interpretation of your life and circumstances
To look after your soul you must do the following:
- Examine what intellectual material you feed on.
What you expose your mind to affects your mindset about your life, about others and about circumstances, situations and conditions.
We have been provided with the proper soul food that if taken regularly guarantees health.
The food with we have been provided, promotes love, joy, peace, and self-acceptance.
That food is the Bible. In it contains all we need to know and do to express wellness in the soul. It tells us who we are,
why we are, why we are here, what we can do and what we should avoid.
When the Bible is despised or neglected, it brings a deadness to the soul that no amount of motivational or self-development engagement can cure.
- Review your associations:
We are all a product of relationships and each web of relationship with which we are involved leaves certain deposits in us and also makes withdrawals from us.
How are your relationships affecting the state of your soul?
What do they promote?
Where are they leading you to?
What are their values?
What drives them?
Your answers to all these questions, will reveal the quality of your relationships and helps to quantify their impact on your life.
- Embrace your brokenness, failures, difficulties and use them as tools of learning:
Life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we choose to respond.
Use whatever appears to be dark alleys in your life as an opportunity for self-discovery, change, and growth.
Refuse to allow yourself become a victim of negativity. Make demands on yourself, not to follow the easy road laden with excuses, blaming, fault finding, condemnation, accusation or self-justification. Follow the path less traveled, where you apply yourself to the standard set by your Saviour and not by circumstances; a path where you must be willing to pay the price required to experience growth.
No matter how many times you fall, the drive to become better should serve as an impetus to rise up again.
- Be a learner:
Wise men store up knowledge.
Through knowledge there is deliverance from ignorance and arrogance; from pride, confusion and all such vices that cause men to stay on the path of failure and despondency. Do not accept or invent excuses for yourself.
Learn all you can. Learn about God and His plans for you. Learn about yourself, others and life in general.
Let no price be too much to pay to feed your soul as it’s richness pays rich dividends.
- Celebrate your small wins:
Success is more of a journey than a destination.
Have a gratitude mindset where you consciously acknowledge how far you have grown, changed, learned and are daily getting better.
Remove yourself from the lane of perpetual fault finders – they always look at the cup half empty.
Be bold. Be strong.
Be courageous Be!
Success is progressive.
Our becoming all we were meant to be is progressive.
The prosperity of the soul cannot be left to chance but it must be deliberately cultivated and pursued with focused intentionality.
It takes self-determination, focus, consistency and a ruggedness that refuses to surrender until all that resides within the soul not only aligns with the definition of life according to God’s standard but promotes wellness and general well being
