Sometimes, You Can Minister to Your Spirit Through Your Body

Gretchen aphorism

Further Secrets of Adulthood

In Happier at Home, I spend a chapter focused on the “Body”—because our physical experience always colors our emotional experience.

Continuing in this line of thought, in my forthcoming book on habits, I return to the subject with the Strategy of Foundation. I argue that in order to have the self-command that we need to foster good habits, we need to pay a lot of attention to our Foundation, and therefore we tackle habits that help us to:

1. Sleep

2. Move

3. Eat and drink right

4. Unclutter (because for most people, outer order contributes to inner calm)

Three of the four Foundation habits relate directly to the body.

When it comes to ministering to the spirit through the body, in my own life, I often turn to one of my favorite happiness habits: To cultivate my sense of smell. I have a big shelf crammed with beautiful or interesting scents, and whenever I need a lift, I go there. Plus I have a lucky perfume.

How about you? Do you have ways to minister to your spirit through your body? Through your eyes (looking at art or nature), through the sense of taste (comfort foods, new cuisines), through the sense of hearing (listening to your favorite upbeat music is one of the quickest ways to intervene in mood), or through the sense of touch (getting a massage, fur therapy by petting your dog?)

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