Mental Health (part 1)
The mental health part of our wholeness involves the soul, which is a combination of our mind, emotions and will. This is the pivotal point of our entire wholeness because our will chooses if we live and walk empowered by the Spirit, (which is the key to total health of spirit, mind and body) or if we live in the flesh of the natural man, living in the cravings of the mind and body, never being fulfilled, never being touched by God’s love, never experiencing God’s joy or God’s peace. The choice is ours and the choice comes from our will.
The Mind
The mind consists of thoughts, reasoning, and intelligence. It is where all information is processed before decisions are made. Some say the mind is divided into two parts — our conscious mind and our subconscious mind. Our conscious mind is what we are aware of — information coming in from our eyes, ears, nose, taste, and touch. The subconscious mind, meanwhile, continually processes information we are not aware of.
In this discussion, we will concentrate on the “knowing” conscious mind, where we process information in making decisions, thinking, and remembering. Most of our life is spent in the “mind realm” of the soul. Unfortunately, since the fall of Adam, man has made himself his own god, and in doing this, his mind has become an avenue to get what he wants out of life.
Usually, the ones who were smarter in school went on to be doctors, lawyers, and businessmen, while those with less intelligence often ended up with more labor-intensive blue-collar jobs. Our soul equates intelligence with success. Therefore, people try to achieve all they can with their minds. The thinking goes, I can have all I want, or be all I want to be, if I only put my mind to it. This thinking isn’t entirely wrong, for the Bible says in Proverbs 23:7, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” But this is much more than just positive thinking. This is taking what is in the spirit and bringing it into the soul or mind realm. (I will discuss this more later.)
The problem with man’s dependence on his mind is that he thinks he can do anything in his own strength. The difference between the power of positive thinking and the power of the Spirit in us is unfathomable. One can lead to an atheistic or no-need-for-God mindset, whereas the other means total dependence on the God who created us.
The creative mind is really not the mind at all, but the spirit of man made in God’s image. As we have seen, one component of the spirit is intuitive knowledge, and creativity is born out of intuitive knowledge.
Another problem with our mind is when we relive the past, playing reruns of how we were abused, hurt, rejected and alone. We are how we see ourselves. If we see ourselves as a failure, surely we will fail. If we see ourselves as a success, chances are good we will succeed.
A golden nugget to live by is, Don’t live in the “if only” past or the “what if” future, but live in the “what is” present. Remember when God spoke to Moses? God didn’t say His name was “I was” or “I will be,” but the ever present “I AM”. He was saying, “I AM the answer to all your problems and questions in life.”