Unorthodoxy

How to Achieve Clarity in Spirit, Soul, and Body

 

by Franklin O’Kanu

 

 

It’s been some time since I wrote my article don’t believe everything you can think, and I have reflected since that article was released. From a professional and spiritual perspective, I’ve learned a few insights that made me reflect more profoundly on the lessons from the article.

 

From a spiritual perspective, I came across the Academy of Ideas (AOI) video on overthinking and how overthinking is neurotic. From AOI, we read the following:

 

“A neurosis is a psychological disorder defined by persistent and deep levels of anxiety and an overall fear of life. In addition to these cardinal symptoms, a neurotic illness may also include depression, guilt, phobias, obsessions and compulsions, excessive worry and rumination…[signs of thinking].”

 

From a business perspective, I’ve been introduced to the concept that innovation often is nothing big but relatively small. From The Consulting Bible, we read the following:

 

Innovation is incremental. There is rarely a breakthrough: Ah, we’ve invented the iPad! Innovation is usually a series of incremental steps or recombinations of existing products and services.

 

As I take a step back and look at the business and spiritual perspectives, I’ve realized that we need to have small, innovative tweaks to our everyday lives. Those tweaks can lead to great rewards.

 

With that, I’m taking the 10 insights from the book and breaking them down into three simple steps we can apply in our everyday lives.

 

Within this article, the reader will learn the following insights:

 

1. The State of Being in your Body
2. Making room to receive insights
3. Prioritizing time to rest and recharge.

 

Before we go any further, we are going to need to clarify some terminology, and we’re going to start with the difference between the spirit, soul, and body.

 

From The Emerald Tablet, we read the following:

 

“Ancient philosophers saw the human body not as a physiological machine but as a vessel for soul and spirit. Though many people today confuse these two for one another, spirit and soul are really two separate and unique entities. Spirit, our inner king, is constantly striving for the higher realms, constantly seeking something better; but soul, our inner queen, is not totally committed to perfection for its own sake. Instead, the soul feeds on the fire of existence with all its foibles and catastrophes… 

The soul transcends rational descriptions and defies order, and her language is images and feelings. The spirit of the king, on the other hand, is concerned with more heavenly pursuits like truth and beauty…

Spirit is after ultimates but requires the passion of the soul to succeed, and for that reason, spirit must always seek out soul and court her. However, like a third lover, the ego stands between soul and spirit, and until the alchemist is able to let go of his worldly arrangements with this interloper, he will not be able to unite soul and spirit and proceed further in the Work.”

 

If spirit, soul, and body are the original trinity, where does our mind come in? I’ve questioned this and realized that we’re born with the original three (spirit, soul, and body), but we develop our minds. We develop an ego based on our interactions with our world.

 

This analogy goes back to thoughts vs. thinking. Thoughts, those “spiritual” downloads differ from those “ego” based thinking. It’s as if when we engage in “thinking” with the mind, we’re entering the lair of the tyrant king and engaging this artificial construct in conversation.

 

And that’s where our greatest opportunity lies. Now that we have the definitions understood, I’m going to discuss three techniques that will help us snap out of the neurotic thinking trap of the mind we find ourselves in daily and lead us back into that spirit-led clarity of peace, love and understanding.

 

1. Establish the State of Being

 

Now that we’ve differentiated between the different psychic elements, this quote has a brand new meaning. When we find ourselves thinking, it’s like we’re in a haze. We can see what’s happening in our physical world, but we’re not really present with what’s happening. Our minds have taken us elsewhere.

 

Either we’re thinking about the future and possible scenarios, or we’re dealing with hindsight in the past and discussing what could have been. Either or, we’re not in the present in the holy now.

 

When we find ourselves in these thinking phases/hazes, what we can do is remember that if our eyes are the window to the soul, then what are we staring at? By asking ourselves this question, we bring our consciousness to the present now, as in, what are my eyes looking at right now?

 

This simple act of acknowledging what am I doing brings our consciousness to ponder that question. Is our soul present in what we’re doing? Or has the ego king pulled our soul elsewhere, anywhere but the here and now?

 

By being aware and observant of what we’re staring at, our spirit draws our soul to the present. Additionally, if we observe what we are doing – specifically what’s in our hands – we return our attention to the here and now, returning our souls into our bodies. By bringing our consciousness to the holy present, we go with the flow and focus on what it is that we are physically doing.

 

2. Create Space for Thoughts

 

The premise of the article don’t believe everything you think is that humans are not supposed to think; we’re supposed to have thoughts. It’s an interesting perspective because, essentially, we should refrain from engaging in active thinking. Instead, we should receive thoughts – allowing the wisdom from our body, spirit, and soul to come to us. For us to do this, we need to create space for us to receive these downloads.

 

As we go through our day-to-day interactions, we can get easily caught up in the hustle and bustle flow to where we revert to thinking. As we’ve discussed, this is simply a result of the society built for us, which promotes disembodiment to where we constantly engage in neurotic thinking.

 

But when we find ourselves in a thinking loop, we can lean on the practice of aeration to bring our consciousness back into play. First, by asking ourselves and being aware of what our bodies currently doing, we carry our spirits to the present. Next, what we can do is we can monitor our breathing.

 

From the Academy of Ideas, we read the following:

 

…what is perhaps the fundamental of all fundamentals, our breathing, is an area to which few pay serious attention. The proper way to breathe depends on the situation, but a simple and powerful rule of thumb is to breathe more through the nose, less through the mouth, and into the belly as opposed to the chest. Breathing in this manner is a simple form of change that can pay huge dividends as the rhythms of our breath greatly influence how we feel both mentally and physically.

 

This emphasis on breathing ties into the elements of air and aeration. By being aware of what we’re doing in our everyday lives and by taking the time to breathe in through our noses and out through our mouths when we find ourselves in these thinking spells, we consciously and physically start to bring clarity into our bodies and our psyche.

 

Rest and Recharge

 

In my upcoming book and course, the first topics I touch on are the creation and the advent spread of electricity. From the 1800s up until now, electricity has been affecting us in more ways than we probably fully comprehend. From electricity begets technology, and we’re seeing how technology, even though applicable, disembodies and ultimately harms us.

 

From screen-based technologies to constant EMFs, the body’s natural electromagnetic charge may be dispersed all over the place. To combat this, we need to ensure that we make time to rest and recharge our bodies. And one of the simplest techniques is simply to go for a walk. From the Academy of Ideas, we read the following:

 

For walking, according to the psychologist Michael Mahoney, “is probably the single most beneficial form of human movement” (Constructive Psychotherapy) and for those of us with our heads stuck in the clouds, walking is an excellent way to re-connect to the earth beneath our feet…

In addition to grounding us, walking is an excellent way to connect to our body as it is one of the most natural forms of human movement. Furthermore, the consistent use our legs which this activity entails can promote a more aggressive approach to life. 

 

Walking allows us to reset and recharge our bodies, and by breathing, taking deep breaths in through our noses, down to our stomachs, and out through our mouths, we’re also helping to reset our bodies. These techniques give us the energy to continue building the life we want.

 

Life is a marathon, not a sprint, and for us to do this “life” thing, day-in and day-out, we must learn to conserve and use our energies appropriately. That is why we need to rest. On average, every 24 hours, we have 86,400 heartbeats per minute. We can’t get more; we can’t get any less. So we must use our time, attention, and heartbeats more efficiently to make them count.

 

Conclusion

 

The takeaway from this article is that no matter where you find yourself or what you’re doing in your day-to-day actions, you can gain clarity between your spirit, soul, and body by following these three simple strategies.

 

In this ocularcentric society, clarity will be needed to ensure that we can build and create the life we want. And this is what we are here to do at Unorthodoxy; to create a life worth living.

 

The goal of Unorthodoxy is to study unorthodox themes, like spirituality and magic, and implement them into our reality so that we can begin to have a very accurate understanding of reality. If the concepts in this article and on the substack resonate with you, please subscribe if you haven’t already. But most importantly, I encourage you to get others to subscribe.

 

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Only with like-minded people can we hold ourselves accountable towards our goals and make significant strides toward the future. If you’ve benefited from the lessons here at Unorthodoxy, I encourage you to become a paid member.

 

Thank you for your time and attention.    Ase.

 

Call To Action

1. Does understanding the difference between the spirit, soul, and body bring clarity to the different aspects within us?
2. Do we see how the ego is an artificial construct and not part of the original trinity?
3. Are the three techniques outlined in the article simple enough to start implementing today?
4. Is there someone that will benefit from this article?

Photo by Jared Rice on Unsplash