Everyone Is a House with Four rooms| Daily Meditation-January 4, 2022
Today’s Quotation:
There is an Indian proverb or axiom that says that everyone is a house with four rooms–a physical, a mental, an emotional, and a spiritual. Most of us tend to live in one room most of the time, but unless we go into every room every day, even if only to keep it aired, we are not a complete person.
Today’s Meditation:
One of the most important things I’ve ever learned about myself is that I’m not just me. When I was young, it never entered my mind that there might be more to me than just the person I thought I was. As I’ve grown and learned, though, I’ve come to see that I’m made up of many different parts–and that if I try to improve one of these parts while neglecting the others, my efforts are going to be much more difficult indeed.
If we “go into every room every day,” we’re making sure that we’re aware of where we stand as far as these elements of ourselves are concerned. Perhaps I’m at a spiritual low for a few days. Without this awareness, I might not understand what’s bringing me down, and I can’t see that some spiritual nourishment is necessary. Maybe the stressful feelings of the last few days are the result of emotional turmoil. Again, unless I pay attention to my emotions, I won’t be able to address the issues that are causing the turmoil, and the stressful feelings will continue.
Opening the doors to these rooms can help us to stay aware of what’s going on in our inner lives. It will air out the rooms and it will bring to light all that is in those rooms. When I bring to light those things that love light, they grow much stronger, and when I bring to light those things that hate light, they weaken.
So how am I today physically? Do I need to exercise or eat something in particular today (or avoid eating something else)? Mentally, do I need to pull myself out of some situation, or find something to stimulate my mind, such as a good book? Emotionally, will I be helping myself if I forgive or let go, or can I encourage someone else to strengthen the positive feelings I have? And spiritually, is it time for a prayer or a long talk with God as I take a long walk in a beautiful area?
You’re not just “you,” and I’m not just “me.” We all are made up of many different parts that work together to comprise a whole person, and when we start paying attention to individual parts of ourselves, we’ll find that improving ourselves and solving problems in our lives becomes much, much easier.
Questions to ponder:
1. What are some of your favorite ways to stimulate yourself mentally? How often do you do those things?
2. What do you see when you enter the room of your emotions? If you wish that something were different, how can you change it?
3. What other rooms in your “house” can you recognize?
For further thought:
Our rushing and our busyness create a fog layer that encloses us, surrounding us with thicker and thicker layers externally and building denser and denser fog layers within. Pretty soon, we have lost touch with that which guides our lives. We need contact with our spirituality to be the people we would like to be.
Anne Wilson Schaef
Credit: Living Life Fully
