BY spirit, we can refer to the Spirit
of God who is the
source of all good things—life itself, truth, beauty, justice, etc. By
psyche, we can understand it as the integration of our spiritual and
bodily faculties—our thoughts and desires, feelings, passions,
temperament, etc.
We have to acknowledge the relationship between the two,
with the Spirit of God always taking the initiative, since it is the
creative principle of our life. But our psyche has to correspond to it
as fully as possible.
In a manner of speaking, the Spirit of God is the active
agent in this relationship, while our psyche is the passive object
that also has to make itself active in corresponding to the Spirit of
God.
That, more or less, is how the cookie crumbles insofar as
how our life is supposed to be. It is a life of dynamic relationship,
of some sharing. It just cannot be by itself, because it would end up
lifeless and wayward sooner or later.
Or it can have some semblance of life with an activity
that is induced more by another kind of spirit than by the proper one.
It can be animated by the spirit of the flesh or the spirit of the
world, or worse, the spirit of the devil, instead of the Spirit of
God.
It’s imperative that especially nowadays with so many
issues, challenges, pressures to contend with, we get to give due
attention to this crucial aspect of our life, this fundamental duty of
ours to breathe the proper spirit into our psyche.
Otherwise, we would be guided improperly and sooner or
later, we will find ourselves in some terrible predicament. In fact,
nowadays, cases of mental illness are increasing everywhere—within the
family, among relatives, in the neighborhood, schools, offices…
The other day, I read in the Internet that nearly 40% of
Europeans—about 165 million people—are reported sick of some mental
disorder these past years. “Mental disorders have become Europe’s
largest health challenge of the 21st century,” said the authors of the
study.
Some disorders mentioned in the study are depression,
anxiety, insomnia, dementia that lead to a heavy economic and social
burden, since the sufferers would be unable to work and relationships
are often harmed and broken.
Breathing the Spirit of God into our psyche means actively
cultivating a life of faith and piety. It’s in this way that our
thoughts and desires are first of all identified, or at least, are
estimating the very thoughts and desires of God himself. And the
emotional and bodily component of our life gets to be animated
properly.
It’s important that we realize that our faith and piety
are the terra firma on which the seed of our psychological life should
be planted, watered and made to grow to its fullness. They will always
have a direct relevance to our psychological life and mental health.
They are not meant to be optional item in the menu.
They would make us understand the real meaning of our
whole life. They would tell us what would comprise our true joy and
development. They would teach us how to handle our defeats and losses,
how to find meaning in them, and even how to take advantage of them to
attain our genuine good.
We should highlight some more the crucial role of faith
and piety in our psychological life, their intrinsic relation to
psychology. A psychology that ignores or marginalizes the faith and
piety is always suspicious.
But, yes, we also have to explain and clarify how the
faith and piety are related to psychology. Quite often, psychology’s
indifference to the faith and piety is due to an inadequate or
erroneous mentality that puts them into two disparate, even hostile
compartments in our life. We should reinforce the link between them.
We have to drastically rehabilitate the image of
psychology in the minds of all. We cannot deny that psychology is
still treated like a leper in the community or the house fool everyone
tries to hide. We have to boot out that antiquated mindset.
At the rate we are developing with all the complicating
and insanity-tending elements around, there’s no way but for
psychology to be duly acknowledged, its need for the proper spirit
through faith and piety appreciated, and its use spread far and wide.
Thus, we should realize more deeply the need for the
spiritual and supernatural means in developing our psychological life.
They should not be ignored. They contribute greatly in our proper
understanding of things and in developing a healthy psychological and
emotional life.
source of all good things—life itself, truth, beauty, justice, etc. By
psyche, we can understand it as the integration of our spiritual and
bodily faculties—our thoughts and desires, feelings, passions,
temperament, etc.
We have to acknowledge the relationship between the two,
with the Spirit of God always taking the initiative, since it is the
creative principle of our life. But our psyche has to correspond to it
as fully as possible.
In a manner of speaking, the Spirit of God is the active
agent in this relationship, while our psyche is the passive object
that also has to make itself active in corresponding to the Spirit of
God.
That, more or less, is how the cookie crumbles insofar as
how our life is supposed to be. It is a life of dynamic relationship,
of some sharing. It just cannot be by itself, because it would end up
lifeless and wayward sooner or later.
Or it can have some semblance of life with an activity
that is induced more by another kind of spirit than by the proper one.
It can be animated by the spirit of the flesh or the spirit of the
world, or worse, the spirit of the devil, instead of the Spirit of
God.
It’s imperative that especially nowadays with so many
issues, challenges, pressures to contend with, we get to give due
attention to this crucial aspect of our life, this fundamental duty of
ours to breathe the proper spirit into our psyche.
Otherwise, we would be guided improperly and sooner or
later, we will find ourselves in some terrible predicament. In fact,
nowadays, cases of mental illness are increasing everywhere—within the
family, among relatives, in the neighborhood, schools, offices…
The other day, I read in the Internet that nearly 40% of
Europeans—about 165 million people—are reported sick of some mental
disorder these past years. “Mental disorders have become Europe’s
largest health challenge of the 21st century,” said the authors of the
study.
Some disorders mentioned in the study are depression,
anxiety, insomnia, dementia that lead to a heavy economic and social
burden, since the sufferers would be unable to work and relationships
are often harmed and broken.
Breathing the Spirit of God into our psyche means actively
cultivating a life of faith and piety. It’s in this way that our
thoughts and desires are first of all identified, or at least, are
estimating the very thoughts and desires of God himself. And the
emotional and bodily component of our life gets to be animated
properly.
It’s important that we realize that our faith and piety
are the terra firma on which the seed of our psychological life should
be planted, watered and made to grow to its fullness. They will always
have a direct relevance to our psychological life and mental health.
They are not meant to be optional item in the menu.
They would make us understand the real meaning of our
whole life. They would tell us what would comprise our true joy and
development. They would teach us how to handle our defeats and losses,
how to find meaning in them, and even how to take advantage of them to
attain our genuine good.
We should highlight some more the crucial role of faith
and piety in our psychological life, their intrinsic relation to
psychology. A psychology that ignores or marginalizes the faith and
piety is always suspicious.
But, yes, we also have to explain and clarify how the
faith and piety are related to psychology. Quite often, psychology’s
indifference to the faith and piety is due to an inadequate or
erroneous mentality that puts them into two disparate, even hostile
compartments in our life. We should reinforce the link between them.
We have to drastically rehabilitate the image of
psychology in the minds of all. We cannot deny that psychology is
still treated like a leper in the community or the house fool everyone
tries to hide. We have to boot out that antiquated mindset.
At the rate we are developing with all the complicating
and insanity-tending elements around, there’s no way but for
psychology to be duly acknowledged, its need for the proper spirit
through faith and piety appreciated, and its use spread far and wide.
Thus, we should realize more deeply the need for the
spiritual and supernatural means in developing our psychological life.
They should not be ignored. They contribute greatly in our proper
understanding of things and in developing a healthy psychological and
emotional life.
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