I know a lot of us have heard the statement you are what you eat, but this is not limited to the physical food you put in your body.
Everything we place into our body has a positive or a negative effect on us.
What you put in always has a way of coming out. Whether its food or music you listen to, everything we put in our body eventually comes out for the world to see.
So, speaking from firsthand I know we need to be more careful with what we put in front of our mouths, our ears and eyes.
I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless.
Psalm 101:3
There are three main forms of consumption:
Food
Food is an important part of our lives. Whatever we eat plays a vital role in how we live our lives, it tends to affect our mind, body and soul.
If I eat really bad food I can become very ill, sluggish or slow-minded. Our diet can add to our quality of life or detract from it.
The nutritional content of what we eat — carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, minerals, fats — goes a long way, deep into our body. They determine our composition, from cell membranes to bone marrow, blood, hormones, tissue, organs, skin, and hair.
If you didn’t know food also has the ability to change your DNA. So keep that in mind when you eat that next lolly.
Media Content
This is a broad one but anything from music, movies, tv shows, social media to books play a major part in your mental and spiritual health.
The music you listen to and movies you watch can affect how you react to certain situations in the real world. The language you hear often around you will affect how you speak to others and the words you use on a daily.
I am guilty of this! I know I shouldn’t watch it as a ‘believer’, but I love me some Love Island. Unfortunately, after watching it I come out talking like a Londoner, say words like ‘init’, ‘bangin’ and ‘pied’ as if they’re common English.
We can think it’s all innocent to listen to a certain type of music but then find ourselves echoing the words of the song subconsciously.
And that is the ultimate fight, for our mind. The devil wants to win over our minds as much as possible. So, if he can plant an ungodly seed into your brain covered up by a great beat guess what he’s got you where he wants you.
That’s why I say, ‘it is so important to listen to the lyrics of the songs more than the beat.’ Because even though you are FEELING the beat your brain is HEARING the words.
So, in order to change this, we need to look at what we are watching and listening to. Instead of watching brain-numbing reality TV, read a book (this advice is for me as much as it is for you).
The best thinkers in today’s world read:
- Elon Musk wasn’t born with a mind full of ideas. He learnt them by reading at least two books a day since he was a child.
- Bill Gates reads one book a week, nearly 50 a year.
- Mark Zuckerberg, despite his busy schedule and Facebook scandals, still finds time to read at least one book every fortnight.
The quality of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts. And the quality of your thoughts depends on the quality of the content you consume.
People
You are a product of the people you have around you. Let that one sit for a little bit.
Those you call friends have an enormous impact on who you are and who you become. Their influence is far greater than we give them credit for. Whether they are a positive or negative influence they still leave their mark.
It is time for you to reanalyse your friendship groups and relationships. Time to get that scissors and cut out people who are leaching from you or creating negative spaces for you.
Anybody or anything that drains you out needs to go.
You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.
– Jim Rohn
We choose physical health but are we also choosing our mental and spiritual health? We are so quick to cut things out from our diet that negatively affect our bodies, so why don’t we do the same for things that negatively affect our mental and spiritual health?
The changes we desire to make in life become increasingly possible when we change the influences around us. If you want to know your bible more, drop the movies or games and read the word.
Whatever gets your mind gets you. In order to look after our mental and spiritual health, we need to learn how to guard, strengthen, and renew our minds. Because the battle against sin always starts in our minds.
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
Philippians 4:6-8
WRITER: Kapungwe Besa, My Edge Mag social media coordinator.