How to make our emotional body healthy

How we can make our emotional body really healthy, once we know what is sickness and what is health of the emotional body?

The first step is aspiration toward Beauty, Goodness, Righteousness, Joy, Freedom, and Cooperation. If you see any beauty or any goodness, give it water and fertilizer so that it grows. Appreciate it. I knew a couple who were having problems at home. But when the husband started to appreciate the things his wife did for him, peace came to their home.

Christ once said, "If you give even one cup of water to someone in My name, it will not be forgotten." If one cup of water must not be forgotten, do not forget the good things that are around you. Appreciate each other. Appreciate your health, your body, your heart, your mind, your family, your job, and the life that you are living.

We are not talking about abstract things; we are talking about practical things what we can use. This is more important than to know how many apartments are built in heaven. Maybe ten million are built there, but who cares? We should just live a beautiful life first and then worry about these things.

The second step is to worship God. To worship God does not mean day and night to pray and read the Bible. To worship God means to admire that Almighty Power Who created everything. This kind of worship cleans your emotional nature and takes you away from your selfishness and vanities.

The third step is to know that the emotions of other people affect your life and to be careful about communicating with others when they are under the influence of negative emotions. People can trap you in their anger, in their jealousy, in their revenge, in their fanaticism; and suddenly you are caught in a whirlpool. You can become immediately trapped in the emotions of other people. If you see that people are emotionally violent, stay away. Watch them; be careful; and keep your sanity so that you are not swept up.

The fourth step is always to try to bless people. If you do not like someone, bless him. If you like him, your love is already a blessing for him. Always bless people, even if they do nasty things. Blessing is a contact with the soul in others.

The next step is to be always joyful. No matter what happens try always to keep that joy. A great Sage says that Great Ones enter into battle and complicated labors with true joy and that no one can enter Their abodes without joy. Joyfulness means that your physical, emotional, and mental natures are not controlling you, but you are controlling them.

The next step is immediately to replace any negative emotions with a positive one. For example, if a feeling of hatred comes, change it into love. If someone comes into your mind and you say, "I hate him," immediately change it and say, "I love you." If an ugly picture comes to your mind, change it into a beautiful picture. If a fear comes, change it into courage.

People sometimes know the whole Bible, but they cannot do these things. Immediately when depression comes, stand up and make yourself radioactive. Immediately when someone gives you some bad news, change it into good news. Say, "I see in that bad news a good side also."

If you can change such things, you are becoming a transformer, and you should be a transformer because the secret of life is adaptation.

The next step is to daily, for two or three minutes, sing. Sing anything beautiful for a few minutes, and you will see how it will change your nature. Immediately if you feel depressed or negative, jump into your shower and start singing as if nothing had happened, and you will feel so happy. A few minutes of singing changes your whole nature.

I remember a wonderful film, Zorba the Greek. In that film the man was very successful; then a flood came and took everything away. After everything was destroyed, he brought five or six people together and started dancing. The film showed that the human spirit is greater than any possession, that the spirit is the one who must grow.

The last step is to develop gratitude. We must be grateful not only to others, but also to ourselves. This one thing we overlook: we do not pay too much good attention to ourselves. We must be grateful that we are healthy. We must say to our body, "Thank you very much that you are helping me; you are so beautiful," just as we sit in our car and say, "My car, you are really good; I love you."

We must admire ourselves and be grateful to ourselves. We must be grateful for our talents, our intelligence, and our knowledge - because we are something. If we do not give value to ourselves, we will never give value to others.

Know your value. Know that you are really a precious human being. If you know your dignity and your value, you will never attack the dignity and value of others. Dignity is a sign of health in your emotional body.

-Torkom Saraydarian

Education as Transformation vol.1