“Oh my aching back!” “If I could just find some relief!” “I need to learn to relax!” Any of these sound familiar to you? How about this one, “I wish I could loose some weight!” It seems as though many of us are looking for answers because we just want to feel better than we do. There are Wellness Centers for just about every thing we feel we need. But there may be more to this than we have realized.

Have you heard the term, “self-fulfilling prophecy?” Everyone is probably aware of it but we usually don’t think that much about it. Here is an example. Say you have a child that is taking a musical instrument, let’s say the clarinet. In those early stages, if you are within earshot, the sound coming from his clarinet is almost intolerable. If you say to him, “that sounds terrible, you will never be any good at that thing. Maybe you should just give it up.” Guess what happens most of the time – he believes you and never succeeds at it. But, what if you say instead, “that is sounding better all the time. You are really doing well. I just know one of these days you are going to be very good!” Now your child is encouraged and tries all the harder. He actually does succeed. He may never play in a symphony orchestra, but on the other hand, he very well may. A lot of what we do and who we are is because of what we believe.

What makes the difference? Our subconscious mind is always taking in what we believe and what we say to ourselves. Repeated enough and thought about enough, and sure enough – we become what we tell ourselves we are.

The Bible puts it this way, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” (Proverbs 23:7, King James Version)

We have a physical body, but there is more to us than that. We are made up of body, mind and soul. Perhaps a good analogy might be that of a car. You can have a perfectly good car, but without wheels it can’t move. A car with wheels but no engine still doesn’t function. For us as humans, to be perfectly well, we also need that engine.

In the book of Genesis, (Chapter 3, verse 7, KJV) when God created man, it says this: “And the Lord formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils, the breath of life, and the man became a living soul.” Without this breath of life we are only a body, but not a living body. You may have heard an expression similar to this one, “There were 3000 poor souls standing out in the rain.” Yes, a soul is a living being.

When we die, what happens to our souls? There is a story in Genesis 35 about a woman named Rachel. She was in labor and she was dying. In verse 18 it says this, “And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing (for she died) that she called his name Ben-oni: but his father called him Benjamin.” Where was her soul going? When the body dies, the soul lives on. There is a passage in Ezekiel 18:4 that says man can kill the body, but not the soul.

If we truly want wellness we need to think beyond our physical bodies. We have to take care of our inner man as well. The terms soul and spirit are very closely related and making sure we have a spiritual life should be everyone’s top priority. When we refer to the scripture, “as a man thinketh in his heart so is he,” we can understand heart as not being the organ that beats, but our deepest spiritual place. If something is very heart felt we know it comes from deep within. So we want a happy heart, free from worry and care. This is our Wellness Center.

Perhaps you may be wondering why this is so important. Remember the story of Rachael? Our souls live on and they live on in eternity. The one thing that will give us joy, peace and security, is knowing that when we do die, our soul will be with God in Heaven. He promises there will be no tears there and all that is wrong and bad here on earth will be no more. In fact, it will be Paradise. Who wouldn’t want that?

If all this is new to you and you want to learn more, you should check out a Spiritual Wellness Center and that would be a place of worship. You can find a local, Bible believing church, and they can guide you into what you need to know to guarantee you will have this eternal joy. Believing and knowing you are secure makes for a very happy heart. You may need a physical doctor to work on your back, but God is the great physician that will restore your soul.