MIND vs SPIRIT —Is There Really a Difference?

When you hear the word “Spirit”, what’s the first thing that comes to your mind? — Relating to God? Supernatural? or you just aren’t sure of what spirit means. Experts in fields such as theology, psychology, philosophy, etc. have given different meanings and explanations to the subject of “Spirit”. The English Oxford Living Dictionaries defines spirit as the non-physical part of a person which is the seat of emotions and character; the soul.

There is no way we can talk about spirit without looking at what the “mind” really is, your mind is an integral part of your brain (i.e. your mind resides in your brain). While the brain houses the mind, the brain actually doesn’t know what the mind is capable of, the mind is so powerful that sometimes it can make an intelligent person do things that they usually wouldn’t do, that is where the question of what we feed our minds comes in. So, ask yourself today, what do you feed your mind? — Negative thoughts? Positive thoughts? A mixture of both Negative and Positive thoughts? or you’re just not sure? —

If you’re not sure then I’ll suggest you answer the following questions, it should help you to know the kind of thoughts you feed your mind;

1. Do you often think about how bad things are for a lot of people around you and fear that those same things might happen to you?

2. Do you constantly envy people around you that seem to have everything going perfectly for them and sometimes feel hatred towards them?

3. Do you constantly worry about your problems and how you hate your current position in life?

4. Do you just ignore all your worries/problems and live every day like you’ve got everything going perfectly for you?

5. Do you often encourage people going through various life challenges?

If your answer to questions 1–3 is Yes, then that means you fall into the category of those who feed their mind with negative thoughts. If your answer to questions 4 & 5 is Yes and 1–3 is No, then congratulations you fall into the category of those who feed their mind with positive thoughts. Now if you fall into the category of those who feed their mind with negative thoughts, you do not need to be sad- it’s not a death sentence.

It just means you’ve got work to do, you need to stop thinking about your fears and worries and start being thankful for the things you have, the things that are going right in your life and quit complaining about what’s not perfect in your life because no matter how smooth you think things are going in the life of that your colleague that always seem to get on your nerves, there are still some rough edges in that person’s life (nobody’s got it perfect). You can also feed your mind with good thoughts by encouraging others around you and being a blessing regardless of what you are going through (this makes you even stronger).

It is essential that you feed your mind with positive thoughts. If the mind of a naturally intelligent person is not fed with enough positive thoughts, such an individual could take a step that is totally unlike him or her and end up at the gate of regret. Now, what’s the relationship between the mind and the spirit? I believe that the spirit of a person is a powerhouse that defines who a person really is regardless of who or what that person portrays him/herself to be. The spirit, however, doesn’t impose as much authority on a person compared to the mind. The spirit lets the carrier know “hey, this is the right thing to do” or “hey, this is how you should go about…” but the ultimate decision to either listen and obey or disobey is left to that individual.

The mind, on the other hand, is noisy. It’s almost like a fellow who never shuts up and always has an opinion about everything. Sometimes, it cooks up things or ideas that aren’t true and may even communicate to you things that are far from actual reality. However, if you’ve been feeding it with a healthy, powerful and positive diet (emotionally, spiritually, etc.), the choices the mind will present to you will mostly be positive, which will, in turn, help you to make better decisions.