Exploring Our "Spirit"

What do we mean when we talk about “spirit”?

At the Ontario Hypnosis Centre much of our work helping clients achieve balance in their life ensures they give enough attention to mind, body and spirit; three pieces of the puzzle that complete the picture of who we are as an individual. Mind and body are for the most part self-explanatory, but what exactly is this thing we refer to as “spirit”?

This question almost always receives a response linking the idea of spirit to some form of religious or spiritual ideology or perspective. Usually a belief in the divine and related concepts such as angels, guides, or ascended masters – depending of course on what your belief system is based. Our work empowers our clients to use their own resources to achieve the changes they desire, as such we do acknowledge that it can involve the perspectives mentioned above. However, at the same time our work involving the “spirit” does not have to involve these notions at all. Spirit can just be that intangible aspect of you that makes you “you”!

If we were to ask ourselves who we are, what makes you “you” and me “me”? What would we come up with? Besides the obvious differences based on race, gender and other physiological differences what would we have? We can explore what makes us unique until we arrive at the notion that our DNA is unique and this is what makes us unique. However, even with this highly individualistic component, there is surely more to the idea of “me” than my DNA. What about identical twins who share the same DNA makeup but are very different people?

There is also the question of whether or not we are the same person that we were ten years ago. We would have had an innumerable amount of experiences that have changed our perception and interaction with the world, so much so that we could see ourselves as completely different from just ten years ago. Yet we think of ourselves as the same person.

We all agree that if something changes, it’s not the same, yet for human beings we accept this contradiction without question. It’s a philosophical conundrum that has been with us for thousands of years, but recently philosophers have begun to work with the notion of “spirit” as being the essence of self. The piece of you that is the core of who you are; the constant in the sea of changes you experience. As such, it’s important to get to know this part of yourself better. Understanding your spirit provides the unchanging foundation that can keep you grounded and able to deal with whatever the ever changing world around you throws your way.