Our Further Maths Teacher once told us a story about two friends, who were born on the same day by different parents, they grew up doing everything together, attended the same school, got married on the same day and even formed a business together.
They were quite successful in their business and because of the level of their success and achievement thus far , one of the friends suggested that they visit a tale teller to reveal the future to them.
To their surprise the tale teller told them that the light skinned one will live for 3 more years while the dark skinned one will live for another 60 years, they refused the report, “What nonsense” , said the fair one. “We have to confirm this somewhere else”.
So off they went to the Prophet, the Imam and the native doctor all at different times but they were told the same thing.
What will you do if you were the light skinned guy who is expected to die in 3 years after all your investment in the business. Does it mean that only your friend will live to enjoy the benefits of your blood, sweat and tears? How will you take this?
And if you were the dark skinned guy what will you do, knowing that your friend can be more dangerous now that he knows that he’s got limited time and you will be the beneficiary of what you both worked for?
The story illustrates the relationship between the body and the soul. From birth, the body and soul starts to exist , they do everything togther, work hand in hand to ensure the individual is balanced.
However, in the end, the body is temporal, prone to wear and tear and eventually dies and the soul lives forever.
How then should the body handle its eventual demise knowing fully well that the soul will be the one to enjoy all they’ve achieved forever?
This is the exact situation we all find ourselves in everyday, we set goals , wrote down our plans and set out to achieve them expecting our body and mind to cooperate and work together to give us the desired result but sometimes it seems like the body just wants to take a break and will rather sleep instead of work and then procrastination sets in.
I have experienced this over and over again, when I critically evaluate what happens when I plan to work at a set time but end up sleeping off and I realize that my mind needs to be the one in control at all times because of the weakness of my body, Even apostle Paul expressed that same struggle when he said “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak “
This is the same thing the yogist, the Buddhist train themselves to attain ,the mind over the body state for therein comes stability. To achieve this state of synchrony one would then have to train the body to obey and trust the mind.
Although this is a gradual process but through exercise you are training your flesh to obey your mind,
So you set your mind at 10 push ups for example, and when you get to 5 the body starts to show signs of tiredness, but in persistence you can push your body to 10 push ups simply because your mind says it’s possible and not wear out as a result of doing this.
In this same way you can set goals and achieve them by training your mind to oversee your body in order to achieve Clarity of thoughts and focus on execution of the work at hand instead of giving in to distractions and physical activities that would not profit you.
The body achieves what the mind believes, so exercise your body and train your mind to be in charge for therein lies your strength.
