True Change

It’s said that this lifetime is a mere spec on the continuum of eternity.  Compared to our time in the pre-mortal world and the infinity of time to come after, it is such a small moment, it’s hard to believe that it’s so important.  One of the reasons we have this mortal experience is to get a body, and yet we spend a very limited amount of time in the body before we die and are once again a disembodied spirit.  Why is that?  Why do we obtain a physical body and then have to give it up so quickly and be without again for a time before we have it forever?  It’s as though this life is just a test run. 

We get a body and learn what it’s like to have one, and most of us go a little crazy in one way or another.  Eating, drinking, drugs, sex, exercise, extreme sport, tattoos, piercings, bodybuilding, body sculpting, cosmetic surgery are all things that we get caught up in as we experience life in a physical body for the first time.  We tend to lose our way as the physical becomes our reality.  It seems to be the part that is truly living and experiencing and being affected.  Many lose sight completely of the spirit and either worship or abuse their body with extreme behaviors of one type or another. 

Most of us struggle with how to live happily in our bodies.  We do things for pleasure that end up causing pain.  We are unhappy with the way we look or feel.  Others influence how we see ourselves.  At first our bodies are tiny, and we don’t know how to do anything.  They grow and change, and either we learn to control our physical urges, or they control us.   We learn to do what we want in the body.  We experience the power and ability as well as the desires and passions.  Some of us try to overcome the negative drives, while others just wallow in the base nature of those drives.  But just when we get to where we have the ability and power and knowledge to do well in our bodies, they start to deteriorate.  They are harmed by disease, misuse, neglect, injury or just aging.  We lose control.  We stop using the body to some extent and may become trapped inside a physical case that does nothing but cause us pain.  Finally, it can contain us no more because it can’t live any longer.  What’s that all about?  It’s not only a test run but a taste of what we will have for eternity that is then taken away.

 What is the purpose then of living without the body, after having one, before we are resurrected?  After much pondering, I believe it is so we can learn spiritually to appreciate the physical feelings and abilities, learn to understand and correctly use and control the body.  Many of us are incapable of doing that while in the body because we refuse to put in the time and effort required.  Before we get a perfected, glorified, eternal body, we have to be in control of all physical urges.  For many of us, the only way to teach us how to have the spirit dominate the physical is to remove the body but not the physical urges.

Elder Melvin J. Ballard said that overcoming physical addiction or weakness is easier in the body than without it.  If we do not do it in this life, we will be compelled to overcome our physical weaknesses after we die, which seems to indicate they are not physical weaknesses at all.  We are no longer physical in nature, and yet President Kimball said we will not be resurrected until we have overcome all weaknesses.  So they are actually spiritual weaknesses that are connected to the body or manifest in the body in a physical way.  So everything is spiritual. 

It stands to reason that if we can overcome a physical weakness when we do not have a body, then we can overcome the weakness while in the body by using our spiritual strengths.  How does that look?  Well, when we try to change some aspect of our behavior, such as eating, if we are using willpower, logic and reasoning, we are using our brain, which is the thinking part of our physical body.  So instead of changing the way we eat by using willpower and trying to change the way we think about food, we want to use our spiritual abilities.  

The spirit is our conscience.  It is what tells us what is right and wrong.  It is what connects us to Heavenly Father through the Holy Ghost.   To have the power of the spirit, we have to be getting the right input through scripture study and prayer.  We have to avoid input that separates us from the Spirit.  We need to increase our desire to make righteous choices.  

This is where the neuropsychology model of thoughts, feelings, behaviors and reality come into play.  Our thoughts will be more in line with the Spirit if we are hearing, seeing, reading, and talking about uplifting things and avoiding sinful, degrading and negative input.  Those things will change our feelings.  We will feel peace, happiness, joy, contentment, tranquility, compassion, hope, and love, and we will believe that anything is possible.  Doubts, fears, anger, frustration, disappointment, sadness, depression and hopelessness will disappear.  Because of the change in the way we feel, we will begin to act differently.  In fact, we begin to act as though the change we are seeking has already happened, because we feel as if it has.  And acting that way just gives rise to new thoughts that bring even better feelings that continue to reinforce the changed behavior until we become a new person.  We have become who we want to be.  This is how we change spiritually.  This is how we can make permanent change.  We have to continue to follow this pattern with the reinforcing thoughts and feelings until the old ways of acting are no longer what come  naturally.