Consider your life for a moment. What are some of the things you discuss with the people in your life? They are simple, everyday issues that we don’t even think twice about. Here are just a few examples:
- (I) I saw a great documentary about…
- (P) Man, I need to get back into the gym.
- (F) Congrats on your raise!
- (P) I’m finally getting over this cold.
- (E) I have a new boyfriend!
- (E) I just broke up with my girlfriend.
- (F) My rich uncle left me some money.
- (F) My lights got turned off.
- (S) I have a nice book on meditation.
- (P) I road five miles on my bike yesterday.
- (I) I am taking a cooking class.
- (F) When do you start your new job?
- (S) I need a vacation.
- (E) My dad is doing much better.
- (F) I bought a new car.
- (P) How is your diet going?
- (S) Where do you go to pray?
- (E) I like your shoes.
- (I) Try this cool self-improvement book.
- (S) Have you checked your zodiac today?
- (P) I lost twenty pounds!
- (F) I lost twenty dollars!
I can go on and on (some of these examples may fall under several state categories). These are statements and questions that can lead to everyday conversations that take place all over the world every day. Throughout our daily lives, we talk about and are concerned with these things because they affect our lives directly.
We are constantly concerned with all our states, without consciously focusing on them. Some people put more emphasis on their physical states, while others on their spiritual. Some people are mostly interested in their financial state. Whatever the case, at some point, we are all concerned with every state of being to some degree. When life’s circumstances shift, our focus on certain states of being also shifts. For example, when we get sick, our physical state becomes our focus or when we have a big test, our intellectual state becomes our focus.
The concept of SPIFE is to acknowledge all our states as being equally important, all the time and to consciously evaluate our states. When we optimize them through exercises and practices, we become more balanced and complete.