View Full Version : A House with Four Rooms
“There is an Indian proverb or axiom that says that everyone is a house with four rooms, a physical, a mental, an emotional and a spiritual. Most of us tend to live in one room most of the time but, unless we go into every room every day, even if only to keep it aired, we are not a complete person.”
--Rumer Godden
I read this a few days ago and it has stayed with me.
In which room do you spend most of your time? For me, it's mental, though I wish it were physical. I like the idea of walking through the different rooms daily to air them out, like a breeze on a summer day.
https://artisanslist.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/clothesline_main-680x510-680x510.jpg
I like the imagery of that concept. When I think about it, I believe that I am becoming more spiritual, less emotional, as physical and mostly mental. I think that we change as we go through life and its peaks and valleys.
iris lilies
1-12-20, 8:15pm
What would a spiritual room visit look like? geila I love that picture.If I think about lilies in my next year’s garden, is that spiritual? I would call that more emotional. But I don’t know.
On New Year’s Day I was trying to download a couple novels by rumor Godden that I wanted to reread, but my library system’s digital collection did not have the two I wanted to read.
A spiritual room would be filled with light and joy where to take shadows that get obliterated when examined with the light. That is a profound thought to consider.
A spiritual room would be filled with light and joy where to take shadows that get obliterated when examined with the light. That is a profound thought to consider.
Yes. Great question, IL
Also, maybe a spiritual room can be that inner place you go to when you meditate/pray/find inner silence, or when you experience in your soul the sacredness of life, or when you are experiencing that "sixth sense" of being an interconnected part of everything--not just the material world we know but also the Mystery beyond what we know--whether that's God, Higher Power, the Divine, the Universe, or the Unnameable One.
I love that spiritual room, but I do spend most of my time in the mental room.
It needs to be more spiritual but I would say physical for me. With my job processing crime scene evidence, I have learned to block out emotions and I am not really a deep thinker.
Mental, though I hit all the rooms.
rosarugosa
1-13-20, 5:39am
To me, the mental and spiritual rooms are the same. I have one of those open floor plans that are currently so popular, haha. I spend more time in the mental space, but it is better balanced with time in the physical space since I left work.
happystuff
1-13-20, 8:05am
I like the imagery of that concept. When I think about it, I believe that I am becoming more spiritual, less emotional, as physical and mostly mental. I think that we change as we go through life and its peaks and valleys.
I agree with this. My main room changes with time, situations, etc. Right now... I think I am going between the mental and emotional rooms, trying to make more time/effort to get into the spiritual.
Sad Eyed Lady
1-13-20, 9:29am
I would say I spend more time in my mental room also, but certainly at least go through the other rooms at some point during the day. The most dusty, unaired one would by my emotional room and I am sad about that, not by choice do I just barely stand in the door. Something blocks my way from going further.
Thank you Gella for posting this. I love the concept and I believe it will help to think of my life this way and do some work in all these rooms.
Mental. Some days I feel like I've just set up residence in here and locked the door. :(
catherine
1-13-20, 11:49am
Mental. Some days I feel like I've just set up residence in here and locked the door. :(
haha.. I hear ya!!
My spiritual room is anytime I go outdoors and observe/experience nature.
Glad to see I'm not the only mental one. :)
rosarugosa - I wish I had the open plan too!
It's interesting to think of what each room would look like for each of us. I find that being physical often leads to spiritual. It's usually when I'm engaged in something relaxing and repetitive (swimming laps, pulling weeds) that my mind relaxes enough to allow something else to come through. In those moments, I'm given little gifts of insight and clarity that are completely from something deeper than myself, or rather, something deeper within myself. I am befuddled (!) as to why I don't seek those experiences more often.
Anyway, I read the quote in Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy by Sarah Ban Breathnach, a book on daily meditations. I've had it for a long time, at least 18 years, and it's interesting to see that what I find insightful has changed quite a bit over that time. That's a good thing. Like razz said, we change over time. Hopefully we evolve and mature with age. I'm not good at doing the daily thing, usually I just crack the book open when the mood strikes and see what speaks to me at that moment. But for you guys, I actually opened up the book to today's date and this is today's meditation. There's a lot more words on the page of course, but you get the gist of it from this, I think:
January 13
Gratitude - Awakening the Heart
"The eyes of my eyes are opened."
--E.E. Cummings
"My soul whispered that what I really yearned for was not financial security but financial serenity. I was still - quiet enough to listen. At that moment I acknowledged the deep longing in my heart. What I hungered for was an inner peace that the world could not take away." Sarah Ban Breathnach
iris lilies
1-13-20, 1:52pm
Oh yes, I like the zen mind of weed pulling.
We have bermuda grass in sunbaked rock "soil". Buried under 1" decorative rock. It's about as zen as wrestling an elephant.
Another one of my gateways to spirituality (in addition to nature):
Awww... so cute!
iris lilies
1-13-20, 8:23pm
We have bermuda grass in sunbaked rock "soil". Buried under 1" decorative rock. It's about as zen as wrestling an elephant.
Yes, absolutely. The weeds have to come out of the ground in order for it to be a useful zen exercise.
I would be zen-spraying that stuff with Roundup, but I am ethically challenged that way. :0!:0!
iris lilies
1-13-20, 8:24pm
Another one of my gateways to spirituality (in addition to nature):
Sleeping cuteness is life affirming.
Yes, absolutely. The weeds have to come out of the ground in order for it to be a useful zen exercise.
I would be zen-spraying that stuff with Roundup, but I am ethically challenged that way. :0!:0! Frankly, as a confirmed Earth Mama ... I'd be spraying it with Roundup too, except that it's intertwined with really nice cacti I'd prefer not to kill. So if "zen" means poking the rock-ground with a weeding fork for hours until I'm down two feet and still being gentle to the cactus roots, yes, so Zen! >8)
Sleeping cuteness is life affirming.
I agree.
Another one of my gateways to spirituality (in addition to nature): OOOH ... I have heard that cat breeding is not at all profitable and a royal pain in the butt and I am still soooo tempted toconsider it, just to have baby animals that close at hand.
Teacher Terry
1-13-20, 10:07pm
Plenty of kittens at the local shelters.
Plenty of kittens at the local shelters.My thing is I have four furbabies I already love (plus three chickens I'm somewhat less infatuated with). I could possibly foster a kitten, but any more animals is really just a fantasy.
Totally off topic, I'm sorry ... could you volunteer at a shelter, knowing the animal you cuddled or took for a walk was slated for the gas chamber? I have friends who said hey, we gave that dog maybe the greatest day of his little life and that's as much as we can give. I would be devastated.
Teacher Terry
1-13-20, 11:44pm
That’s how at one point I ended up with too many dogs. Our vet bills were huge and not sustainable once we retired and wanted to travel. We sacrificed until they passed. Now we only have 2. I get it.
So ok, maybe "emotional", too, lol. The pragmatic stoic turns out to be a mush when it comes to shelter animals. I remember going to the shelter to get a kitten. There was an old guy there called Jack, with a red tag on his cage. Tomorrow. I spoke his name and he just stared at me with what felt like the saddest, most wretched species of hope. All was lost, he had been abandoned to die of loneliness, but ... I said his name, I knew him, surely I was going to save him. The pain of knowing I could have saved him, but I wasn't going to ... I cried all week. In fact it's been eight years and I just shed a tear for the long departed Jack as i wrote this. Maybe I have a few more rooms in my heart than I know.
Teacher Terry
1-14-20, 11:41am
I actually volunteered at our humane society but it’s no kill.
The furbabies have been wearing sweaters. So cute. And I realized why I never make it to the physical room. Too busy watching the furbabies sleep and play. Who has time to clean bathrooms when you have a ball of fluff sleeping on your chest? :)
And if we're playing fetch and I have the hard job of tossing the ball while laying on the couch, does that count as physical exercise? >8)
I decided that doing my taxes on the back porch counts as exercise, since I'm outside. So yes, that raising and lowering of the wrist and elbow definitely counts as exercise as long as there isn't a chocolate on the end of it. :~)
Awesome! I hold the chocolate in my other hand. :D
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.2.5 Copyright © 2025 vBulletin Solutions Inc. All rights reserved.