“I think, therefore I am.”

These five words are central to the works of Renaissance-era French philosopher Rene Descartes. One of his works,"Meditations", attempts to identify how we come to acquire knowledge and our place in the universe. Descartes effectively takes all the works of his predecessors and makes it clear in order to understand the world; we must first know that we, ourselves, are real. Why else would be placed on this earth if we weren’t real or if we didn’t exist? Connecting with Christian doctrine, we exist for a purpose known only to God.

We, as humans, are walking vessels of goodness and of light. Our lives are made up of three components -- body, mind and soul. All three must be in balance with one another in order to live a healthy, meaningful life. Our light that radiates from within us sometimes shines brightly and for others, the light flickers dimly within our chests. It is tasked to us to maintain our temple and to preserve our light so that it can be a beacon for others that are floundering in the torrents of chaos or despair.

As rational animals, we think. For some of us, we think a lot. But what happens when we think thoughts that are corrosive? When we begin to think corrosive thoughts such as, “I’m not good enough” or “I don’t matter,” we begin to deny the gifts that we were given and our temple crumbles.

Thoughts are powerful things, and sometimes we are our own worst enemies when it comes to us doubting who we are. Other external forces, such as family and relationship issues, sometimes add to the weight of doubt that overcomes us in both our minds and our hearts. When there seems to be no hope, we neglect ourselves spiritually and physically.

There are many ways of finding ourselves after losing sight of who we are; but after some time, I realized one thing:

We are at our best when we are happy with ourselves; spiritually -- emotionally and physically.

When we have reached rock bottom, you can’t find happiness by giving happiness to others. Time must be spent on finding yourself and finding who you once were or what you liked about your “former self.” Even with that being said, I don’t believe in the idea of our “former self.” We are always adapting to our lives. We can always improve ourselves.

I urge those reading this piece to meditate and think hard of the man or woman they see in the mirror or how they think and treat others. We can always make a change in our lives because our light is strong enough to cast away all the shadows that life may throw at us. We are blessed and we are real; therefore, we must take care of ourselves.