Many people now use smart devices to monitor their heart and respiratory rate, temperature, and sleep. But is there a better way to care for our health?

The Bible offers an approach to living that includes less body consciousness but no less care for our well-being, including the body. The New Testament shows that God’s will for us is dominion over the body, and we realize this dominion by turning away from the body to God, infinite Love, and by finding our identity as a unique spiritual expression of this Love and its qualities, such as joy, wisdom, and goodness. The concept that we are something beyond a physical body may seem abstract, but hundreds of thousands of people have experienced consistent health and vitality by understanding themselves in this way.

While many people hope that exhibiting certain indicators thought to be normal can reassure them that they are healthy, a higher hope can be found in the New Testament: “This then is the message which we have heard of [Christ Jesus], and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (I John 1:5). This starting point of God as infinite light and harmony, combined with the Bible’s description of our being created in God’s image and likeness, means that health is as integral to us as stripes are to a tiger. Thus, with relief and joy, not fear and stress, we find that we can be healthy by recognizing our spiritual nature and the divine law of harmony that holds us in health. This mental shift doesn’t ignore health problems, but instead moves us naturally to a model of well-being that’s based on the rock, Christ—the true idea of God—on God’s eternal, unchanging nature as the infinite, governing Principle, Love, and on our nature as God’s spiritual image.