Spiritual Wellness

Spiritual Wellness is about finding a place in the universe – the quest for meaning, value, and purpose resulting in hope, joy, courage, and gratitude. Spiritual Wellness is the evaluation of personal beliefs.

What is spiritual wellness?

Spiritual wellness refers to integrating our beliefs and values with our actions. A sense of purpose, direction, and awareness are important. Realizing what values, rights, and responsibilities take some thought and discussion. The first step in developing values and spiritual wellness is to examine your own values: respect, honesty, human life, family, education, religion, health, wealth, community service, diversity. Discuss values with others, spend time and act in a manner congruent with your values and the values of the community/society.

It is the ability to find peace and balance in our lives in which our values and ethics match our actions. Spiritual Wellness involves self-evaluation of personal beliefs. It is learning to trust your intuition and gain strength and energy from your surroundings.

People with high spiritual well-being have a sense of their own place in the universe and a feeling of connection to something larger than themselves. They are able to find meaning in life and to keep life in perspective. They pursue wisdom and maintain a regular spiritual practice, whether formal or informal, religious or non-religious.

The Importance of Spiritual Wellness

Humans consist of body, mind, and soul. When one area of your life is out of balance the other areas are affected. Many people place a heavy emphasis on their physical or emotional health but neglect the soul.

Spiritual wellness involves possessing a set of guiding beliefs, principles, or values that help give direction to one’s life. Deriving meaning and purpose through nature, art, music, religion, meditation, performing good deeds for others, making choices with integrity, and transcending ourselves to create a common bond with humanity are characteristics of individuals with highly developed Spiritual Wellness.

The word ‘spirit’ can mean many things, depending on one’s metaphysical outlook on life. Spirit is a special state of mind or depth and quality of human experience.

How can spirituality and wellness be related?

The spiritual dimension in one’s life is a very personal matter, and there will always be a great deal of variety among individuals. One’s spiritual life may consist of total involvement in a particular religion; it may be partially religious and partly secular (or natural); it may be a combination of religions and philosophies; it may be purely philosophical, or it could be very intuitive and individually creative.

The 13-Cs’ of spiritual wellness:

1. Comprehensibility
   Developing the ability to have your own ‘big picture’ of the universe; a fairly complete understanding of ultimate reality, and a sense of meaning in life.
2. Consciousness
   Your moment-to-moment state of awareness. Your ability to see clearly what is happening both outside and inside of you, without emotional or rational distractions.
3. Coherence
   How well integrated the eight dimensions are within you and your lifestyle. They are each well developed and in harmony with one another. Coherence also refers to you spiritual integrity, or how consistent your behaviors are with your values.
4. Confusion
   Curiously, the prefix con in this case can mean either ‘with’ or ‘against’. We often must become confused before we understand and many things in life can lack coherence at times, especially suffering, evil, and death. By working your way through each confusion, you gain understanding and strength of soul.
5. Commitment
   Eventually you understand enough in life that you are able to ‘take a stand’ for certain ideals. You can then be happily dedicated to some cause or life purpose. Full commitment also means living each moment with whole mind, body, and spirit (i.e. living in the here and now).
6. Conscience
   An intuitive wisdom; also a sense of right or healthy action versus wrong or unhealthy action, without being judgmental of self or others.
7. Control
   With adequate understanding and moral sense, you gradually learn what you can control, what you cannot and what is worth trying to control – namely, your mentally – based addictions and all actions which only serve to separate or harm people.
8. Choice
   Realizing the freedom of your will and developing its independence from strong negative influences. You always have a choice to act or react in any manner. Always be open to your alternatives and use choice responsibly.
9. Challenge
   Life’s changes are best approached as challenges, which help you, grow, rather than as problems which burdens you. It’s also a challenge to see the positive in and to enjoy anyone and anything that comes your way.
10. Confidence
    A healthy self-esteem based on self-efficacy (the feeling that you have the ability to do things and also cope with stress). This is a good, but humble, sense of self.
11. Connectedness
    The sense that you are deeply connected with the world and its beings especially people. It is a felling of unity with others at all times, because we are all much more the same than different.
12. Compassion
    Inwardly developing and outwardly expressing unconditional love for all people and beings. The joyful ability to see others’ thoughts and feel unconditional love for all, feel their feelings, without becoming too emotionally attached to them (i.e. without making their problems your problems).
13. Cooperation
    The gradual ability to harmonize your thoughts and actions with others, while developing inner peace. Also, your ability to adapt to life, to be flexible, and flow with its ever-changing events.