Unlocking your spiritual qualities for Wholistic Wellbeing
Wholistic Wellbeing is a journey designed to show us who we are. It’s a journey of identity and self-revelation. There are many things we can do to scratch beneath the surface and uncover our true selves, but one of the most poignant conduits is to unlock our spiritual qualities. Spirituality is a vessel for enlightenment; an avenue towards Wholistic Wellbeing.
My own introduction to spirituality came early, as I was raised a Sikh. I remember sitting down with my mother, who was a gifted storyteller, learning about the main tenets of my religion: generosity, openness, truthfulness. I still remember her speaking about the three noble truths of Guru Nanak: Meditation (Nam Japna), Truthful Living (Kirt karna), and Sharing (Wand ke chheako). Sharing is particularly important. In fact, Sikhs are encouraged to give one-tenth of their disposable income to charity.
These teachings stuck with me. I began to wonder about how I could share them with others, whether non-believers or members of other religious communities. As a seeker of Wholistic Wellbeing, democratizing these teachings which have benefited me throughout my life is of utmost importance to me as I grow.
We need to recognize that we are spiritual beings. After reading About Spiritual Energy by Walter E. Broach, it became clear to me that spirituality is less about a belief in an abstract deity as it is about the mind-body connection. My vision of Wholistic Wellbeing is based on the interplay between different types of wellbeing, the mental and physical being two of them. The mind-body connection is so important to my philosophy because it acknowledges that we cannot view these tenets separately.
The mind-body connection means that if we express gratitude (something that improves our emotional wellbeing), it can also have an effect on our physical bodies. This is why I think that setting goals as a starting point for how to live our lives is misguided. Rather than asking ourselves “What do I want to achieve, and how will I meet these targets I set for myself?”, we ought to ask ourselves: “What can I do for my spiritual wellbeing?” From there, we will get in touch with the deeper parts of ourselves, reinvest our relationship with nature — our source — and obtain greater clarity on what those goals we set for ourselves should actually be, in line with our unlocked purpose.
This way, I believe that even the everyday obstacles we used to face no longer bother us. We learn to be calm in the face of adversity and find creative solutions through the communion between our mind, body, soul, and environment. As Albert Camus wrote:
In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger — something better, pushing right back.
What is that force? What is that “something” stronger within us? It is our spiritual and philosophical wellbeing.
For more Wholistic Wellbeing, let’s reclaim our Spiritual Wellbeing. Let’s unlock the qualities that we so often disregard and rekindle with the world beyond the physical.
