Spirituality is a broad concept with room for many perspectives.
Everyone starts their journey from their own unique place and circumstance. Our life can be quite different from others, but spirituality is a universal human experience - something that touches us all.
Like your sense of purpose, your personal definition of spirituality may change throughout your life, adapting to your own experiences and relationships.
Spiritual Wellness is the ability to find harmony between who you are, what you value, and what you want to accomplish.
As a starting point, cultivating spirituality is similar to improving emotional well-being. Emotions and spirituality are distinct but linked, deeply integrated with one another. Emotional and spiritual well-being influence one another and overlap, as do all aspects of well-being.
Spirituality could be seen as seeking a meaningful connection with something bigger than yourself, which can result in positive emotions, such as peace, contentment, gratitude, and acceptance.
Emotional health is a practice of cultivating a positive state of mind, which can broaden your outlook to recognize and incorporate a connection to something larger than yourself.
So how do we make time for Spiritual Wellness in a fast-paced modern world?
Modern-day living has created many stressors. We jump from one task to the next, often reactively. We have a busy week ahead, balancing time between work and managing the household, attending to weekly chores, a list of ongoing projects to complete, a growing to do list and so we are constantly chasing down time.
On top of that we are navigating a fast paced, digitally driven world and experiencing digital distraction.
Excess activity of the sympathetic nervous system - fight or flight mode, wears down the parasympathetic nervous system - our rest and digest mode and state of calm and counterbalance, which allows us to relax and repair.
Life can be challenging, and it is easy to see how we can become distracted from carving out time for Spiritual Wellness pursuits.
Achieving a higher quality of life or improving your circumstances to achieve more harmony, can seem like a difficult feat.
It is not always easy to change the things you want to change or modify habits that no longer serve you. We don’t know where to start or how to keep ourselves motivated. But one thing we can all do is to simply hit the brakes and take some time for self-reflection, because a key step to building our Spiritual Wellness, and purpose, is self-evaluation.
Making time for self-evaluation is a great way to build self-awareness and improve your Spiritual Wellness.
During self-reflection, often the questions we need to ask ourselves will naturally arise and by creating space and time to ponder, reflect, and slowly listen, the answers will also surface.
Examples of questions you could ask yourself are:
- How much power do daily circumstances have over me?
- Do my values guide my decisions and actions?
- What is my inspiration?
- What difference do I want to make?
- Do I make time for relaxation in my day?
- Do I need to have more *self-compassion?
*There is now adequate research that shows a positive correlation between mental wellbeing and self-compassion so to practice self-compassion, monitor your inner dialogue or self-talk.
Now focus on which Spiritual Wellness habits and activities that best serve you and schedule time in your diary.
- Some may choose faith and worship
- Meditation can become a way to still the mind and find insight
- Practicing yoga or relaxation techniques or attending a retreat
- Building awareness through positive journaling, focusing your attention on the positive aspects in your life and help to train your thoughts into a better feeling place
- Social contributions, serving your community and volunteering
- Appreciating music and the arts
- Spending time in nature, outdoor pursuits, walking, hiking, running, cycling, swimming
- Finding a like-minded group with common interests like dancing or singing
- Practicing self-affirmations that promote health and wellbeing
Whatever your choice of Spiritual Wellness activity, as you increasingly flex your spiritual muscle, you will feel an increased sense of accomplishment which comes from having clarity of why you are doing what you are doing. You can also lean on your intrinsic motivation, which will be there to help you carry on, even when things get tough or your path forward not yet clear.
Your personal satisfaction blossoms as you make a decision to live life to your design and to support your forward journey.
You are the only one standing in your way and deciding to spend quality time nurturing your spirit is akin to Nutrition for the Soul, it will help support you functionally on your journey forward.
This blog was written by Helen McHugh (KF Assoc.), Functional Kinesiology Practitioner.
Helen’s natural healthcare clinic offers a contemporary, all-natural approach to balanced health and optimal wellbeing.
She is based at the Practice Rooms in Leeds City centre. www.helenmchugh.co.uk
What is Kinesiology?
Ultimately, Kinesiology lets you get information from you. Our bodies are doing their best to communicate with us, that twinge of pain, the pang of indigestion, the headache, the backache, the general feeling out of sorts, the anxiety, the stress, or depression. Symptoms we yearn to address but may not understand the root of the issue.
Kinesiology is not a new therapy, it was originally developed by Dr George Goodheart DC., a second-generation chiropractor, in the early 1960's. He discovered the relationship between Chinese meridians (used by practitioners of Chinese medicine including acupuncturists) and muscle groups, organs, and glands in the body.
What is Functional Kinesiology?
It’s a complete form of natural healthcare working with cutting edge nutritional science and the triangle of hormonal health, which uses the theory of muscle testing to read our bio-energetic feedback system, revealing where health issues and imbalances originate from whether physical, nutritional, or emotional.
At Helen’s clinic, she has a range of treatments to support: Digestion, Blood Sugars and Diet, Endocrine System, Stress and Adrenals, Hormones and Menopause, Immune system, and Emotional Transformation. She will guide you through a range of gentle yet powerful techniques to seek out the priority issue to deal with and the most effective treatment for that issue, whether physical, nutritional, or emotional.
