Spiritual Wellness

Spiritual wellness ties closely to a sense of purpose. It touches a large part of how you live, and it circles around some basic questions: where you come from, who you are, why you're here, and where you're headed. When negative thoughts and feelings pile up, they can drain that part of you and leave you unhappy and stuck. A number of studies have found that people with religious or spiritual involvement tend to report better mental, emotional, and physical health.

So what actually feeds your spirit? The answer isn't the same for everyone. Some people find comfort and understanding in the teachings of their faith. Others feel most themselves outdoors, around animals, on a long walk through the woods, in contact with living things. And plenty of people locate their sense of meaning in service: volunteering, contributing something to their community, helping other people in concrete ways.

What matters is keeping the mind, the body, and the spirit in some kind of balance. That balance looks different from one person to the next. One person might feel satisfied building wealth and living comfortably. Another can't feel settled unless they're working to improve the environment or making life a little easier for someone else. Neither is wrong.

If you want to strengthen this side of yourself, start by carving out time each day that belongs only to you. Spend it on something that genuinely means something to you. Figure out what you're passionate about, whether that's prayer, sitting in meditation, or some activity you just enjoy, and do it.

Treat spiritual experiences as powerful things, even the ones that arrive without warning. Stay open to them. Try not to judge. Practice compassion, understanding, and forgiveness toward other people and toward yourself. Skip the blaming, the complaining, the gossip, the excuses. Let the experiences come, the good ones and the painful ones alike.

Sorrow and pain aren't glitches in a life; they're part of it. When something hard happens, look for whatever there is to learn or hold onto in it. Pouring your energy into the negative leaves you worse off than if you'd gone looking for the positive. Open yourself to things you can't fully explain. Meditate. Pray if that's yours. You didn't show up on this planet to worry and complain your way through it.

There are plenty of small practices that help you keep this up over time. A few that work:

Build a relationship with yourself, since you're the only one who really knows how. Keep a journal. Write short stories, poems, or just whatever you're feeling. Talk to yourself kindly. Take a personality quiz if it helps you understand your own wiring.

Pray, if you have something or someone you worship, including right before you fall asleep.

Read. Pick up new subjects, stretch your mind, keep learning things.

Meditate on some regular basis. The hour doesn't matter: before bed, first thing in the morning, the moment you walk in from work or school.

Breathe deeply. Once a day, shut off the TV, the computer, the music, and take slow breaths. It pulls you back toward your own thoughts and feelings.

Pay attention to your gut. That inner voice tends to point you toward the right call. Rather than doing something you'll regret, go with your instinct.

Laugh. Sing out loud. You'd be surprised how much such plain things lift how you feel about yourself and your life.

Take nothing for granted. Walk through nature as though you'd never seen it before. Try doing ordinary things blindfolded sometimes: playing with your pet, talking with someone, listening to the TV. It has a way of reminding you how good you've actually got it.

Think about other people, and do something for someone every single day. Donate to a cause, hand out a compliment, help a person carry a load. You end up feeling good, and so does whoever you helped.

Feed yourself uplifting material. Watch a movie that leaves you lighter. Read something that inspires you.

None of this delivers enlightenment overnight. It asks for discipline, and you'll have days where it slips. But the work tends to repay itself in peace, love, joy, and a steadier sense that your life is going somewhere worth going.

- Erin F.