5 Actionable Ways to Improve Your Spiritual Wellness
There are several different dimensions to health and wellness — physical wellness, mental wellness, emotional wellness, and spiritual wellness. In this blog post, let’s focus on the spiritual dimension of health — what it means and how you can achieve spiritual wellness for yourself.
What Does Spiritual Wellness Mean?
Spiritual wellness, also known as spirituality, involves finding your life’s meaning and purpose, and being connected to something greater than yourself in the world. Spiritual wellness is a self-reflective practice that focuses on bringing deeper meaning to your life. The actions you take to achieve your life’s purpose are guided by your:
- Personal beliefs
- Principles
- Values
- Morals
- Ethics
Of course, there are many factors that can squash your spiritual wellness and derail your health journey:
Stress: Stress is usually caused by unresolved issues of anger and fear, and can not only negatively impact your thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and body reactions, but also leave you feeling disconnected from your spirituality.
Anxiety: Anxiety can rob you of the ability to enjoy life and reflect on your life’s purpose by trapping you in a cycle of fear, sadness, hopelessness, and shame.
Over-working: Spending all your time and energy on work takes your focus off life’s deeper meaning. While the contributions you make at work are valuable, are you putting as much effort into making meaningful contributions to the world?
Neglecting self-care: Without a vision of your purpose in the world, you lose interest in caring for your body, mind, and spirit.
The Benefits of Improving Your Spiritual Health
Give yourself permission to make your spiritual wellness a priority in your life. The effort of self-reflection offers so many benefits:
- Enhanced spiritual growth and understanding: Many choose prayer, meditation, or religious study as part of their spiritual wellness. Expanding your horizons and opening your mind to new avenues of spiritual growth is an exciting way to jumpstart your spiritual journey.
- Greater peace and calm: When you strive for spiritual wellness, you seek calm to support self-reflection. The calmer you feel, the deeper your self-reflection, and the more peace you find. It’s a self-supporting cycle that not only drives spiritual growth, but the peace-of-mind also leads to reduced stress and anxiety and a greater sense of inner contentment.
- More meaningful life: When you reflect on your purpose in the world and what you can contribute to it, that spiritual growth adds a richness and depth to your day-to-day activities that you might not have felt before. The more you pursue meaning, the more passionately you feel about the life you lead.
- Connection to a larger community: Some people feed their spiritual life by attending religious services, or going to yoga, or being in nature. Once you’re connected with likeminded individuals, those new friendships can really inspire your spiritual journey. Enjoy the company!
- Improved physical health: We already mentioned that deeper spirituality comes with greater peace and calm, which helps you better manage stress and anxiety. Less stress and anxiety support better physical and mental health by reducing depression, lowering blood pressure, and a boosting the immune system, as well as improving mental clarity, concentration, and memory.
- Deeper relationships: Pursuing your passions to give back to the world opens you up to a newfound joy. When you share that joy with others, you just might deepen your close relationships, too.
5 Easy Ways to Improve Your Spiritual Health for Increased Clarity, Peace & Balance
Improving your overall health and wellness through spiritual practices doesn’t need to be difficult or time-consuming. True personal growth is all about finding spiritual activities that are meaningful to you. So, whether you join a church choir, volunteer at an after-school club, or take a yoga class, there are plenty of ways to energize your spiritual life that will bring you joy. Whatever feels authentic to you and sparks deeper self-reflection is sure to bring you increased clarity, peace, and balance. Here are five great ideas to help improve your spiritual health:
- Practice Mindfulness: Mindfulness means paying attention to the sensations, feelings, thoughts, and environment in the here-and-now with an attitude of acceptance (no judgment). To be mindful, SLOW DOWN. Be an impartial witness to your own experience. Be patient and remain open, curious, and kind to new learning in the moment. Trust yourself and your feelings. Don’t try to change anything in the moment. See things as they are and let go of thoughts and emotions that aren’t relevant to the moment. Don’t get caught up in worries about the future or regrets over the past. Mindfulness simply brings awareness and caring into everything you do, and by approaching each experience with warmth and kindness, you reduce stress, enhance performance, gain insight, and increase your attention to others’ well-being.
Scientific studies have shown that practicing mindfulness can be very beneficial:
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- Improves well-being: Being mindful makes it easy to savor the pleasures in life as they occur, helps you become fully engaged in activities, and creates a greater capacity to deal with adverse events.
- Improves physical health: Practicing mindfulness has been found to have quantifiable effects on your body. It can help relieve stress, lower blood pressure, reduce chronic pain, and improve sleep.
- Improves mental health: Some experts believe that mindfulness helps you accept your experiences — including painful emotions — rather than react to them with aversion and avoidance. By accepting your emotions without judgment, you will be less depressed and anxious.
- Volunteer & Donate to Causes That Matter to You: One of the most influential factors in spiritual health is knowing what matters to you. Personal beliefs give meaning to life. That’s why supporting philanthropic pursuits can help you feel more spiritually balanced. It gives you the opportunity to connect with life on a deeper level.
So, what are ways that you can give back to the world? The easiest option is to donate to a cause that matters to you. Whether you support environmental preservation efforts, animal rescue operations, or want to help those suffering from homelessness or food insecurity, there are an abundance of non-profit foundations that would be grateful for any monetary donation. But why not considering donating your time and talents as well? Volunteering or mentoring within your community can powerfully nourish your spiritual health. Consider the values that drive you, and how you exhibit them in your actions. Whether you think globally and act locally or pursue good works across the world, volunteering can help you just as much as it helps others. Volunteering counteracts the effects of stress, anxiety, and depression. It increases your self-confidence and feeds your need for social connection with others. Overall, volunteering is a fun and easy way to explore your interests and passions and is a wonderful opportunity to give back to the world.
- Connect With Your True Purpose: Quite frankly, life can feel meaningless when you’re not connected with your true purpose. The day goes by and you’re busy, but are you really contributing anything of value to the universe? And following that same line of reasoning, you can end up feeling lost if you’re trying to force a “purpose” on your life. The key is to uncover your passions and let them lead you to discover your true calling in life. Once you find it, pursue that calling relentlessly. It will provide you a lifelong sense of fulfillment. Not only will the pursuit of your true calling provide you a deeper sense of spiritual wellness, but it’s also associated with improved mental and physical health.
There are key differences between passion and purpose, although the combination of the two is what helps you lead a full life. Purpose is based on conviction, while passion is based on energy, feeling, and interest. Passion is about “what,” and purpose is about “why.”
So how do you organically discover your purpose in life?
- Start by reading. New ideas might just spark an undiscovered passion in you.
- Be a helper. If you see a wrong that needs to be righted or a person in distress, jump in.
- Listen to what others appreciate about you. Discover how you already give back.
- Find and build community. Discover a common sense of purpose with those you admire.
- Practice Gratitude Always: Gratitude is feeling and communicating appreciation for every aspect of life — people, circumstances, material possessions, and small things we take for granted. There are two key components of gratitude: First, it’s an affirmation that there are good things in the world, gifts and benefits that you have received. Second, its recognition that the source of the good is outside of yourself. True gratitude requires you to see how you’ve been supported and affirmed by others, and then encourages you to repay those gifts or pay them forward.
Cultivating gratitude makes you feel connected to something larger than yourself and can provide the emotional foundation for a sense of purpose. When you cultivate an attitude of gratitude and see how others make your world a better place, you are more motivated to give something back to the world yourself.
Overall, gratitude strengthens relationships, and strong relationships foster a sense of purpose and spiritual wellbeing. Research suggests that those who practice gratitude experience greater overall happiness. Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.
When you approach life with a more grateful and positive mindset, research shows that there are many proven physical and mental benefits:
- Increased dopamine/serotonin/oxytocin associated with feelings of happiness
- Improved mood
- Better sleep
- Improved focus
- Higher self-esteem
- Increased patience
- Improved physical recovery from illness and injury
- Reduced stress lowers blood pressure and levels of inflammation
- More likely to exercise and follow a healthy diet
- Incorporate a Daily 5-Minute Journal: Journaling is the intentional practice of documenting deeper self-reflection. Journaling acknowledges that we’re all human and that negative/counterproductive thoughts and feelings are bound to happen daily. Acknowledging those negative thoughts and feelings can help you figure out which ones you can and can’t control. In this way, journaling provides a release or solution for negative thoughts and feelings.
There are many key benefits to regular journaling:
- Gives you clarity on your life: Journaling puts your thoughts and emotions into concrete words instead of lingering ruminations.
- Helps to make sense of your experiences: Journaling aids in stress management and may offer insight into how to solve problems.
- Provides a sense of perspective: Journaling helps keep your thoughts and emotions healthily regulated and balanced.
- Leads you understand yourself: Journaling helps you to track your spiritual insights and fosters growth and development.
- Supports a belief in a greater purpose in life: Journaling helps pinpoint your strengths to make a difference in the world.
Is it better to journal in the morning or at night? Writing down your thoughts before bed can reduce your stress and help you fall asleep. Or journaling first thing in the morning about the previous day could start the new day off on the right foot. Either way, schedule it into your day and make it a priority. Try and write at the same time every day so that it becomes a habit that supports your spiritual health goals.
Take Your Spiritual Health to the Next Level for Complete Wellness
Spiritual wellness is a key part of living a balanced, healthy life. It means working to find your life’s purpose and achieve it guided by your beliefs, values, and principles. When you work to improve your spiritual wellness, you’ll reap deeper relationships, improved physical health, a more meaningful life, and greater peace. There are a wealth of actionable ideas that many have found increase their clarity, peace, and balance on the path to spiritual wellness including practicing mindfulness, volunteering, practicing gratitude, and journaling.
As a healing ministry, OHI devotes a tremendous amount of attention to the spiritual health and wellbeing of our guests. At OHI, every class, every meal, and every conversation is shared with intention and love, and it is out of that love that true spiritual growth can blossom.
Enhancing your spiritual health has a positive ripple effect on every aspect of your life. The more you nurture your spiritual well-being, the more happiness and good health will be yours. Here’s to embracing the spiritual dimension of health and discovering your life’s purpose — enjoy the journey!
Take action and prioritize your spiritual wellness — book your next visit to OHI today!
Start your holistic healing journey today. Call OHI at (800) 588-0809 to learn more about our holistic approach to health and wellness. It will change your life for good!