Spiritual Wellness
From the Heart

Expect improved physical and emotional health and a sense of being connected to life and to others.

Modern medicine tends to view the physical body in isolation. But this view is slowly changing. Doctors and scientists are realizing and proving that spiritual practices can have a profound impact on healing and our overall well-being.

People with spiritual or religious practices tend to heal much more quickly from surgery or other medical interventions. Doctors are more likely now to recommend patients to see mind-body specialists to learn to deal with stress and other emotional issues.

Doctors know that they can only help with the physical aspects of healing like medication or surgery but they don't have the time or knowledge to teach patients about spiritual wellness.

What happens inside of us greatly affects what manifests in our lives.

Spiritual practices give us daily time to affirm what is most important to us and to allow us to just BE in present moment awareness. This is where alot of our power to heal and be well lies.

Is Your Heart Occupied or Pre-Occupied

• It is the home of your Self.
• Is is the source of peace and harmony in your relationships.
• It holds the power for your purpose in life.
• It heals and renews itself.
• It is the source of wellness and energy.

If you can occupy your own heart then you are taking the biggest step you can into your own wellness, energy, and power. By occupy I am referring to various practices, meditations, and visualizations that you can use to center in the heart and be present with what is.

If your heart is preoccupied then you are caught up in the busyness of life and for many this leads to stress and health problems. And it is SO EASY to get caught up in being busy and forgetting who we are. This can lead to spiritual illness.

Stress is very bad for the heart and spirituality is very good for the heart. So where do we begin if we are searching for spiritual wellness?

Mind Full or Mindful

Part of the stress of daily life is that our minds are racing from one thing to another. Many of us cannot seem to slow it down without the help of drugs, sleep, or other self-destructive behavior which can at least distract us from our minds.

Exercise is definitely a good way to give the mind a break. And so is meditation or centering practice.

In meditation (or centering) we seek to be mindful of what is. We try to BE in present moment awareness, in our bodies, noticing our breath, our thoughts, and our feelings. With practice we can learn to be still in the body and this leads to clarity of mind and emotional stability or connectedness.

One of the problems many people have is feeling isolated or separate. This leads to all kinds of problems for us.

Feeling and being connected to others and to life is one of the very important things we can do for ourselves to enhance our wellness and well being. Modern medicine and science are becoming much more aware of this now which is good.

Support groups are an example of something a doctor might recommend to us to help with healing. This is a connection that can benefit us greatly.

A Heart's Perspective

Here are some wellness guidelines you can implement right away!

1. We can begin our spiritual wellness program by focusing on our physical heart. We do this by shifting our awareness to the heart area, maybe placing a hand over our heart to bring the attention there.

2. Breathe more slowly and deeply and rhythmically and imagine that it is your heart that is breathing. Feel the inhales and exhales going in and out of your heart.

3. Feel the appreciation that your heart has for giving it your breath and attention. The heart is grateful for all that is offered and gives all that it contains. It shares equally with all.

4. Now we begin to connect more with our emotional heart. Our emotional hearts are sensitive and have been wounded many times. We want to heal the emotions of our hearts so that we can be more available to life, being both expressive and receptive.

5. Spiritual practices or worship are celebrations of making the invisible, visible. It is about experiencing the unity of the physical, emotional and spiritual.

In heart meditation practices we experience that while our heart is within us, we are also within a Heart that holds us all. We are all connected through the One Heart.

Related Articles:

What is Spiritual Health

Spiritual Benefits of Meditation

What is Sufism

The Sufi Heart

Christian Meditation and the Prayer of the Heart

Return from Spiritual Wellness to How to Meditate Home

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