Discovering Spiritual Wellness

Spiritual health is the ultimate goal to achieve total wellness, and leads to a heightened awareness of the Divine Spirit referred to, but seldom fostered by religions. It doesn’t matter how you achieve Spiritual health. What matters is that you come to know and attune yourself to spiritual guidance in all areas of your daily life. Doing so reduces fear, anxiety, worrying and provides a greater capacity for loving oneself and others unconditionally. Spirituality helps you reconnect to your special talents and gifts so that you can fulfill your life’s purpose.

An intimate emotional connection to one’s spouse, partner, family, friends, and community provides the greatest opportunity for spiritual growth and for learning how to receive and impart unconditional love.

The four most important practices to achieve spiritual health are: Prayer, Meditation, Gratitude, Spending time in nature, including near fire and water.

Prayer: Harvard researcher and mind/body medicine expert Herbert Benson, M.D., author of The Relaxation Response, has found that regular prayer or the repetition of spiritual phrases—“Shalom," "Hail Mary,” “Amen” triggers relaxation and reduces stress.

Prayer is the most common spiritual practice. Some engage in personal conversations with God, stating their need/concern and asking for divine intervention. Others find acknowledging all one is grateful for and giving thanks for what one desires highly effective. Giving thanks for what one desires is more effective than asking for what one desires, because God knows what is needed before one needs it—therefore giving thanks acknowledges what one hasn’t experienced yet, thus drawing it toward oneself. Others walk silently in nature as prayerfulness.

Meditation: Meditation has been scientifically researched and proven to have physiological benefits. Besides its physical benefits, which include stress-relief, improved immune and cardiovascular function, relaxation, and decreased pain, the regular practice of meditation can lead to new insights about life issues (often healing past emotional trauma), heightened creativity, inspiration, greater compassion for others, and a greater connection to one's own inner guidance.

Meditation can be done while sitting, lying, walking or jogging. Some people include singing, chanting a word or phrase that has spiritual significance. Meditation has one commonality—conscious breathing and focusing on what is transpiring in each moment, until the mind becomes empty of thoughts, judgments, and past/future concerns.

Gratitude: Dr. Robert Anderson describes gratitude as the Great Attitude. "Gratitude produces feelings of joy and self-acceptance, and is an attitude that anyone can choose, just as we can choose to see the glass half full or half empty. Being grateful for what you have, instead of worrying about what you lack, enables you to let go of negative thoughts and attitudes more easily.”

One method of cultivating feelings of gratitude is keeping a gratitude journal. Another technique is closing your eyes before bed, and recognizing everything you experienced—give thanks for them. Every experience is an opportunity to learn. "By making gratitude a regular part of your daily experience, you set the stage for living connected to spirit. In the process, your life will be transformed into an increasingly joyous adventure," Dr. Anderson stated.

Spend time in nature: The most visible manifestation of spirit is nature, where one fully encounters and interacts with life's primal energies—earth, water, fire, and air.

Walking barefoot in the back yard, gardening, walking in a park, hiking, biking in the country, camping and boating are excellent ways of reconnecting with nature. Spending regular time in nature enables one to understand the rhythms of life, including ones own. Staying connected with nature wherever you live is important.

Spend time near/in water: Water's higher concentration of negative ions contributes to feelings of well-being. Being in the ocean, lakes, rivers, or soaking in a mineral hot springs is a great way to benefit from nature’s life-enhancing energy.

Exposure to fire: A campfire or a fireplace has health benefits. Leonard Orr discovered fire cleanses the bio-energy field of negative energies, and can be a powerful aid in curing physical disease. Native Americans connect with the Great Spirit and discover their life purpose through sweat lodges heated by wood fires.

Of all nature's elements, the closest expression of Spirit is the air. Clean, fresh air is essential to health on all levels, and practicing conscious breathing is a potent self-care method for restoring energy and creating awareness of the power of Spirit as it flows through you.

Regular exposure to these four elements helps you become more conscious how Spirit's loving intelligence sustains the world, while more deeply recognizing your place within it.

Copyright (c) 2007 Stephen Lau

Confucius, the great philosopher of ancient China, attained great influence on Chinese civilization through his famous teachings. Confucianism affected virtually all aspects of Chinese philosophy, including health and longevity.

Confucius, a politician and scholar, lived from 552 to 479 B.C. His impact on healthy longevity consists of practical advice for application in everyday life.

Confucianism advice on everyday healthy longevity includes his exemplary daily living, such as the following:

He did not eat rice, meat, or fish that was spoiled (not fresh) and badly cooked (medium rare); he ate meat in proportion to the amount of rice consumed; he used ginger to spice his food; he drank wine but only moderately; he dressed for comfort and convenience; and he slept, curling up his body, using his bent arm as a pillow (keeping his spine in alignment).

Confucianism advocates mental health in the form of peace and harmony. Confucius was against strong emotions of anger, joy or sorrow, and pleasure - the stirrings of these human feelings do not keep the mind in a state of equilibrium.

Confucianism is expressed in two basic concepts of healthy longevity living: "chung" and "yung."

"Chung" is "equilibrium" or "being without inclination to either side." Confucius did not refrain from the pleasures of life, such as eating and sex. However, he sought to achieve balance between extremes, and to avoid excess. His way of life was based on "the golden mean" concept of equilibrium.

"Yung" is "persistence" or "continuing without change." Confucius said, "The path may not be left for an instant. If it could be left, it would not be the path. Therefore, the superior person does not wait until he sees things to be cautious, nor till he hears things to be apprehensive." In other words, your pursuit of good health should be persistent. Your health practices, whether they involve exercise, diet, or meditation, should become your regular habits of healthy longevity living. You do not wait until you are sick to begin these intense efforts for healthy longevity. Prevention is always better than cure. You cannot reap their beneficial effects on a particular occasion or after a short period of practice.

Confucianism was subsequently expanded by Meng Tzu (Mencius), second only to Confucius as a Confucian sage.

Mencius went beyond Confucius in being concerned not only with the physical aspects of healthy longevity, but also with the spiritual. To Mencius, spiritual health is as important as physical well-being. Mencius said, "To preserve one's mind and to nourish one's spirit is the way to serve nature (heaven). When a man realizes that there is no real difference between a short lifespan and a long one, and does not worry, but wait, cultivating his own personal character, for whatever may come to pass - this is the way he carries out his fate-ordained being."

Mencius also said, "The human will is the leader (commander) of the 'qi' (internal vital energy). The 'qi' pervades the body and moves it. The will is of primary importance; the 'qi' is secondary. Therefore, maintain a firm will and do no harm to your 'qi.' When the will is concentrated, it moves the 'qi'; when the 'qi' is concentrated, it moves the will."

By nourishing the spirit as well as the body, Mencius lived to a ripe old age.

In Chinese medicine, 'qi' signifies vital energy that embraces correct breathing, good blood circulation, and mind consciousness through meditation.

In summary, Confucianism emphasized balance and harmony achieved through the concepts of "chung" and "yung" in everyday living with focus on spiritual well-being. These health practices can be applicable in contemporary living to attain healthy longevity.

You can earn quite a steady passive income stream from wellness products. The best way to do this is to join an affiliate program on the Internet. You will want to be sure that the program is legitimate and will help you with referrals.

The first thing to decide is what type of wellness products that you would like to sell. There are many available such as nutritional supplements, fitness equipment accessories, wellness books, wellness DVDs, wellness videos, skin care products, and many, many more. Determine what you think that you would most likely want to sell. This will help to narrow down your choices of affiliation groups to join.

Create a business blog that you can use to help to market your new products and to meet other people. A business blog is a terrific way to get referrals for your affiliation link and create an even strong passive income stream.

When you join an affiliation program for free, they will typically give you a free website to sell wellness products from. Each time a sell is made, you will receive a small amount of money. This enables you to generate a steady passive income stream. These sites do well during the Holiday periods when people are purchasing gift items.

Another way to generate a passive income stream from these affiliate programs is with referrals. Every time someone signs up for free under your referral or affiliate link, you will earn a little bit of money. Then each time that person sells something from the free website that the company gave to them, you will receive a small percentage of it. The next thing you know, you are receiving a steady little flow of passive income from wellness products.

Another way to earn passive streams of income from wellness products is to get set up with a wholesale distributor. You can then sell the products to friends, family members, neighbors and even co-workers. You will make a small percentage of money off of each sell. Some people get set up with a wholesale distributor and market their wellness products on Internet auction sites. This is a great part time passive income. Find wholesale companies that will give you free shipping so that you do not spend all your profit shipping to your auction customers. Additionally, choose an auction site that lets you post auctions for free or for a very small fee.

If the Internet auction sites do well, you can even open up a wellness product store through them. You do not have to limit yourself to just one auction site. Set up accounts with several and put up auctions weekly to generate more sales and increase your steady stream of passive income.

As you can see, there are many different ways to generate a nice steady passive stream of income from wellness products. You are not limited to strictly wellness product affiliations even though they are a terrific place to start. You can try out the other options mentioned in this article as well.

I have talked to many people over the years, from the most traditional and dogmatic of religious seekers to the most out there on the spiritual plane. They all see spirituality as the way to inner peace as their traditions help them to transcend the ordinary and connect to higher consciousness. Growing in spirituality helps to expand our sense of purpose and transcend our ordinary lives, consequently questioning and integrating beliefs and values with actions. During this process we develop a tolerance of opposites and contradictions that exist within our world and belief systems. The same can be said true of a spiritual relationship.

Within our individual spiritual development, as we become more, a feeling of comfort exists within us as our place in the universe and a connection to something larger than us unfolds. We are happier, more peaceful, and realize full spiritual wellness. Individual happiness includes an expanded sense of Self as it relates to our core beliefs and how we and our beliefs fit in a bigger picture. The more global we get, the larger our scope, the more we need to integrate it all to make sense of it.

Meditation is useful to access our higher consciousness and inner Self. This place within us has incredible power, clarity and peace. Centering meditation allows our mind to open and fill with awareness and observation. While guided meditation moves spirit along by enhancing inner imagery to create expansion of perspective, just like opening up the windows or doors of a house, instead we're opening up our mind and the windows of our lives. We are allowing the expanded vista that enables healing and change.

Once we know who we are today and where we are going, we can then connect better to those around us. Whether we are in long term relationships or newly together, it makes sense that we share our understanding of that inner self as we know it. A highly satisfying partnership begins or is enhanced by integrating spirituality into the relationship, creating a deep spiritual foundation for further growth as a couple. When two people in a relationship both believe in the greatness and importance of spirit, their lives become more unified, moving easily and effortlessly towards each milestone on their path.

When relationships are based on traditional religions, it seems more obvious how belief systems might play out. However, when there isn’t clear-cut dogma to draw on or the relationship has transcended the dogma, reevaluation might be the next step. A couple that hasn’t agreed upon a particular spiritual path or doesn’t reflect a cohesive belief system can feel disconnected. Clarifying one’s spiritual foundation can be the beginning of a whole new level of relatedness, bringing a close relationship closer, inspiring new depth and freshness into living. All aspects of lives are enhanced as we become more of who we are individually and together. How does one approach such an awesome undertaking? How do we connect the dots between two individual inner lives? The path is obvious on one level and mysterious on another, stay with me as we follow this intimate path from both perspectives...

Women’s needs have been examined from different viewpoints over the years, but the essential elements most wanted of a relationship remain the same. What is most consistently affirmed is our need for communication and intimacy. Communication is intimate when it targets, in a nonjudgmental way, both information and feelings. Sometimes our communications get into trouble when discussions leave one or the other out or we blend feelings, behaviors, and information targeting the other person. Clear and clean communication is the first step to enhancing spirituality, because the likelihood of finding deep spiritual connection when feelings are festering under the relationship is difficult at best.

As for intimacy, we sometimes confuse it with nurturing, but intimacy is not nurturing. Intimacy is an activity between equals, a reciprocal sharing of feeling and thought. While nurturing is a ‘caretaking’ activity that may feel warm and fuzzy, and may have its place, it also can be controlling. While these are two very distinct activities, many women discuss these activities together, as if the two were combined and enmeshed into a single exercise. How we define the exercise may be very different. Webster defines intimacy as “to put into, announce or declare…” that is, to put our masks aside, just be ourselves with another person, and this builds relationship.

What is intimacy for you…historical continuity, shared feelings, or something else? We could discuss relationships composed of different gender mixes, but let’s look at traditional relationships. When we pin a traditional man down for definition, he is likely to say that sex is his most intimate activity, and communication and feelings are at the low end of the spectrum.

Actually, connecting words with feeling and emotion can be difficult and frightening for anyone these days. But for men, this fear begins with being brought up to think he must always be in control, the rational man, the archetype of John Wayne personified. He may feel that the verbal exchanges tinged with emotion seem like conflict, exposing vulnerability that he is not ready to share. Men find conflict easier in the Board Room or on the athletic field, then in relationship.

Women on the other hand, need more of what comes before intimacy and communication. Their needs vary over time, but all include affection (eye contact, touching, warmth, etc.), and open, honest conversations. This sets the stage to create the intimate connections that we are all looking. Communication occurs over time through an open and honest sharing of thoughts and ideas regarding things that play out in our every day lives. Without these discussions, we never get to know the real us. These warm and revealing conversations are the cornerstones of relationship. This is what is meant by connecting with women “between the ears.” Men would do well to heed the message, because this is the best way to prepare and set the stage for romance.

So there you have it, within the traditional relationship, he needs control and she needs connection. Here lies the first major stumbling block towards shared needs. An awareness of these differences is the first step towards spiritual equilibrium within relationship. Each offering of self to the other is a gift of trust, and a step towards authenticity as we learn more about who we are individually and together. As we progress towards this balance, we move back and forth, swaying to and fro, negotiating a rhythm between our need for connectedness and our need for autonomy.

Each of us has a different understanding of the beat that must be maintained in order to keep this dance alive. We sometimes think we know and many times we guess, mostly we negotiate without really communicating clearly how we feel. How much is negotiable to enable the dance to continue? Within this dance we have the opportunity to move our relationship from ordinary to spiritual illumination, into a dance of light energy.

Revealing core Self is all about communicating, and within the realm of communication, we see that balance more clearly. During this time we are either involved or self contained. Our needs are conflicted between participation and independence, to be connected and to be separate simultaneously. This is a way of thinking about each other that must come full circle for an interdependent partnership to unfold. We must serve both needs at once in all we say and do. Because of this double bind, communication will never be perfect. We have no choice but to keep trying to balance independence and involvement, continually making adjustments as we list from one side to another.

Making adjustments is clearly an essential component to deep spiritual communication and communion. As a result, it helps to first understand that men and women communicate very differently. Paraphrasing Deborah Tannen, Ph.D., most men talk to convey information and have a greater need for independence and power. Women, on the other hand, typically talk to be connected with others and to share feelings. We have a greater need to be involved with others; therefore, we are more interested in negotiating to resolution. Unfortunately, it also makes us appear unsure of ourselves, fueling the fires of powerlessness.

Because women have a greater need to be involved, they tend to be more knowledgeable about their feelings as well as the psychology and culture of men. Some women seem to possess a Ph.D. when it comes to emotions and what men want. While men typically do not know how they feel--they know how they think, but not how they feel. So, they end up feeling uncomfortable when asked to participate with women who may be more experienced in the arena of emotions. This is no surprise, since men are not socially rewarded for their efforts to know about their feelings or contribute to the development of better relationships. They are content to view us as one of those mysterious phenomenon’s of life, the feminine mystique, and we allow the mystery to persist.

There are many paradoxical feelings in our spiritual connections to others and all of these allow us to learn about ourselves. Everyday we look into the eyes of our partner and see a reflection of self. That reflection grooms us and helps us grow in our spiritual development. Interestingly enough, keeping spirit balanced and our relationship integrated helps us personally to evolve our sense of self. A surprising and little known fact is that women can be frightened of intimacy too, especially in today’s life styles. It is difficult to take off that mask and be who we really are with others, sharing that inner life that perhaps we are just getting to know.

While meditation is the obvious choice for individuals who want to know their own inner life; it is much more powerful done together. Combining both communication and meditation helps us to prepare each other for a spiritual depth of renewal that is an amazing shared journey inward, leading us to know the other in an extraordinarily different way. Our higher consciousness connects intuitively to allow a perspective of life that we may not be aware of on a conscious level. As we suspend judgment we are empowered to unite and play out this mystery of life as we bridge the gap of the unknown.

The real challenge for those in partnership is getting to know and remain true to us, while letting the other into our world. We are the perfect Self that we can be at this time in our development. Celebrate the essence of that Self by allowing all that we are full acknowledgment. When we accept and are accepted without judgment, we grow to the next level in our development. We allow the differences to melt away, while we connect to the similarities, linking to each other through common ground.

This shifting in and out of self knowledge can be likened to the struggle of the caterpillar growing and being nourished within its cocoon. We assimilate enough understanding to know what enhances development and what needs to stay dormant to keep our social systems in place. Much like the butterfly, we have the possibility to emerge as the radiant being of energy and light that we are at our core, illuminating the way to others in a swirling dance of light. We are then one with the Universe and each other.