All alternative medicine is based on the
idea that a person is more than a body; we are also mental/emotional
and spiritual beings. To be healthy, all three must be healthy. It
is believed that disease starts on the emotional and spiritual
levels before it becomes manifest in the body. How you think and
feel about life and all your belief systems have a tremendous impact
on your health and any healing process you are a part of. So does
your spiritual life.
To heal a disease, mental or physical, or to just enjoy good health,
the spiritual part of us must also be healthy. Indeed, you can’t
feel good about yourself when your spirituality is unhealthy or
non-existent. To have high self-esteem a good measure of
spirituality is necessary — a connection to something greater, a
feeling that you are not here by accident but came with a place to
fill and a path to walk. Depression is believed to be a product of
low self-esteem and lack of a spiritual connection and purpose. If
illness didn’t begin in the spiritual arena, it can soon impact the
spiritual, especially when the illness is severe or believed to be
incurable. Disease is often a wake up call for people and what they
wake up to is the spiritual aspects of their lives.
There is much confusion about what it means to be spiritually
healthy. Many people connect spirituality with being religious. The
two can be two very separate things, however. Many people are quite
spiritual yet have little to do with organized religion.
Spirituality is a sensing or knowing that we come from something
much greater than we are, along with a reverence for that something.
It is living with integrity and a sense of immortality. Many people
find this in the awe of nature. Scientists sense that there is
Higher Intelligence, a quantum field, so great that it created and
runs this Universe, so great that we cannot comprehend it. We can
only study it and record its natural laws. Yet, all spirituality is
based on the idea that this isn’t all there is; that there are other
worlds, and other places beyond this physical universe.
Religion is the study of tribes whose traditions come from
spiritually inspired individuals. These tribal spiritual leaders
tried to explain or interpret what the Supreme Intelligence meant to
them and how they thought we could live in harmony with it. Early
religion was the foundation of tribal law and spiritual ritual. The
tribe concluded that God is good and pleased by goodness. From
there, what is believed to be good or bad is converted into a code
of conduct for that tribe, and many tribes developed religions —
paths to the top of the mountain. Pleasing the Deity is the way to
ensure control of the tribe and bring about a more harmonious way of
life. From here, conscience was encouraged to develop and guilt was
born. It was understood that we all have innate goodness within us
that would give us inner promptings when we weren’t being good.
But our spirituality is evolving out of the tribal arena and into
the global. It is now more about a global code of ethics. Through
the eyes of the media, the world looks like it is on the brink of
survival. Spiritual propaganda predicts the end of the world.
Science threatens us with global warming and pollution problems. All
are coming to understand that world peace can only evolve when we
live and let live. This means we stop killing to prove a point, that
we look toward making sure we are all fed, housed and have adequate
health care. Collective spirituality stimulates all of us to look at
our behavior and question our values for the good of the whole, for
the survival of humanity, which is a higher purpose. Spirituality is
probably more important to people now than it has ever been in our
history.
From our evolving spirituality, we see people living their own
religion based on these collective codes of conduct more than the
tribal. Some take pieces of different religions and combine them or
leave the churches they were raised in to explore other religions.
Millions of people are meditating for health benefits, even if they
don’t have a personal relationship with the Deity. With the advent
of the Internet, people are exposed to a variety of religious
opinions that perpetuates this evolving spirituality.
If we are conscious of our inner life, we discover an inner need for
something greater than we are (whether we seek it or not) and an
innate need for peace and goodness. People with high self-esteem
have greater health. People with high self-esteem also have what I
call Spiritual self-esteem. Spiritual self-esteem develops
when we trust Life and surrender to its process. It is learning to
trust that Life knows what is best for us and has a purpose for each
of us. This comes when we choose to live from this place in spite of
constant pressure to identify with the world and the continuous
voice of fear that comes from in. Self-esteem arrives with the
certainty that we did not create ourself and that we are a part of a
bigger picture, that our life means something.
To have self-esteem, you have to believe you matter. When you
believe you matter then you know that what you do matters and that
the world matters, in spite of its major dysfunction and
differences. When you matter then your body matters and you take
better care of it so you stay well. The more you believe you matter,
the higher your self-esteem goes.
When people believe in and answer to a Higher Power, the less
importance they put on outer authorities. They don’t follow blindly;
they check with an inner and Higher Authority and walk their own
path. They have spiritual values they try to live up to and, in the
process, become better people with more self-satisfaction.
This is what personal growth is all about! The personal growth
industry is growing rapidly right along with the
alternative/holistic health movement. As we become better people we
create a healthier and better world for all of us to live in.
Jackie Kosednar is a
hypnotherapist, energy medicine practitioner, human design analyst,
and the publisher of Alaska Wellness Magazine. She also teaches
workshops on Human Design. Contact: 272-2469 or
jackie@alaskawellness.com
