What is Spiritual Wellness?
What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the words spiritual wellness? For some of you, it may be your connection to your religious faith, for others, spiritual wellness may mean your set of values and personal moral construct. Regardless of how you conceptualize spiritual wellness, the beginning of any spiritual journey starts with understanding your own beliefs and the why behind them. So, take a moment and ask yourself - What is important to me and, why is it important to me?
The beginning of any spiritual journey starts with understanding your own beliefs and the way those beliefs are important to you.
Personal Reflection into Spiritual Wellness
You may be wondering how asking those questions will help you understand your spiritual journey? Well as we mentioned before, spirituality is unique to each person. Many elements work together in defining our personal understanding of spirituality. It’s important to do some inner self-reflection as it will enable you to find meaning to your world, your purpose, your life journey.
Spirituality is a lifelong practice of loving and belonging that brings about wholeness and connection within ourselves and our communities.
Spirituality is a lifelong practice of loving and belonging that brings about wholeness and connection within ourselves and our communities. Spirituality moves us to take action for and/or against what we are passionate about and what drives our inner belief system. Remember, you are the master of your own spirit.
To gain a deeper understanding of your spiritual wellness, continue asking yourself at different moments in your life the following questions:
What guides me to make a decision and take action?
What gives me hope?
Where does my faith come from? What do I believe in?
When things get hard, how do I overcome adversity?
What gives my life meaning and purpose?
What are my life treasures? What do I most value in life?
There is no one way of practicing spirituality. The route is up to you. You'll have to find what methods and tactics best for work for you for your personal spiritual journey.
Practice Spiritual Wellness
There is no one way of practicing spirituality. You’ll have to find what methods and tactics best for work for you for your personal spiritual journey. The route is up to you to choose, however, here are some ways to get you started.
Continue to explore your inner self-practice meditation to help you become more spiritually and mentally aware
Build awareness by journaling your thoughts, feelings and experiences
Serve your community by volunteering
Practice Positive Affirmations
Spend time in nature
Pay attention to your emotional needs and feelings
Develop strategies to help you deal with negative emotions
Engage in activities that can help you connect your body and mind (e.g. Yoga)
Seek out a local community of faith or place of worship
Most of all, remain curious
We’ll close this blog with a quote, that I hope will help you gain a bit more perspective into your own spirit.
“Spirituality is recognizing and celebrating that we all are inextricably connected to one another by a power greater than all of us and that our connection to that power and to one another is grounded in love and belonging.” - Brene Brown
We recently hosted a Spiritual Wellness event.
Take a look at the virtual meeting below to learn how you care take care of your soul.
This blog was written in collaboration with your Sheridan Student Union, Sheridan Wellness and Counselling Services, as well as Sheridan’s Library and Learning Services.
Have you read our other blogs on how to support your wellness?
We've created a free bucket list for you to download! Check it out here where you'll find tips and activities that you can mark off as you work on the different categories of wellness. Here's what we've included in your bucket list:
Financial Wellness
Environmental Wellness
Social Wellness
Occupational Wellness
Physical Wellness
Intellectual Wellness
Emotional Wellness
Spiritual Wellness
MORE WAYS TO SUPPORT YOUR WELLNESS
Running for a position on the SSU Board of Directors is a great way to get involved at Sheridan, enhance the well-being of your peers, and shape the #SheridanLife. Whether you’ve submitted a nominations package, or you’re deciding whether you’d like to, we wanted to put together a list of helpful tricks to support you through the process, and prioritize your overall wellness.