Purpose, Spirituality, & Relationship

Includes

• Mindset & Mental health
• Alignment with one’s vocation
• Spirituality
• Giving vs. Taking
• Being vs. Doing
• Developing creative abilities and talents
• Being a part of something bigger than oneself
• Connection to mystery and wonder
• Presence / patterns of stress
• Relationships
• Interpersonal relationships
• Relationship with self/body
• Relationship with nature/earth
• Relationship to homeplace & bioregion
• Thought Patterns - Conscious / Unconscious
• Emotions and Biological Urges

How it connects:

Our purpose and gifts intersect, inform, and relate to every foundation of health mentioned above. Likewise, our bodies constitute themselves around our purpose, our direction, and our actions in life.

We are informed by the experiences we encounter, while simultaneously shaping these very encounters and experiences. When we are aligned with our purpose, are connected spiritually, and are tending to meaningful relationships, there is a unique aliveness in our physical body that is palpable, like we are a string resonating deeply and in tune with all of life. Likewise, if we get in the way of our own unfolding, the body responds and communicates this to us. Some go as far as to say that if we abandon our purpose, and do not tend to our spiritual practice and relationships, this is a way of sabotaging our unfolding, and our physical body will reflect this spiritual malnourishment.

I employ the term 'relationship' here in the way Krishnamurti uses the term to evoke not just relationships among humans, but relationships with parts of yourself, the non-human world, your behaviors, and stress. This final foundation addresses our mind-body connection, bringing awareness to areas of psychological need and self-fulfillment that have potential impact on our physiological health. It encompasses more overtly psychological needs as well as spiritual and creative self-actualization. But they all connect and deeply inform our health and vitality. Cultivating self-awareness in the foundations of health mentioned above (nourishment, rest, and movement) will also help us to refine our self-reflection skills which we can learn to apply to our relationships, the ways we experience and handle stress and anxiety, and the ways our thought patterns influence our actions and behavior.

This self-awareness also helps us to tune into what herbalist Stephen Buhner refers to as ‘Heart Perception’, or perceiving the world through our emotional heart in tandem with our thinking mind to gain a more comprehensive feel for the world we navigate daily.

On a physiological level, how you think and feel has a direct impact on your overall health (and your overall health has a direct impact on how you think and feel). Paying attention to this foundation will help support your nervous and endocrine system health, improve your stress response, and foster resilience by increasing your resistance to illness and disease.