Listen to “Behavioural Change as a Spiritual Practice”.
The world’s greatest traditions of wisdom suggest that some of the biggest aspects of spirituality lie in the sense of connection and inner strength, comfort, love and peace that individuals derive from their relationship with self, nature, others and the transcendent mystery called life.
The concept of a body-mind-spirit connection is already changing medical practice, medical education, and research. The holistic approach upholds that all aspects of the individual, including psychological, physical and social, are part of spirituality and health.
Health and healing are linked to faith, hope, forgiveness, flexibility, everyday actions, mind and stress management. Here are some of the behaviours we can change in order to gain a deeper sense of spirituality.
Stress
Reducing stress requires a willingness to appreciate nature and see what others are too busy to see – the peaceful way that nature changes and grows all around us.
Flexibility
The ability to adapt to changing situations and allowing one’s own beliefs and habits to change as needed can help you cope with life more easily and effectively. As our world changes at an ever-rapid pace, we need to find ways to adapt and change ourselves with it.
Self-love and self-respect.
If you don’t respect yourself, then you won’t take care of yourself in the ways you should. Love yourself enough to look after yourself properly. You can start doing this today through:
- Clean eating – You are what you eat. Eating healthy and nutritious food will help your mind and body stay healthy. Eating junk food won’t.
- Meditation – Spending even just a few minutes a day meditating can help improve your life. It can give you a sense of calm, inner peace, and balance that can benefit both your emotional wellbeing and your overall health.
- Appreciating yourself – Do things that make you feel good about yourself and think about the things you have that you are grateful for. Cultivate healthy emotions like love, compassion, joy, gratitude and equanimity.
- Exercise – Find time to exercise regularly. Exercise makes you smarter, happier, improves sleep, increases libido, and makes you feel better about your body.
Respect life around you
Learn to show respect for the environment and nature. The world is a gigantic living organism, which we humans are a big part of. We are all interconnected. Other people’s personal privacy, their physical space, different viewpoints, philosophies, religion, gender, lifestyle, ethnic origin, physical ability, beliefs and personality all can and should be treated with acceptance and respect.
Our attitude about the world defines how our life unfolds. Make a choice today towards wholeness, hope, inner-strength, meaning, peace, health, love and connection.
