Indeed, we are not living in a happy era, and apparently, people are widely interested in understanding a concept called Spiritual Health.
A human being must be healthy in all ways to attain Happiness, to begin with. However, you’d find not many happy souls in this world. Why?
There’s not one reason for that, but you can say it happened because of the mental, physical, and spiritual imbalances in the world that affected the spirit as one, and hence, affected us all.
These things are not in balance and harmony because we hardly have time to stop and give it a thought, let alone correct it.
But, since you gave it a thought, we will surely help you proceed further in the work you have finally started for yourself.
If we explain spiritual health, we would say spiritual health encompasses a deep sense of connection with oneself, others, and something greater than oneself. It involves finding meaning and purpose in life, cultivating gratitude and forgiveness, and nurturing a sense of inner peace.
Well, all this gives you a definition of spiritual health, it doesn’t ensure your spiritual health and well-being.
But we will provide you with a few tips that are going to help you gain spiritual health which goes way deeper than the surface knowledge of yourself.
Are you ready to deep dive in?
Note: we wouldn’t say your God is wrong or our God is right because our God is one. It doesn’t matter who is right or wrong, what matters is, that we know we have a God and it is our common God. The stupid religious fights end there.
Spiritual Health has nothing to do with religious aspects of your religion, but every religion is only prepared to guide human beings to live in harmony with each other and work towards themselves in a way to achieve ‘Moksha’ or ‘Liberation’ eventually which is the final goal for all humans.
Hence, we will consider one of the Hindu Gods, who is the supreme God of us all as per Hindu scriptures, but the point is not whether he is the only God or not, but, in the scriptures, as much as we learned, we can share that knowledge to help ‘you’ gain spiritual insight, which will further only help you in reaching your goals, materialistic or spiritual.
We will share a few tips that will help you achieve happiness and a fulfilled life. These things do guarantee an ‘Improvement’ in your situation in a very harmonious way. But the guarantee comes with your implementation, otherwise, nothing will work.
The God we will be referring to is ‘Shiv’.
Shiv has many forms, but we will be referring to his most popular character which is ‘Mahadev’, or ‘Shankar’ who is the husband and better half of Goddess Parvati.
Shiv always remains calm, happy, loving, giving and yet magical, and the most powerful of all. If you follow his footsteps, you might reach such a state yourself.
Actions in regards to the ‘Self’
1. Art:
Art is never separated from Shiv. He is a great dancer. His dance is called ‘Tandav’ and most often, he performs it whenever he is happy or angry. He even sings melodies. This clearly explains that one of the factors for good spiritual health is staying in touch with your artistic soul. Art is a gift to each soul, it is not about the skill as skill comes with practice, but skill is only a NEED for those who want to earn a living from it or who really want to go deep into that. But, if none of these two reasons excite you, you still have a NEED of art. Practicing any form of art brings out your inner creative soul on the surface and you can perform and do well in your life. Art such as-
- Dance
- Singing
- Painting
- Literature
- Theater
- Sculpture
- And many more things that come out of your soul.
2. Meditation:
Meditation is another way to attain good spiritual health. Mahadev did it all the time.
Meditation, if done right, can keep you closer to your soul. Meditation is about peace. Especially today, peace is something everyone is desperately looking for. If you go within, and sit with yourself for some time, doing nothing, can help you achieve the calmness inside you.
There are various techniques out there for meditation, if it is hard for you to focus in the beginning, you can refer to the guided meditations on YouTube. But, sooner or later, to receive the maximum benefits from meditation practice, you MUST practice sitting idly, without acting, thinking, doing, listening, hearing, imagining, etc.
One of the great meditation techniques is that you have to sit alone for some time, cross-legged, close your eyes, and only concentrate on your breathing. Well, it doesn’t end here. So many videos out there tell you to do the same, but there’s more.
When we say focus on breathing, it doesn’t mean you have to focus on your nose and stomach, it means that you have to also focus on the entire journey of your breath. Focus not only when you inhale or exhale, but also, see where is it passing from, like, your throat, chest, waist, and then stomach, and then back to the nose. Keep a check on your breathing at every second and every step. Within a few minutes, you will feel like floating in the air.
Try this method if you can.
3. Love:
Well, this is very easy to do but not in 2023.
We are living in an era where we are guided by our anger and expectations more than our true nature which is love.
But Lord Shiv loved like no one.
We won’t make it hard for you by asking you to keep spreading love, but you can at least be kinder than you are right now.
Love in you wasn’t lost in a day, so it might not come back in a day as well. Hence, all you have to do is not be jealous or hating towards other people around you. If they hurt you, you can distance yourself as much as you can but do not fill your heart with hatred.
Be loving, at least for your mind and heart. If there is no love inside you, you can never be happy, and spiritual health will stay at bay.
So, if you walk up the path of Mahadev, which is love, you will certainly receive happiness and abundance in your life and ultimately you will be spiritually healthy and wise.
Actions in regards to the Community
1. Your words matter:
Think before you speak:
If you have ever watched Mahadev, you will see how he spoke nothing that he would ever regret. It is because he never hurried in replying. He always listened to people properly and then, responded instead of reacting. But do we really do that? How can we imagine good spiritual health by speaking anything and everything that doesn’t need to come out of our mouths? Words hold energy and the more dirty and unnecessary you keep them, the dirtier your physical and mental environment gets. So hold, think, and then speak.
Speak only as much as required:
You don’t have to speak too much. Speak only what you need to speak.A lot of times, out of the feelings of fear, validation, pride, etc. we speak a lot more than necessary. Especially in today’s time, an average person speaks at least 10 times more than necessary. Do not do that. If you think before you speak, you will know how much you have to speak to express. Save your energy for the more meaningful tasks that might even bring you happiness and joy.
Speak truth:
You might laugh at it, but the reason for your bad spiritual health is probably that you lie a lot. Not just to people, but to yourself too. Stop giving yourself reasons to justify your wrongdoings, if there are any. Also, try to avoid lying to people as much as possible.
A lie is fine but too many lies do harm to your soul. Lying becomes your character and you go far away from your spirit. If you are not near to your spirit, how you can ever feel spiritually healthy?
2. Balance of Isolation and Community:
We are so full of expectations that it has become harder for us to live in a community. Community and the people are the core reasons we feel for our unstable spiritual health.
Well, that is not the case. The culprit is not the community, but the expectations it holds from each other.
It’s not only the people around us who expect from us, but we also aren’t too great at hearing NOs. It further leads to
- Too much of Community
- Too much of Isolation
We either get too close or too far away all the time. But if we maintain a balance and stay in the middle, like Mahadev used to, we can always be at peace and will be healthy spiritually.
Humans are like Porcupines. Too close or too far, both will hurt. So,
- You don’t have to be present at all the events.
- You don’t have to keep saying yes or keep saying no.
- You are NOT RESPONSIBLE to please others, not even your family.
- You don’t have to change yourself to become acceptable and get validated.
Learn to love yourself, look at yourself in the mirror, and notice what you see. You are no less than any other human being, so why do you need to act like other humans? You are you for a reason. So, without regret, be you, an authentic version of you. Keep improving yourself, and learn lessons, but you don’t have to behave like others.
Accept yourself, and therefore, you will be accepted.
Mahadev never bothered about people speaking ill about him. He gave power to the time, and time does its work.
Hence,
- Do not be always surrounded by people, even just one individual for that matter.
- Do not leave the community and isolate yourself.
3. Do not take things personally:
You must always remember that nothing is targeted at you. People behave according to their mental, physical, and spiritual health which like you is affected by the surroundings. Their inner core is only love but what they can not afford for themselves, they can’t afford for anyone else for that matter.So do not take their words personally and let go, let go of what people say to you. Most of the disturbances in the world today are because of taking things personally.
If you want to judge a person whether is really targeting you or not, you notice whether his/her behavior is similar to many others or not. If it is, then you’re only reacting because of your childhood traumas and not because of what they said to you. They are the same with everyone, or may be, many more like you.
Taking things personally slows down your success, distracts you from your path, and stops you from reaching your goals. Do not go that street. Mahadev stays happy in his skin, doesn’t bother who speaks what, he meets everyone, yet never makes anyone his master.
Spiritual health needs to be prioritized in today’s time. We are already separated from our core, it will be too difficult to survive in this world if you can not work on your spirit and its health.
Be mentally, physically, and spiritually healthy, to maintain a well-being like Mahadev’s. And, who can stop you from reaching your destiny then?
To reach a state like Mahadev’s would be an achievement no one can imagine, but what’s ironic is that only these simple traits that he has always shown us have the power to take us to a state exactly like his.
If you’re ready to work on your spiritual health, you must also read this article ‘Signs Of An Anxiety Attack – Recognize & Wipe Them Out’, it will help you understand your anxieties and how to get rid of them.
We know these anxieties you feel are real and you must get rid of them, if you want to rise in life, mentally, physically, financially, or spiritually.
Have a happy journey into your spirit!
