Blog Topic: Spiritual Wellness

Let’s talk a little bit about spiritual wellness.

When I first heard that term, I thought that it was directly linked to what your religious practices are. After all, here we are talking about spiritual wellness in December, the month rife with obvious public displays of religious celebrations coupled with debates on the political correctness of “Happy Holidays” in a Christonormative society. However, spiritual wellness is not how often you go to church, pray, or worship according to your faith’s tenets. Rather, it is a more abstract concept than that. Spiritual wellness involves the values and beliefs that guide how you live your life. Spiritualism is the search for meaning and purpose, and many people find this through religion. But maybe you find purpose elsewhere: maybe you find purpose in helping other people; maybe what drives you is curiosity; perhaps you are led by the need to discover the perfect pizza. Being spiritually well means striving for balance between personal needs and the needs of the rest of the world, it means awareness of your actions and thoughts, it means a constant searching for purpose.

Our last event focused on mindfulness journaling. Although there are many strategies for this, one thing you can do is train-of-thought journaling in which you write out the first thing that comes into your mind. Take a deep breath. What does spiritual wellness mean to you? Here are some guiding questions:

How do I stay true to myself?

How do I treat others who believe something different from me?

What gets me out of bed in the morning?

Why am I studying my particular major?

What three values are most important to me and why?

How can I improve my spiritual wellness?

With just a few more days of finals left, a nice break now stretches out ahead of you. This semester has been stressful, and I hope that you use this time off to reset and recuperate before jumping back in next year. Happy Holidays, and we can’t wait to see you soon!

-The Wellness Ambassadors