Mind, Body, AND Soul-What Is Spiritual Health And Why It Matters!

As a retail pharmacist, one of the most interesting articles I have ever read talked about the importance of making sure that customers are taking their mental health meds properly and on time.

The truth is that most health care professionals miss the significance of this. 

Unfortunately, many doctors and pharmacists believe that mental health is secondary to physical health.

Why?

There is a variety of reasons, mostly centering around denial of their own circumstances, but the long and the short of it is that this is why there are so many unhealthy health care professionals. roaming the halls of our medical facilities.

What the aforementioned article points out is that if you don't take care of the patient's depression, they don't care about the vital signs or their blood sugar.

Essentially, they live in a hole.

People with severe anxiety are usually borderline suicidal, so they don't concern themselves with healthy eating or taking their "maintenance meds" on time.

They just want the anxiety to go away.

To them, nothing else matters.

This is why spiritual health is the key determinant in physical health.

When I was younger, I was stressed, burnt out, and severely fatigued. 

I never slowed down enough to practice things like sleep, self-care, and relaxation techniques.

I was content to hit life like a battering ram and consequently, at some point, life hit back, and I was not equipped to handle it.

And then I learned something that changed my life.

I call it The Zen Way (Zenovations).

I was stumbling around my house late one night, stressed about my finances, my responsibilities, and my relationships.

I felt as though I had lost control of my life.

Truth was, I never HAD control of my life.

I thought I had to be right all the time, take full responsibility for everything going on around me, and that I could force life to do what I wanted.

I wasn't USING the force, I was trying TO BE the force.

I was attached to the idea of the life I thought I "was supposed to have" and anything that threatened that attachment brought about a violent internal reaction that threatened my very existence.

Fortunately, I simply just broke down, and gave up.

I gave up trying to control everything and focused on quieting my angry mind.

I found that everything I thought to be true about human existence is a construct; it was completely made up.

Nothing has any meaning except the meaning we give it.

Suddenly, I realized that all of the stress I felt was coming from within me.

It was not what was happening to me that caused my breakdown.

It was the way I reacted to it.

As a community pharmacist, I have come to understand that life happens to nearly everyone, and nearly everyone struggles with quieting their internal dialogue.

The "monkey mind" as the Buddhists call it can really make a helluva lot of noise and can levelly impair our ability to function.

Unless, we learn how to find our spiritual place in the world.

For a long time I thought that spiritual health had something to do with religion.

The truth is that spiritual health is nearly the polar opposite of religion.

Spiritual health is the development of the habit of finding ourselves within ourselves.

Spiritual health seeks to quiet the mind to make room for calm, rational thinking about who we are in the world, in our relationships, and in our careers.

Spiritual health tells us that we ARE worthy and that we should take care of our physical health because our life matters.

Today, when I sit quietly with a tea near the water fountain, look into my wife's eyes, or go for a gentle walk in the woods, I find that I am worthy.

My life matters, as does yours.

Make the decision to let go of all that is keeping you from experiencing your inner value and take time to listen to the quieting of your mind.

I started Zenovations to help you do just that.

I want the best for you, and I believe in you and your worthiness as well.