Spirituality- Why is it Important?
Spirituality is the last foundation in our series, The 9 Naturopathic Foundations.
So far we’ve looked at:
- Air
- Water
- Food
- Sunlight
- Exercise
- Sleep
- Emotions and
- Energy Grounding
Today we’re focusing on Spirituality. Spirituality oftentimes is lumped in with religion, but it’s not the same thing. Can you be religious and be spiritual? Yes. Can you be religious and not be spiritual? Yes. Can you be spiritual and want nothing to do with a structured religion, like Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, and all that? Absolutely.
So I’m talking to everyone out there, you can even be agnostic. Spirituality is a naturopathic foundation. You may think, “I don’t need that. What is that stuff? I don’t believe in that.” Let’s think together about a broader perspective.
Studies show in all these eastern ancient medicine practices, Ayurveda, Chinese medicine, and tribal populations that spirituality is part of who we are. All the evidence shows that we are a spiritual being whether you accept it or not, it’s up to you. I’m highly recommending you at least be open to it.
Doesn’t mean you have to actually pray if you don’t want to. You don’t have to step foot in the church. You don’t even have to say the word God. But spirituality is a feeling that we are connected to something bigger than us, or that we have a connection with the earth.
But spirituality is a naturopathic foundation. If we lack spirituality, we will rarely be able to completely solve health problems. It’s a part of it. It’s not just the food you eat and the air you breathe and the thoughts you think in your daily activities. Those are all super important. But we’ve got to not neglect spirituality. As a whole our country is going, in my opinion, a little bit less towards spirituality, or we’re getting a dichotomy where we have very highly spiritual people, doing lots of meditation, lots of retreats, and then we have another group that’s completely running away from that stuff. I’d like to see a balance. I’d like to see us all, at least, dabble in this a little bit. Spirituality involves trying to get some peace, some calm- we’re trying to calm the mind.
We’re trying to connect with the higher power, however you define that.
I have spiritual practices that I do every day, and they’ve changed over time. Be open to it being organic and changing, the ebb and flow, that’s life. There is this saying in naturopathic medicine: “stagnation is death and movement is life.” Let things move and let things flow.
Here is the practice to use, to help make a kind of structure. I call it mind setting.
First thing, before getting out of bed, I do a mind setting practice where I start deep breathing really, really deep. Maximum expansion, nice and slow. I’m really focusing on my breath. That way, my mind is calm. That’s really important, especially if you deal with anxiety and looping thoughts. So get a good 5 to 10 breaths in there that sets the tone for the practice.
The next step is going to be gratitude. When you express gratitude it has nothing to do with religion. You’re just saying, you know what, I really appreciate this in my life. No matter how hard life is for you, you can always be grateful for something, find that something or 3 somethings, whatever it may be, and give thanks. And smile when you do it.
I know it seems silly if you’re having a rough day. But when you smile. Your brain says “I’m okay.”
It literally says “I’m okay. It’s not as dire as I thought it was.” I had to do this. I had to fake it at first many years ago, when I started this practice, and it was very awkward, very weird. I was a very pessimistic negative person, but this changed my life. Just a little smile.
Then I want you to, after you get done with gratitude, go into some prayer and again, you don’t have to make it religious. Just send some good energy, good vibes to someone else. Whenever we can get outside our own situation, it distracts our mind from whatever crud we’re going through. Then when we put energy towards someone else out there it’s going to raise your vibration, it’s going to help you, trust me, it’s going to really feel good to do that.
We’ve got breathing, gratitude, prayer, and then I want you to finish with a fourth section. And that’s going to be goal setting.
I want you to set a few micro tiny little bitty baby goals. We don’t need to say, I want to double my income next week, that’s great, but that’s maybe a little lofty for a lot of us. Or you could say I want no migraines next week, and you’re having one every day. That’s not realistic. I’m sorry it’s not. Think of little goals you can do and set those things that you can achieve, things that are well within your grasp. That you can do that day. It could be to drink more water if you haven’t been good at that. Right? It could be to eat a little bit more whole food? Put down some of that dessert. Eat less sugar. It could be saying “I’ve been so checked out with work and so busy. You know what, I’m gonna spend a little bit more time with my little ones at home.”
Little stuff like that is really gonna help you round out your life and get more fulfillment.
And that’s what this practice is all about.
So again, breathing, gratitude, prayer and setting some mini goals you can do, and if you do it in that manner, if you really practice it like that, you’re gonna get high vibrational frequencies, and go into your day, with a lot more success. You’re gonna get a lot more peace and calm. I want you to work on it. Let’s get a little spiritual, but make it your own.
And I love you. I’m praying for you, I want you to do really well.
I want you to heal whatever’s going on. If you need help, I’m here. We do free consultations over the phone. We can help you walk through what’s going on with you. Hope this was helpful, and let me know how we can support you!
