Exploring Spiritual Health and the “New Normal”

I hope you are finding your way through COVID-19 with as much ease as is possible. For me, the “19” refers to how much weight I’ll gain if my daughter doesn’t stop baking! As I’ve been out on trails logging steps, I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting and maybe the same is true for you.

Right now, the priority is clearly on doing everything possible to stay healthy. I pray and send wishes for the safety of all beings, especially to our essential workers who are awe inspiring. I’m present in the moment for what is happening within me and around me as we navigate this historic challenge.

At the same time, I cannot help thinking about the impact the Coronavirus pandemic will have on my life, our society, and the world. Like most people, I am frightened by the economic effect this will have. But mostly, I find myself wondering about the possibilities that exist for positive change.

It’s said that we are not human beings having a spiritual experience but rather we are spiritual beings having a human experience. I believe that facing COVID-19 together may be helping us to remember this. But what does it mean to be a spiritual being?

Most people associate spirituality with religion. I’d like to offer that religion can be part of spirituality, but that spirituality is much broader. It is inclusive of those who believe in a higher power and atheists alike. Spirituality can be more easily understood if we break it into three components:

· VITALITY: This involves doing things that energize us like painting, writing, dancing, singing, baking, gardening, participating on a sports team, and playing a musical instrument.

· BELONGING: This is about feeling welcomed and connected to those at home, at work, at our place of worship, and at our local yoga or fitness center.

· PURPOSE: This has to do with finding meaning in what we are doing and feeling valued for our contributions. It’s about doing that which brings us fulfillment and satisfaction.

Just as we purposefully go about doing things to increase our physical fitness, we can reflect upon the things that we do to develop our spiritual fitness.

As a society, we openly acknowledge “losing our religion”. One fifth of Americans don’t identify with any religion, including myself. But if we are “losing our religion” then what are we doing instead?

Are we are purposefully engaging in another type of spiritual practice? We might liken this to a diet. If we take away a particular food item from the menu, we must replace it so that we don’t feel deprived, right? We understand food substitutions. If we’ve moved away from religion, where are we getting our spiritual nourishment?

With deep compassion for where we are today as a society, I offer this for our collective reflection.

We’ve traded going to church for driving across states to stand on the soccer field. We’ve replaced listening to credentialed religious and spiritual leaders with watered down versions of ancient practices delivered by those with no formal training. It seems consumerism has become our religion. We spend money we don’t have and then stay up at night worrying about how we’re going to pay off our credit cards.

We spend more of our time gaming and interacting on social media than building healthy relationships with the people who are actually in our lives. The common perception is that everyone else’s life is happy and exciting which causes us to feel just plain bad. Our social conditioning has taught us that busy is cool and that we should wear our stress like a badge of honor.

Please understand, my intention here is not to make us feel worse or to focus on what’s wrong. But rather to awaken and see that we have a profound opportunity.

I believe we are spiritually starved in the U.S. and that this is the root cause of some of the biggest health problems we face.

· Over the past twenty years, we’ve seen an astounding rise in prescriptions for depression and anxiety medications.

· The prevalence of obesity in the U.S. was 42.4% in 2017–2018.

· Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S.

· The U.S. was ranked #19 in the 2019 World Happiness Report.

Again, I’m not trying to be “Debbie Downer”. But I do believe the first step to changing anything is to acknowledge where we are now. We need to see clearly what’s working and what isn’t so we can move forward with greater wisdom.

COVID-19 has forced us to stop. The obvious priority is for each of us to do our part to stop the spread. And at the same time, in the quiet moments of the day, we can begin to reevaluate what truly matters. We can reconnect with our deepest values. We can explore and deepen those spiritual practices (like meditation, prayer, yoga, or mindful walking), so that they become everyday habits — behaviors that inform how we live our lives and how we treat each other.

Spiritual health is an aspect of overall health. Focusing on our own health and well-being positively affects those around us and our society at large. This to me is the profound opportunity — to collectively take advantage of this forced stop and to do some inner work. Instead of looking out at our screens, let’s look within and reconnect with our internal resources. This is how we become the highest version of ourselves and increase our capacity to help one another.

Spring is a time for freshness and new beginnings. Easter is a time for rising up, for personal resurrection. It’s about bringing forth the divine within and operating from a place of awareness and love.

Here, recovery from COVID-19 becomes more than economic recovery. It involves a holistic recalibration. There are many spiritual practices and paths we can take to arrive at what will be our “new normal”. For me, knowing what to do next always begins with mindfulness.

I’m here to help you explore your next step. I invite you to visit TheMindfulPath.com and schedule a coaching session today.