Fundamentals of Health, Wellness, and Wholeness
Fibromyalgia and other chronic illnesses are challenging on many levels. We are physically compromised, emotionally out of balance, and mentally stressed. We want solutions to our pain and discomfort. We search and often the solutions come up with none or minimal results. This becomes stress on top of the stress of being ill in the first place.
What then can we do to reclaim our health and happiness . . . our wellness and ultimately wholeness?
Today’s article is focusing on what I call the Fundamental of Wholeness. These are eight important aspects to rebuilding our wellness. Below is a list of the fundamentals of wellness. They create a foundation upon which to rebuild our health, wellness and wholeness.
- Awareness
- Compassion
- Balance
- Acceptance
- Introspection / Self-inquiry
- Self-Responsibility.
- Insights
- Integration
Awareness
The ability to be self-aware. To observe our body, our mind, our emotions from a place of awareness rather than identification. In other words, to be able to observe our self objectively. We can be aware of the sensation and pain in our body, the emotions that we feel, the thought that we think. We can start with our conscious thoughts, and then delve into a deeper layer of subconscious thoughts and emotions.
Compassion
As we meet our self with awareness, compassion is a necessary ingredient. There are parts of us that we might judge or disown. By meeting our self with compassion, we can identify positive and negative experiences, emotions, thoughts, and memories. We can see the good, bad, ugly and beautiful parts of who we are. Without compassion, we may block truly seeing because we have literally and figuratively exiled parts of who we are as they are deemed unacceptable. Yet, until you can meet these parts with compassion, wholeness will continue to elude you.
Balance
Balance is at the root of health, wellness and wholeness. Everything in nature survives and thrives because of a state of balance. Your physical body has 12 homeostatic (balancing) control mechanisms that keep your body functioning and healthy. Emotionally, we need a balance of positive and negative emotions to be emotionally healthy. Mentally, we need a balance between positive thoughts and negative thoughts. A healthy optimistic attitude with a healthy dose of reality and awareness of possible difficulties. We need a balance of rest and activity, work and play, alone time and time with others. When discovering the right balance for you, health, wellness and wholeness will be the rewards.
Acceptance
Acceptance is acknowledging what is. That doesn’t mean we have to like it. It means telling the truth about what is. When we are honest about what is, we have the power to change is. If we are denying the truth, ignoring it, or pushing it out of our awareness, we are powerless to change it.
Introspection / Self-inquiry
Self-inquiry allows us to go within and discover who we are, what we think, feel, need, want, like, dislike. What are greatest joys are, what are greatest challenge are. Self-Inquiry allows us to discover internal causes of challenges and discover resolutions from within.
Insights
The process of awareness, compassion, acceptance, and introspection results in insights from within. We can see parts of our self we had previously denied. We can see how we are creating our own stress. We can see how we have given our power away. These and many more insights are available with meeting our self with awareness, compassion and acceptance.
Self-Responsibility
When I first heard the word responsibility, to me it meant self-blame. Then I heard a new definition of the word which was, “ability to respond.” The ability to respond rather than the old knee jerk reaction to any situation is a step to reclaiming our power. To look at any situation or challenge with awareness, compassion, acceptance and introspection gives us needed information and insights upon which to make internal changes or take external actions, guided from within. That is self-responsibility.
Integration
Integration happens as the new awareness’s, insights, internal shifts and responsible actions become integrated into our lives. We begin to feel more empowered in our lives. We can let go of feeling like a victim to our circumstances or feeling like the answers to our problems are outside of us. We can let go of coping mechanism and begin to let our true self shine through.
Summary:
The fundamentals of health, wellness and wholeness have the power to impact us on all levels of our being: physical, mental, emotional, energetic, spiritual and in our expression in and interaction with the world around us.
This week’s introspection:
Contemplate these fundamentals and notice which resonate with you and which don’t. Pick one or more to experiment with becoming aware of how it operates or not in your life. Remember, awareness is the foundation of all change.
May you have a blessed Thanksgiving and have much to be grateful.
