Soul Searching with Yve

How important is spirituality in your life?

I did a research project on this very topic my senior year of college. I’ve always been interested in exploring spiritual beliefs from around the world. There is so much to learn from other cultures and their beliefs and there are also stories and lessons that overlap into other cultural traditions. For this post, I will stick with explaining why I believe spirituality is important for a person’s overall well-being.

There are 7 dimensions of wellness, some models break them up differently, but are generally similar to one another.

1. Vocational wellness is essentially using your skills and talents in your work bringing joy and fulfillment to this aspect of your life.

2. Physical wellness is generally about eating and exercising the way your body requires to stay healthy.

3.Intellectual wellness– exercising your brain by reading, writing, solving puzzles, learning something new, and being creative.

4. Environmental wellness involves keeping your environment clean, comfortable, and peaceful.

5. Social wellbeing is having a support network of healthy relationships with family and friends.

6. Emotional wellness includes self-esteem and allowing yourself to feel your emotions as they come and cope with what life brings up healthily.

7. Spiritual wellness is important because these beliefs can give your life purpose or significance and it doesn’t feel like it’s “all for nothing”. Your morals and values related to your beliefs are like a compass keeping you on the path to a peaceful mind and happy soul.

When one or more of these dimensions are not properly fulfilled it can negatively affect other aspects of your life. For example, if a person’s physically unwell, it can seep over into the vocational dimension because they have to miss work for appointments possibly affecting financial obligations, which can make fulfilling social engagements feel daunting ultimately affecting emotional wellness as well.

Spirituality, I believe, is pretty important because your beliefs, religious or not, give your life meaning and purpose, and most importantly hope. Without this “compass,” it can seem more difficult to balance the other dimensions of your well-being. Knowing there’s something bigger than yourself whether you believe in God or universal consciousness, for example, fills your soul with peace. There has been some research done on cancer patients who have some sort of daily spiritual practice living longer than those who don’t. For me, spirituality is like the glue that holds the other dimensions of wellness together when it seems like everything is falling apart and keeps pushing me to be a better me than the previous day.