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Health and wellness are truly a holistic endeavors. While much emphasis is placed on physical and mental health (and rightly so), spiritual health is equally as important.

Spiritual health probably gets the least amount of love and attention when it comes to the health triad. This is likely because spiritual health is deeply intrinsic and introspective — in other words, it can be difficult to tap into.

Along with a healthy body and mind, spiritual health is essential to overall wellness and proper self-care. Here, we will explore five actionable steps you can take to help improve your spiritual well-being.

What Is Spiritual Health?

The word “spirit” is partly derived from the Latin word spiritus, meaning “breath” or “life.”  Over the centuries, “spirit” has taken on a supernatural element and has become synonymous with the soul or inner self.

This idea has given rise to concepts such as spirituality and spiritual health. In short, characteristics of spirituality can include things like transcendence, meaning, value, inner peace, or a connection with the Divine.

Spiritual health can take on multiple meanings depending on who you ask. However, it is enough to say that spiritual health is an aspect of human wellness that helps integrate other pillars of health, including mental, emotional, and mental health. It helps bind them all.

You could say that spiritual health helps create and bring a deeper meaning to our lives. Your soul or inner being may help drive and cultivate your ethics and help you make sense of the people and world around you.

For many, spiritual health is extrinsic and based on external participation in a religious system or set of spiritual beliefs (though it also has internal elements). For others, spiritual health is deeply intrinsic and is motivated by core beliefs found within oneself.

What Are the Benefits of Spiritual Health?

People approach the idea of spiritual health in different ways. It could involve a religious component, an individualistic component, a world-oriented component, or a combination of each. Regardless of how spiritual health is approached, the benefits are endless.

For many, spiritual health helps create a sense of purpose or belonging. It gives us something to aim at and strive for in life. Spiritual health can enrich our lives and help connect us with something deeper. It can give us hope and let us know we aren’t alone.

Achieving spiritual health can also help bring balance to our overall health, helping to stabilize our mood and promote mindfulness, all of which positively affect our physical health.

How Can You Improve Spiritual Health?

Thankfully, there are some actionable steps you can take to improve your spiritual health and well-being. Here are five of the most helpful steps.

Connect With Others

Connection is the key to spiritual health. There is no spiritual health in isolation. For many, this connection involves spending time with others.

According to some research, connection with a faith community is waning in the United States, with only 47 percent of adults belonging to a church, mosque, or synagogue. This is the first drop below 50 percent in eight decades of research.

However, the connection doesn’t have to involve an organized faith community. The point is to find connections with like-minded people, whether it be in-person or even online.

Find a Meditative Activity

Meditation is a great spiritual habit to form. It can involve contemplation and reflection. For some, physical exercises such as yoga are one meditative activity to help ease symptoms of stress and anxiety.

Other meditative activities include breathing practices and mindfulness exercises. While meditation involves inner connection (listening and receiving), prayer is also an important element of spiritual health for many people to help them connect to a higher power.

Go Outdoors

Spending time in nature is another way to help you reflect, refresh, and connect with the world around you, all of which help promote spiritual health. The good news is that it need not be complicated.

Going outdoors involves exploring the world around you, whether it be the beach, the mountains, or the trees swaying in your backyard. It allows you to turn off the phone, get off social media for a bit, and just reflect.

In addition to the benefits to spiritual health, getting outdoors and soaking up the sunlight can also positively impact your physical and mental well-being.

Write Down Your Thoughts

Spiritual practices should also include some form of self-reflection. For many, this comes in the form of a gratitude journal. This helps create a non-judgemental space to share and reflect on your thoughts and track personal growth.

You can reflect on all your emotions, including worries and fear. Journaling is a great way to let go of anxiety, create a positive outlook, and pave a path to a healthy life and spiritual growth.

Develop Daily Spiritual Habits

At the end of the day, all these actionable tips are useless unless you work to develop daily spiritual habits. Creating daily routines helps limit anxiety because you know what is expected.

Spiritual habits can also include simple things like giving thanks and giving back, practicing humility, or listening more than you speak.

What Affects Spiritual Health?

Spiritual health can be affected by many factors. Things like self-esteem and confidence can greatly impact spiritual health, for better or worse.

There are also external factors that can quickly drive down spiritual health. Many of these can be completely outside of our control. Let’s take a quick look at a few.

Job-Related Distress

Coping with job-related stress can be difficult. Workplace stressors can include job insecurity, heavy workloads, long hours, burnout, and unfulfilling work. Also, tension and conflicts between co-workers can make things very difficult.

In addition to the physical toll that job-related distress can cause, it can also lead to psychological issues like anxiety and depression. These effects of job-related stress can drive down spiritual health and leave you feeling overwhelmed, lost, and empty.

Recent Loss

The loss of a loved one or close friend can also impact spiritual health. This doesn’t have to be a loss from death; it can also include a loss due to a broken relationship, moving, or anything that severs an existing relationship.

The grief we experience from a loss can greatly impact our spiritual health because it can cast a veil on the world around us.

Social Isolation

Another disrupter of spiritual health is social isolation or loneliness. Social isolation and loneliness are proven detriments to mental and emotional health.

A big part of spiritual health involves connection, either with our inner self, through relationships with others, and with the world around us. Social isolation can make us feel like we’re on a spiritual island, doing life alone.

Can Ketamine Help Improve Spiritual Wellness?

Things like chronic stress and depression can derail spiritual wellness or make it difficult for you to get in touch with your spirituality. However, ketamine therapy can be a solution for mental health. In short, the psychedelic effects of ketamine can help you safely explore your thoughts from a new perspective.

This can lead to profound spiritual insights and realizations as it helps form new neural pathways and thought patterns. Nue Life programs may help you access deeper revelation and insights — you can get started by scheduling your free evaluation today.

The Bottom Line

Spiritual health is an important pillar in the triad that makes up our health. In fact, our spiritual health and well-being help tie together our physical, emotional, and mental health. Spiritual health helps bring a deeper meaning to our lives.

The state of our spiritual health can be affected by both internal and external forces, including various life stressors and social isolation. Thankfully, there is hope for those looking to boost their spiritual health.

Actionable steps involve creating a meaningful connection with others, establishing meditative practices, and developing daily spiritual habits. Don’t be afraid to start small.

Treatment at Nue Life

Nue Life believes in holistic treatment, which means that what happens before and after your ketamine experience is equally as important as the experience itself. We want to ensure you have meaningful takeaways from your experiences and help you establish positive new neural pathways.

That’s why we provide one-on-one health coaching and integration group sessions with each of our programs. We’re here to help map out the mind and body connections in your brain and help you discover the insights that lead to true healing.

Sources:

Explanatory definition of the concept of spiritual health: a qualitative study in Iran | PMC

Coping with stress at work | APA

Loneliness and Social Isolation Linked to Serious Health Conditions | CDC

U.S. Church Membership Falls Below Majority for First Time | Gallup

Benefits of Sunlight: A Bright Spot for Human Health | PMC

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