Living a Holistic Healthy Life (1)

Missing Spirituality?

In terms of living a holistic life - a life of satisfaction, coherence and well-being - it is sometimes helpfully highlighted that human beings have 5 essential components, or 5 essential areas of need, that when properly and adequately fulfilled (and if these areas are integrated and functioning in harmony with one another) lead to a holistic and well-rounded life. Tapping into something that maybe we sense intuitively, it has been highlighted for us by research and experience - particularly by those involved in disciplines such as teaching or medicine / health care - that all humans share the nature of being S.P.I.E.S.

That is, humans beings are those that are:

Social

Physical

Intellectual

Emotional

Spiritual

and as a result we have needs / longings that seek fulfillment for each of these categories.

In some ways this might be a little simplistic and there is quite a lot of nuance and inter-relation between each of these categories, but it’s also generally helpful in thinking through the needs and desires we have as humans and what then is needed for living a healthy, holistic life.

Giving a few examples of our needs in each of these areas:

Whilst individuals will differ as to how much social interaction we desire, it is pretty self-evident, for example, that we are social beings; it’s not good for a person to be isolated or lonely and not to have social interaction.

As beings that are physical, what we eat is important, being physically active, having enough connection with nature - these are just a few pertinent examples of the physical needs we have.

As intellectual beings, having the opportunity to engage our minds - through thought-provoking activity, reading, maybe just staring into space and thinking - these are important for our intellectual flourishing and living a well-rounded life.

In terms of our emotional needs, having the chance to feel and express one’s emotions - and to engage with the emotions of others - are likewise integral to our flourishing.

And as spiritual beings, having a sense of connection with something that is beyond oneself and the everyday world - something that gives us a purpose and brings meaning to our place in the world - is the 5th of these five components integral to leading a holistic life.

Whilst examples in the paragraphs above could clearly be filled out further, in reflecting on these 5 categories, they seem to chime with our intuition and they present us with something of a mirror as we think about these areas of our lives and to what extent our needs / desires are being met within each of the categories.

In terms of the everyday westerner - those living in the west in the 21st century world (during what is sometimes called the ‘late/postmodern’ climate) - a number of us feel a level of contentment with how things are going in at least some of these 5 categories. Or even if things aren’t great at this point, we can put a finger on a time in our lives where things were good in some of these areas - or hopefully aspire to find ways in which things might improve in these categories. But it’s interesting that, in the west, not many people feel hugely satisfied with or are sure where to look for fulfillment with the 5th component of these categories - the spiritual component of a human.

This puts us at odds with the Global Majority of people who feel a deep sense of connection with some kind of transcendence, it also puts us at odds, historically, with previous generations of westerns, who would have looked to classical forms of transcendence - e.g. God / one of the well-known religions - for making sense of the world - classical forms of spirituality that brought connection for human beings with something beyond ourselves, and gave a sense of meaning to its adherents. But due to the history of intellectual thought, these sources of spirituality have diminished during the previous three centuries in the west and people are looking, instead, to alternative spiritual forms and particularly turning to look inside of themselves for their spiritual fulfillment.

There are a number of reasons that have led to this current-day situation, some of which will be addressed more fully in forth-coming posts; but it’s worth highlighting here that the ‘late/postmodern’ attempt to find spiritual fulfillment inside of oneself - or in alternative external spiritualities - has been rather limited in its success. Whilst giving hints of further understanding concerning what a person is actually like, western culture’s encouragement to ‘look inside of yourself - for there you will find the answers to the deep and significant questions of life’, has not got us very far; because if you look inside of yourself, what you find is . . . well, you just find yourself, looking more closely at yourself. Some might see that as a good thing and of course it is helpful to reflect / introspect, but in terms of giving us a sense of (objective) meaning, bringing connection for human beings with something beyond ourselves, giving us a horizon for making sense of the world, just looking in at oneself is not going to provide that.

Other alternative forms of spirituality - such as tarot, crystals, astrology, numerology, etc. - have not proved particularly helpful either and have remained something of a niche interest for a limited number of adherents. Indeed, when people hear of family members or friends who are participating in such spiritualities, the sentiment is commonly expressed ‘if you want to get involved with that, then that’s fine, go for it’; but such a sentiment, in actual fact, is often a polite way of saying ‘that doesn’t seem all that great to me, but if it does it for you, well, then, I suppose that’s a good thing(?).’ People of the west don’t seem particularly impressed with the alternative spiritualities on offer, and, whilst there are quite a number of different avenues explored in this regard, it seems that there is no one particular of these spiritualities that attract anything more than a very limited minority. People are generally not impressed by the alternative spiritualities that are out there.

It seems, then, that people in the western world clearly display the desire for spiritual nourishment, but today are seeking it in avenues that are not particularly fulfilling. So how might one go about finding such spiritual fulfilment?

As said, this will likely be the topic of a few posts, but for now it might be helpful to finish just by highlighting that the word ‘spiritual’ itself - a word that essentially means ‘concerning the spirit / immaterial’ - possibly discloses an avenue to be beneficially explored. Whilst the vast majority of things or activities that people look to for spirituality are essentially physical / material entities, the word spirit within the word ‘spiritual’ suggests that searching for spiritual fulfilment in something beyond the physical world might be an important thought to consider for those seeking to fulfil their spiritual need - giving potential for such a person to fulfil the missing of the 5 components, and as a result enabling the living of a fuller rounded and more holistic life.