Habitat Re•Imagined

Sustainable Community

Personal Wellness – a holistic approach

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Over the years, I have seen a variety of images to communicate the balance we need to experience true wellness. Holistic wellness starts out with consideration of body, mind, and spirit – and then expands into the many other aspects of life. Various designs of circles have been created to provide an image of our balanced need. This first image shows three overlapping circles with the center indicating the balance.

One of my favorite circle images is a “wheel” representing the  Wellness Inventory developed by John Travis MD, founder of one of the first holistic wellness centers in the country. The inventory expands the basic three into twelve areas of consideration for personal well being. These areas go deeper into our human need and include our relationship with others

I recently came across another circle, a spiral that communicates an even deeper level of consideration. This image expands the categories to include cultural and environmental considerations. In addition, it also expands the personal focus to connect with family, community, and world.

Overall, the message is to consider the fullness of life, all the ways we are affected and affect others, and all the ways we can grow and change to create a world where wellness for all is the value we live by.

 

Holistic Sustainability

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A foundational aspect of sustainability is to think holistically. It seems, even for those of us who try to think that way, the human tendency is to compartmentalize life. We tend to separate and focus on either the physical, emotional, or spiritual dimension of life and neglect the others. Even among health practitioners that acknowledge body, mind, and spirit one mode of healing is often focused on without integration of others.  It seems we are in a constant struggle for balance and, perhaps, it is balance that really is the solution to sustainability.

To be sustainable means the ability to endure. It is our capacity to continue day to day, month to month, year to year, generation to generation. It involves the needs of the individual, the family, the local community, and the the world as a whole. And it requires the balance of environmental, economic, and social concerns.

For the past forty years environmental sustainability has come more and more into focus. There is a growing concern about the sustainability of our energy sources and water supplies, our consumption of natural resources, the ability to process our waste, and other issues concerning our impact on the planet that sustains us.

Peak oil suggests that we are near the earths capacity for daily oil production – not to mention our dependency on foreign sources and the relations that involves. Along with peak oil, there is reasonable concern for our diminishing aquifers and the earths capacity for replenishing our water supply. Our consumption of resources has threatened ecosystems and species of life around the world, and our landfills are exhausted by the waste we produce.

Economic sustainability, also a growing concern for some time, has come into focus the past several years as personal investments have been lost and financial stability across the globe has been threatened. The concern of increased debt on a personal, corporate, and governmental level along with decreased employment and monetary value has suddenly shifted into awareness as the bubble we produced had suddenly burst. More and more people are considering their relationship with money – the debt they maintain, the business they support, and the luxury of enough.

Social sustainability, probably the key to sustainability in general, is the third leg to balance the sustainability stool. We are in vital need of support and collaboration with one another to find the solutions. We live in a time that demands that we once again learn to know our neighbors – this time in a deeper way that enables us to join hands in building a sustainable future for all.

I also want to add spirituality to the mix for pursuit of holistic sustainability. We must cultivate a worldview that sees our connection to all people and the environment we share. It is time to transcend our egos to embrace diverse opinions and perspectives. It is time to cultivate the understanding, wisdom, and compassion we need for balance and endurance.

Holistic Spirituality

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I like to think of spirituality as the life force that energizes and motivates everything else. Separating it from religious doctrine or practice, I try to keep it holistic yet simple and basic. Like stating that person “is very spirited” or “has a gentle spirit”, spirituality can be a very down to earth way of describing human energy and the source that powers it. In order to consider the health of our living and working environments, I think it is important to look at that energy in a holistic way.

The first aspect of spirituality I like to consider is “personal awareness”. Cultivated in the contemplative tradition of Christianity, the mindfulness tradition of Buddhism, and the meditative practices of other spiritual paths, this practice helps us live in a more fully conscious present moment. It moves us beyond our ego, and its subconscious motivations, to better relate to ourselves and our surrounding environment.

The second aspect I consider is what has been referred to as “creation spirituality”. Influenced by the biblical story of creation, we see God as the creative force speaking all things into creation, proclaiming that it is good, and then positioning human kind as caretakers and co-creators. Cultivating this aspect of our spirituality helps us connect with our own creativity as well as our connection, power, and responsibility with all of creation.

The third aspect of holistic spirituality is “conscious loving”. Rooted in personal awareness and our position in creation, this aspect of spirituality cultivates empathy and compassion. Realization of our connectedness deepens our motivation for caring for our neighbor, as well as collaboration and community life on every level.

The final aspect that is integral to my perspective of spirituality is social justice. Again rooted in our awareness,  our sense of connection and responsibility  as caretakers extends our compassion to all of our neighbors no matter where they live.  A growing awareness of our personal consumption, along with the great need on our planet, can help motivate a greater sense of mission as part of our holistic spirituality.

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