My coaching practice emphasizes “Empowerment and Holistic Wellbeing”. Empowerment is about helping you deeply understand that you are deserving of all that you want and hope for in life. Once you feel you are deserving you become empowered to make the choices and actions that help you achieve your goals.
Holistic wellbeing, to me, is about supporting yourself body, mind, and spirit. You support your body for energy, your mind to stay engaged and enthusiastic about your work and life, and your spirit to get the most enjoyment, with the emphasis on JOY, from your life.
Taking care of your body and mind are understandable, but what does it mean to take care of your spirit? How does that translate into experiencing joy? It takes some effort, self-awareness, and intention, but it is oh so worth it. Support your spiritual wellbeing and you will soar to the highest heights.
My Spiritual Black Hole
There were years of my life that I stayed so busy I neglected to care for almost all my bodily, mental, and spiritual needs. I was focused on helping others, raising my children, and just keeping my head above water. What I started to experience was a sense of feeling empty, shallow, and removed from my emotions and from truly experiencing a rich and healthy life.
At the time, I kept busy to distract myself from examining my true feelings and my lack of meaningful direction. It was ironic because I was spending a lot of time volunteering for what people consider to be “meaningful causes”, and that gave me a sense of contribution and a way to use my intellect, but it also was an excuse to not examine what was truly meaningful in my life.
When I began to finally explore these issues I experienced a sense of relief, excitement, peace, and a feeling of coming home to myself. It happened organically. When I started down this path, I was not even aware that I was on a spiritual journey. In fact, I think I would have balked at the term, “spiritual journey” as being new age mumbo jumbo. It was when I began to understand the bigger picture of holistic wellbeing that the role of taking care of my spirit began to make sense.
What Is Spiritual Wellbeing
To me, spiritual wellbeing is about connection, both an internal and external. You connect to yourself through various processes that lead to self-awareness and self-trust, and you connect externally through your experiences with other people, nature, volunteering, and a sense that you are part of something greater than yourself. This is the stuff that helps you feel your life is meaningful, purposeful, passionate, joyful, and well-lived. Turns out to be rather important! In fact, I believe this is so important that it has become the nexus of my work.
My newsletter, Inner Wisdom, is all about connecting to yourself in a way that encourages building your self-awareness. It is only when we are aware of what we want, what brings us joy, what are strengths are, and what our vulnerabilities are that we can make the choices that help us create a truly happy life. You can sign up for my Inner Wisdom newsletter at lastingchangewellness.com. I pose 3 questions to build self-awareness, 2 quotes to inspire you, and 1 action step you can take to further your growth. 3-2-1-Begin!
How to Support Your Spiritual Wellbeing
There are several ways you can connect deeply with yourself to enhance your spiritual wellbeing. You don’t have to do them all, or start all of them at once, just begin. Like building any habit, start small, be consistent, and celebrate yourself for your effort.
- Journal: Remember that no one is judging you in your journal. Try to refrain from judging yourself. There is no right or wrong way to do it. Just start. It is a great side dish for a hot cup of tea or coffee in the morning!
- Meditate: Contrary to popular misconception – you cannot be bad at it. While there are literally 23,000 ways to meditate, the easiest is to just sit and focus on breathing in and breathing out. Try starting with 3 minutes a day.
- Contemplate: Try leaving a few minutes a day to just sit and think about what is important to you. Ask yourself good questions like, “How can I support myself today?”, “What thoughts do I have that hold me back from what I want?”, or “What do I love to do in my spare time?”. The questions are endless.
- Read or listen to podcasts that encourage self-awareness and self-reflection. Glennon Doyle’s book, Untamed, and the podcast, Optimal Living Daily are both great starters.
To foster a connection with the world around you:
- Spend time with other people: People you love, like, or are curious about, it’s all about connecting.
- Do things you LOVE doing: Seek joy, relax, and let go. Do these things alone or with others but invite joy and laughter into your life every day.
- Spend time in nature: Science has demonstrated that spending time in nature makes changes in our bodies and brains that enhances our health and leads to a greater sense of wellbeing. Try forest bathing!
- Volunteer: Giving of yourself has been shown to enhance wellbeing, your sense of purpose and meaning, and just plain feels great. Choose something you love to do to make sure you stick with it regularly.
- Develop a sense that you are part of a greater universe: Whether you have a formal religious practice or just an appreciation that you are a small but meaningful part of the world around you, the sense that we are all interconnected helps to keep you grounded and open-hearted.
There are endless combinations of the above suggestions that will support your spiritual wellbeing. Remember, this is the stuff that makes you love living your life! Create a life you love by making ‘how to support your spiritual wellbeing’ a priority. Read more: 5 Tips to Build a Wellness Foundation You Can Count On
Lauren Yellin Weinberg, MS, NBC-HWC
As The Becoming Coach, Lauren empowers her clients to become more confident, calm, and connected and to architect the wildly wonderful life they have always imagined. A National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach, and a Certified Happiness Coach, with a background as a psychologist and family therapist, she is committed to a whole-person, empirically-based process that creates lasting mindset and wellbeing changes. Her transformational coaching is designed to accelerate and support personal and professional success while inspiring her clients to fall in love with who they are becoming.
Lauren is also a thought partner for solopreneurs and she is an expert for Living Healthy List.
Find out more at lastingchangewellness.com or email directly at lastingchangecoach@gmail.com Follow on FB @lastingchangewellness; on IG @lastingchangecoach and on LinkedIn @LaurenYellinWeinberg