The Importance of Spirituality

Have you ever felt dissatisfied with your life? Have you ever contemplated things and thought there has to be more to life than this? If you’ve found yourself in this position, it might be a great time to start working on your spirituality. Now, I know one of the things that you know I always talk about is, is keeping your health optimized and really doing the best things we can, so that we can age gracefully and powerfully. But for me, it goes well beyond just nutrition and exercise. It’s really a holistic approach, meaning I dive deeper into all areas of life. It’s more than taking care of ourselves with the foods we eat in the way we move. 

Twenty percent of people in the U.S. claim that they are spiritual, not religious. I definitely fall into that 20% group. So exactly what is spirituality? Spirituality really describes what relates to your human spirit, it goes beyond the material, it starts to ask bigger questions. Is there more here? What’s my purpose? How can I leave a positive impact on this world? 

If you’re curious about increasing your spirituality there’s a couple of different things you can focus that are really helpful. 

1. Practice Openness. I like to believe I’m an open minded person. But, when you truly start to practice it, you can start to catch times where maybe you’re not as open or as accepting of a situation or another person or a different opinion as you would think. I challenge you to really start to express a more open minded attitude toward everything in this world. I’m not saying you have to agree with it. I’m just asking to keep an open mind and respect another opinion or the way somebody does something or the way they they choose to think.
2. Learning to Listen. As a coach, this is something I continue to focus on and really practice because learning to listen is a skill. Too many times when someone else is talking we’re not actually listening to what they say. Instead, we’re listening inside our head about how am we’re going to respond to this person. It can be such a challenge to just clear your head and really take a moment and listen. 
3. See the Beauty. In this world, see the beauty in it and other people and other things. Sometimes, it can be a challenge, but, I think it’s a beautiful challenge. If you use your open mindedness, and really look, I think you will always find something beautiful, and good in another person, thing or situation. 
4. Spend Time in Nature. I think this one we all get pretty easily. I mean, how amazing is it just to see a river flowing or a mountain?, Or to lay in the grass and listen to the birds ?
5. Look For the Bigger Picture. Look FOR the bigger picture, not look AT the bigger picture. Look for the bigger picture because there is more to our world than what our five senses allow us to experience. Keep that openness for what else is in this world, what else is in this universe, what else is possible that we might not know about? 
6. Stay Focused on the Present. I think this is so critical. I once was taking a course about happiness. It was this was a game changer for me. When you think about happiness, you can really only experience happiness in this present moment. When you look into your past,  you’ve got past events that generate an emotion. Sometimes it could be anger, it could be guilt, it could be shame. Meanwhile, in the future, that’s where our anxiety lives, our panic lives, our worry lives, about things that haven’t even happened yet. 
7. Love Yourself. How important is this and how few of us actually practice this? This is something that you need to do on an ongoing basis. It’s critical to your health. It’s critical to how you leave your mark on this world. And it’s probably the kindest thing that you really can do. So please love yourself. 

When I coach, I coach around all aspects of our lives. I look at nutrition and exercise, but, it’s also about our relationships, our spirituality, our career, our finances. It’s all so important to really create that well-rounded person we want to be. If this strikes a chord with you I invite to book a free 45 minute discovery call with me and we can chat and see if we are a great fit and we can work together and really get you into the absolute best place that you can possibly be. So have a beautiful day. Peace and love.