Spirituality is the process of connecting with the higher self. Many research studies have shown over the years that better spiritual health could lead toward better mental health. It has attracted the attention of researchers to why and how spirituality and spiritual health are different. Today, we’ll discuss what is spiritual health; its dimensions, components, indicators, and characteristics in detail.
What is Spiritual Health?
Different people look at spiritual health differently. For religious people, spiritual health means getting closer to God. For the individualistic dimension, SH means a person doesn’t have wrong moral characteristics and beliefs. However, for the material world dimension, SH means helping out other people and not expecting anything in return, and developing close harmony with the universe.
In short, spiritual health is the realization that life is purposeful and meaningful and you discover your place in it. The journey of finding the purpose and meaning of life lead you to find harmony within yourself and with others. You have to maintain a balance between your inner needs and the rest of the world.
Signs of Spiritual Health
Some of the main signs of spiritual health are as follows;
- Fulfilling and Cultivating the meaning and purpose in life
- Strongly valuing yourself
- Nurturing a deep insightful relationship with yourself and others
Spiritual Health vs. Spirituality
Spirituality is a general comprehensive concept, a state of being, and a subjective issue. On the other hand, spiritual health is a precise subset of spirituality, objective, and actual issue. Some think that SH is the product of spirituality.
Components of Spiritual Health
Material World Oriented
Material world-oriented means creating a human connection with nature and others. When you do that, then it develops a sense of responsibility, behavioral relation with others, attitude, knowledge, harmony, pacifism, forgiveness, and unconditional love.
Individualistic
Individualistic component means developing a human connection with yourself. It comprises of behavioral relation with yourself, attitude, knowledge, culture, mysticism, values, transcendence, balance, responsibility for yourself, peace, moral virtues, self-actualization, hope, finding the meaning of life, and evaluating yourself.
Religious
The religious component means developing a human connection with God. It comprises attitude, God-oriented knowledge, God is effective, prayer, love of God, and connection with God.
Indicators of Spiritual Health
Connection with Nature
Human connection with nature means respecting nature, acknowledging the significance of nature, and realizing the responsibilities of nature.
Connection with Others
Human connection with others means lack of grudges, no feeling of jealousy, humility, helping others without any reason, empathy, optimism, benevolence, altruism, compassion, honesty, and respect for others, compassion, honesty, respecting others, and accepting your social responsibility.
Connection with Self
Human connection with yourself means self-awareness, realizing self-worth, sense of purpose and meaning, hope, empowerment, vitality, satisfaction, the responsibility of yourself, calmness, thinking with reason, and a source of self-esteem.
Connection with Higher Self
Human connection with God means prayers, being grateful for the blessings of God, belief of hope in God, loving God, feeling affectionate, and knowing God.
Characteristics of Spiritual Health
Some of the main characteristics of spiritual health are as follows;
- Meditation, prayers, and worshipping God or higher-self
- Having peace of mind
- Sense of being worthiness
- Clear values
- Recognizing the meaning and purpose of life
- Commitment
- Forgiving and accepting yourself
- Accepting death
- Positive outlook
- Being hopeful
How to Improve Your Spiritual Health
After discussing what is spiritual health; signs, indicators, components, and characteristics, it’s time to discuss how to improve your spiritual health. Some of the ways are as follows;
Meditate
It’s difficult to manage time for meditation in your daily life. However, it’s important to connect with yourself for 5 to 10 minutes every day at night, afternoon, or in the morning. When you make meditation a part of your life, then it would free your mind and improve your SH.
Thinking Positively
Once you start seeing things with a positive mindset, then it would refocus your attention to a happy state of mind and healthy place. When you remove the negative element from your mind, then you would feel relaxed.
Travel
You should take some time off and visit any peaceful place and let your mind wander off. Visiting new places distracts and reset your mind, and you’ll have the opportunity to better connect with yourself. Most importantly, it allows you to remove stress and put your mind on the right track.
Yoga
Yoga is one of the best techniques for improving SH and reducing the emotional and physical stress of your body and mind. There are different levels of yoga, and it boosts your immunity system and lowers insomnia, fatigue, depression, anxiety, and blood pressure.
Expressing your feelings
When you express your mind, then it relaxes your mind and improves your focus. A busy and monotonous life routine could baffle your mind, sharing your thoughts brings a sense of calmness. However, putting your thoughts on paper is also a good exercise of expressing yourself.
Deeper Meaning
You should try to find the deeper meaning in life and look for the pattern; it would take you to see that you have control over your life. Remember that you can find happiness and achieve a healthy life.
Spiritual Core
You should ask spiritual core questions like who you are, why you are, the purpose of your life, and every life. These questions would make you dive deeper into yourself.
Conclusion: What is spiritual health?
After an in-depth study of what is spiritual health; its signs, components, indicators, characteristics, and how to improve your SH, we’ve realized SH is very important for peace of mind and it’s different from spirituality. If you want to improve your SH, then follow and practice the abovementioned suggestions and tips and it would improve your SH.
Ahsan is an accomplished researcher and has a deep insight in worldly life affairs. He goes Live 3 days a week on various social media platforms. Other than research writing, he’s a very interesting person.
