Integrating the Two Stages of Wellness

(For a description of the Two Stages of Wellness, see previous two posts.)

Wellness centers have the potential to be learning centers where we can gain knowledge about ourselves from the physical to the spiritual and where we are taught how to live from the spiritual to the physical. That is achievable even with those who do not believe in any God but who have an openness of mind regarding a dimension of humans existing beyond the mental and physical. Clearly, not everyone is ready for this which is a good thing because there would not be enough teachers to go around. Yet it is not too early to get started!

At the first stage of wellness, there must be the awareness that our life experience and our state of wellness are products of what we do, what we feel and what we think. We can develop ways to achieve greater control over our body and emotions. Physical activities are selected to create or enhance awareness in the moment as attention and energy flow through the body. Meditation helps the process of inner self-discovery and achievement of greater dominion over body and mind.

At the second level of wellness, deeper practice of meditation reveals that we are not simply our body, emotions and mind activity anymore than we are defined by our title, financial capacity or the size of our house. We discover a new connection, a higher spiritual dimension from which all else depends. This revelation initiates a shift from a life centered on our body-mind entity ensconced in our particular life situation to a vision of our unique identity as a state of consciousness that we can elevate by the decisions we are willing to make and live by. It becomes clearer that our ego is not who we really are but a make-believe sense of self that represents an obstacle in achieving higher levels of wellness, wisdom and peace.

Achievement at the second level of wellness would appear to be contrary to where we started when we embarked on our wellness search with a great emphasis on how we look and feel, but by then, it should become clear that from this new state of consciousness, we enjoy greater ease at maintaining our body, he motions and thoughts in a state of harmony and true wellness.