Our mental and spiritual health are vital aspects of our wholeness and well-being, you can’t have one without the other. Mental and spiritual health are heaven ordained. It can be hard to believe that mental and spiritual health are inextricably linked. When you understand the love and investment the Lord God of creation has made just for you, it compels and inspires us to seek and live in wholeness. It is only by looking closely at our behaviors, thoughts and feelings as we evaluate ourselves (Galatians 6:4) that we can begin to see the cracks in our wholeness and find ways to heal them.
Mental health is spiritual health. When we are healthy mentally, we are also healthy spiritually. Our minds are our most precious possession, and we should treat them with the respect they deserve. It is only by understanding and working on our spiritual and mental health that we can achieve a level of peace and contentment.
Spiritual health is an important and often overlooked component to overall well-being. It can be defined as the connectedness between what you believe and how those beliefs are manifested in your life. How you see your own value and how you spend your time are the most defining aspects of spiritual health. Activities like meditation, prayer, affirmations and journaling are all ways to cultivate a sense of inner peace and wellbeing. Our spiritual health is tied to overall wellness. Good physical and emotional health are essential to good spiritual health (Jeremiah 33:6).
When we are physically or emotionally unhealthy it causes us to struggle with spiritual health, because more often than not we end up taking on too much at once and not allowing ourselves to recalibrate, reflect or recharge. When this happens it can cause stress, which makes it harder for us to experience being present and operating with a level of self awareness to stay calm and centered. When we aren’t healthy mentally or physically, it becomes harder to maintain positive connections with ourselves, other people or our environment. If we don’t have good spiritual health, we are more prone to anxiety attacks, depression, and disease which can impact our physical health (Proverbs 17:22).
Spiritual health comes from three core components: a healthy mental attitude, a healthy spiritual practice and a healthy physical lifestyle. Your mental attitude is the foundation for everything else. It’s all about what you think, believe, and expect from yourself and how you’ve used your time and energy to build around you. When you give yourself the good you deserve by investing time in yourself, seeing and valuing your strengths, celebrating your growth, acknowledging your journey and even challenging yourself to learn new things it builds the image you have of yourself and fosters mental health. Practicing a healthy mental attitude makes it easier to see yourself and use your time in a way that builds and blesses yourself, and those around you (1 Peter 1:13).
The physical aspect of health is all about making sure you have the proper tools to support your spiritual practice – like good food, rest and exercise. This is crucial to maintaining positive health long-term. Your physical health is essential to your wholeness and your purpose. When you’re physically well, you are able to operate in the fullest capacity of your strengths and gifts in living out your purpose (3 John 1:2). Self care shows up in how we each maintain our health. Wholeness in our bodies brings peace to our minds and keeps us in focus of giving and sharing the goodness we were made by the Lord God to have and hold. Physical health is key to spiritually healthy living, and absolutely essential for maintaining a deep connection with your inner self.
Spiritual health is also about being connected to something greater than yourself – whether it’s your relationship with the Lord God, your purpose or your community. Spirituality gives you an anchor in the chaos of life, a point of stability that can help put things into perspective. Perspective influences how we prioritize what’s most important, make conscious decisions, and align our actions with our values. Right fellowship is a major factor of connectedness. Whether it’s family, friends or community members fellowship is what helps us to draw encouragement and strength; spending time authentically with people who share similar values and interests is key (1 Thessalonians 5:11). As you interact with others, you develop more compassion for yourself and others, which can lead to greater self-awareness and self-acceptance. As you connect with others on deeper levels, it can be easier to let go of judgments, guilt or shame to embrace your own worth and value. In order to reach spiritual health, it’s important to invest in relationships that build trust and mutual respect (Hebrews 10:24). How you see yourself and the world around you has a direct impact on what you expect, how you engage and how you invest in your own success.
It’s all of these things combined that make up the underlying fabric of your spiritual and mental health.
