Getting unstuck is most of what I spend my time working with clients around. Last week we talked about how important energy is to getting unstuck. I wanted to go a bit deeper and talk about getting unstuck using a different wellness body, and how the spiritual path to wellness is so important.
Today we are going to talk about the spiritual wellness body and why this wellness body is so important for removing the stuckness that so many women feel.
What is the spiritual wellness body? The way I see the spiritual wellness body is that it consists of multiple pieces (similar to the other wellness bodies being a complex framework). It is made up of our soul essences, our connection to spirit guides, and a connection to all that is (which i think the fastest way to access this is through nature).
Soul essences
Particularly in the shamanic tradition, we are seen as having soul essences that we enter in this incarnation with. As is true with all of life, there are things that happen that are challenging the may lead to a soul essence going into hiding until it is safe. There are several examples of this. It could be as simple as a family member commenting on your appearance when you are young, or more complex such as a car accident. This is often referred to as soul loss, although I’m not particularly fond of this term because it implies that it is gone.
In my experience, the soul essences have typically found a safe place to land or hide until such time as they are guided back to the person. In indigenous cultures where there were medicine women and men or shamanic guides, this was simply part of daily life. It was part of the village. Something happened that was challenging or traumatic, and the shaman would then return those soul essences when it was time, so the person could go through life with all of their soul essences integrated into who they are.
In our current model of society, we go through a difficult time and perhaps we go see a counselor, which is very helpful. It supports the emotional and perhaps the mental wellness body, but doesn’t provide the recovery needed in the wellness body to bring us to a spiritual path of wellness.
One thing to note is that if there is still a challenging situation ongoing (a toxic relationship) bringing back a soul essence can actually lead to more difficulty – viewing this as like a re-wounding.
Connection with spiritual beings
Another component of the spiritual wellness body is the connection with guides, angels, ancestors, spirit guides, power animals, or spiritual beings. While there are many names, it all comes down to the belief that we are supported by those beyond the veil. These guides have in essence volunteered to be with us and support us in this particular lifetime. There are times when we forget that this connection exists and we need to restore the relationship.
Again, in the past this was part of culture where we knew there were ancestors or angels supporting us and we were taught as children to continue that connection. I remember being younger and looking at the corner of my ceiling and thinking my grandmother who passed would connect with me there. I thought about the moon and its guidance, as well as the animal spirits that seemed to be with me when things were challenging. There’s a remembering that happens as we step into this work of what we knew when we were children and had been told to forget that information. In fact, it is part of the support that we need to move through life with vitality and find the spiritual path to wellness.
Connection with all that is
The final aspect of the spiritual body is the connection with all that is. This is a little more challenging for me to put words around, but it has to do with the web of life. We are all interconnected in more concrete ways (the actions I take will influence you) but also energetically. When we are linked with the concept and the feeling of ‘all that is’ and we understand that we are all one, this helps to develop (or repair) the spiritual wellness body.
When we understand what we eat influences how we feel, and the health of our planet. Or that the thoughts that we think can influence someone else’s health, then we have a deeper understanding of the interconnectedness of who we as humans are. One of the best ways I’ve found to understand this interconnection is through nature, and it can be deeply healing to the spiritual wellness body, as well as to the other wellness bodies.
In the same way that energy is not discussed in our culture, the spiritual wellness body is also not discussed even though it plays a major role in how we feel and in how we live our lives. Perhaps by the description of the different components, you can see that the spiritual wellness body has a lot of overlap with the energetic wellness body, and in some systems they are seen as similar. I’ve heard Christina Pratt describe the soul essences as energetic as opposed to spiritual, so I think there are ways that some of this can flow in and out of the framework.
What does it look like if the spiritual wellness body is out of alignment? It can look different in different people, and what I often hear is that there is something missing or that they don’t feel whole. Some clients have complained of the same stuckness and depression that may happen with energy that doesn’t belong to them. The difference can be sometimes be tied to a specific challenging or traumatic event that I mentioned earlier. I’ve seen people who did all of the trauma work of EDMR and counseling. They reached sort of a plateau and needed the soul essences returned or to be reconnected with their power animal or spirit guides.
Some people will have physical complaints too, similar with what is seen in the energy body. It could be a pain, running into things or a particular system being run down (like the digestive system or the thyroid). There is also an interplay with the emotional system, so if there is a challenging event that happens there may be both a loss of connection with guides. A soul loss and emotions may be stored in the tissues or organ system leading to health challenges. Teasing apart what needs to be reclaimed or returned can be done in a simple session, usually as a connect with the energy of the person, my intuition, and my own helping guides.
There are many tools that can help return the body into alignment and find a spiritual path to wellness. Sometimes is a process of returning the essences that are hiding, or going back to the seed moment where the event happened to heal and provide compassion for that younger self. Many of my clients need to reconnect with their own inner guidance system, connect to the body compass, They may need to connect to their own guides, or the web of life through shamanic practices or meeting their own guides.
When the spiritual wellness body is balanced, when it has the attention it needs, then what I see is that there is a cellular shift in how people feel. They feel more grounded, connected, and whole. This centered feeling is just one part of the whole system, but as with all of the wellness bodies, it’s essential.
As I’ve said before (and I’ll just keep saying this over and over again) it’s why I’m so passionate about looking at wellness and well-being in a much more holistic way using the centered wellness framework and the 5 wellness bodies. All parts of us: the physical body, the emotional body, the mental body, the energetic body, and the spiritual body all have a role in how we feel each and every day. And I’m here to provide this new perspective on health so we can begin to wake up and start finding the spiritual path to wellness.
