Three Approaches to Total Global Wellness
Today, 10 June 2017, we’re celebrating Global Wellness Day. This is a wonderful landmark to begin thinking about global wellness. It’s a beginning, a meaningful gesture, and gives us pause to think of our own pathways to wellness. And we have developed our own approach to well-being we call Total Global Wellness.
What is Total Global Wellness?
Total Global Wellness means taking care of oneself and simultaneously the environment we live in. This 360 degree approach to well-being is something we can all share. While we cannot solve the world’s problems alone, we can recognize our power through interdependence, right where we are. Happiness begins with ourselves, together with the neighborhood. We will all positively influence each other to change our environment, and the environment in turn helps us to grow.
Of course there are limitless approaches to wellness. Here’s three approaches we can take towards Total Global Wellness.
Meditation
Wellness begins with oneself. It starts with one’s state of mind. Wellness means recognizing one’s own fundamental goodness which exists independently from what’s happening in the outside world. While the news outside might be depressing, we can look inside to find strength and courage, joy and contentment. We have it already, but we often need to feel it again.
I have found that the best way to re-awaken our goodness is through meditation. Meditation is just being ourselves. Basic goodness is independent of religion or belief. Meditation is simplicity, returning to basics. It works with our whole being. So the first approach is to get meditation instruction and sit every day.
Yoga
While meditation takes care of the mind, or spirit, yoga works with the body. Yoga goes very deep, providing optimum health to the bones, muscles and tendons, organs, and all the systems of the body. It works with the whole body so that we feel good, and provides wonderful support to meditation. In fact, you may find that it is difficult to distinguish between meditation and yoga. Mind and body are not two.
Of course, yoga is not the only body training we can do. Running, walking, cycling, swimming will all serve us well.
Zero Waste
In our household we have begun a path towards zero waste. This feels like a natural outcome of the self-suffiency one feels in meditation and yoga. Zero waste makes you look very closely at what you really need, and how you consume. We have muslin bags for shopping. We’re buying food from bulk suppliers, and shopping local and organic. Plastics are slowly being eliminated from the household. Brands in fancy packaging are replaced with glass jars. We have almost no trash. Our home is more elegant and uncluttered. Zero waste practice sets us on a path to greater environmental awaress.
By fully integrating these three approaches in our lives, pathways open to total global wellness. They show us that body, mind and environment are totally interconnected. Meditation, yoga and zero waste are profound in what they have to teach us, and vast in their effectiveness in increasing our individual and collective happiness.
Positive change begins with a good foundation. Learn the tools for meditation and yoga on one of our retreats. Invest in personal wellness, and the results of a retreat will inspire you to travel limitless pathways to Total Global Wellness.
Our next retreats are in the Morocco countryside, 23–29 September 2017 & 28 December 2017–3 January 2018.