Do wellbeing and faith work together?

I can’t really remember a time where it was apparent to me that my faith was about my wellbeing. Rather, faith was a rescue mission, taking me away from my sinful humanity, and into the proverbial arms of a loving but jealous God who would not share me with the world, who needed a blood sacrifice in order to have access to me, such was my lost state.

Faith was about being saved, and as I discovered, that is not the same thing as being well.

I know that I am not the first one to discover that I lost my health, my resources, rejuvenation, vitality, and peace working myself to the literal and figurative bone building The Church, living the life I thought I was called to by God, Godself. In my early 30’s, I had a moment where I looked in the mirror and did not recognise myself. The Church we worked for and had committed our whole lives to, dubbed itself as a “Family Church,” and yet, my family was not thriving. The family church did not work for my family.

After being told one Sunday that as a Pastor, if my child was sick, my first responsibility was to the church, and that I should give them IB Profen and bring them sick, I knew then and there for sure - I had had inklings of it before - that the end goal of the kind of faith and community I had given my life to was not abundant, was not peace, was not for my wellness and my thriving; I was collateral damage in a numbers game.

At that moment, a hunger to be well bloomed within me like never before. I ached for it. Dreamt of it. And eventually, began the work of re-programming my sense of faith and spirituality for my health and vitality.

Can that even be the goal of faith and spiritual practice? Wellness? Recovery? Thriving? Being?

This is a series about spiritual wellness - not the clichés about self-care and prayer closets and cat pictures with bible verses on them. This is not a pep talk or a cute idea. This is the basis of the work: living while we’re alive.

And that encompasses everything and all of it - suffering, joy, pain, laughter, surprises, monotony, boredom, excitement, anxiety, fear, bliss, pleasure, loss, grief, achievement, failure, success…

Wellness is a community of things happening in your body, heart, and spirit. It could be that one thing isn’t well, but the relationship between all your parts is such that there is support, grace, allowance (big one), and compassion. Which, I think, is the goal.

Not heaven when we die. Home here now in our souls.

We will deal with what happens after we die when we get there. But for now, let’s not waste our lives obsessing over what MIGHT be beyond that veil and miss what is here beneath our noses, right now.

Series starts Monday March 4 in The Practice Co App. Hope you’ll join me.

KNOW THIS: “Your soul doesn’t care what you do for a living and when your life is over, neither will you. Your soul cares only about what you are being while you are doing whatever you are doing.” Neale Donald Walsch.

Liz Milani xo
Instagram: @thepracticeco 

From this week’s series titled "Wellbeing, Now," with a subscription in the App. Hope to see you there.