Annual spiritual wellness check-up indicator two: wisdom

The second indicator on the annual spiritual wellness check-up is wisdom. Wisdom is know what you can change and what you can’t.

This idea first showed up in the philosophy of Epictetus who was the teacher of Marcus Aurelius who writes about it in his Meditations. It is known today as the Serenity Prayer.

God, give me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things that I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

To what extent do I exercise the wisdom to change what I can and accept the things I can’t and strive to tell the difference?

Put a hash mark on your level of wisdom.

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Who will you discuss your score with and how you can grow in this spiritual skill?

Annual spiritual awareness check-up indicator one: self awareness

There are 16 indicators of spiritual health that can be assessed on an annual spiritual health check -up.

Spirituality is defined as a relationship with a higher power whatever that higher power is conceived to be. There is a difference between spiritual and religious. Some people are spiritual but not religious and some people are religious and not spiritual. Some people are both spiritual and religious. The annual spiritual wellness check-up indicators are focused on indicators of a person’s relationship with their higher power which is shared by most religions and none.

The annual spiritual wellness check up indicators can be rated by the individual on a scale of 0 - 10 with 0 being the total absence of the indicator and 10 it being present 100% of the time and 5 meaning that the indicator is present in the person’s life 50% of the time. The check up is to be administered by the individual with themself and discussed with a trusted and respected other person.

Self awareness - To what extent do you know what makes you tick? Socrates said that an unexamined life is not worth living. To what extent do you review your experience of your life and attempt to learn from it: hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, annually, only when in pain? People are like onions and we have layers of privacy and secrecy. We know some things about ourselves and other things we are not aware of and lie in our unconscious, sometimes called the shadow or our “blind spots.” Many people when asked what makes them tick have no idea and unfortunately don’t even have a frame of reference within which to consider the question. Another way of asking the question of “what makes you tick” is what are your beliefs, opinions, values, and practices and where did they come from? Why do you think what you think, feel what you feel, and do what you do?

Put a hash mark on your level of self awareness.

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Who will you discuss your score with and how you can grow in this spiritual skill?

Annual spiritual wellness check-up

An acquaintance on Wednesday told me that his multiple physicians didn’t seem to want to spend much time with him because there is nothing more they can do for him.  He said he had his annual Medicare physical and all the physician did was review his medications and his labs and then ended the visit. I said, “Well they call it an annual Medicare physical but it isn’t really a physical, it is an annual wellness check to review meds., labs, and appropriateness of current treatment plan.”

I continued on “As humans we are composed of body and soul. The physician is only interested in your body. If there isn’t any more to be done to fix physical problems they move on to other patients. However, I am a psychotherapist, and psyche means soul, so maybe we should also do an annual spiritual wellness check. So what’s your spirit like these days?”

He looked at me a little perplexed and then seemed to soften and said, “Well, they tell me I am grumpy.”

So I have been thinking what indicators should be covered on an “annual spiritual wellness check?” 

Should people have an annual spiritual wellness check-up on their soul just as they do for their body?