Get your Spirit On!

When I decided to my further studies I assured myself to choose a Holistic Health doctorate program that equally delved into the spiritual part of our being, an indispensable segment of the Whole in Holistic Health and Wellness. Ah yes, the soul, the spiritual wonder of life, that part of us that is infinitely connected to a wider Whole and extends to us an opportunity to gain an understanding of the connectedness to, or the organizing principle of the Universe.

It is in spirituality where I find a belonging to something greater than myself, the naked truth that I am but an Atom in the vast of the unknown, longing for a greater sense of Self. I am a set of atoms that seek to attach themselves to a meaning, a purpose, or to an idea of an existence within the limits of the biological thinking brain. The Biological Thinking brain: Think, think and think some more within the limits of its experienced reality, not reaching out, thinking within the box of its intelligence, within its box. The Spiritual Thinking brain: Reach out, dig deep into the extraneural resources within the present self and tune in to the visceral entity of human thought so that when one feels something so deep within the body, when one has a physical reaction to unknown stimuli, a “déjà vu” one is aware that it is a trigger from a source that is much greater than any physical existence. That belief calls on us to exercise the powers of the biological brain in a way to touch the innate genius and open up the constraints that we can only believe in what we can feel, see and touch.

Spirituality can be defined as the Journey from birth to death and the struggle with how our reality fits into a greater “cosmic” scheme.  How it is that we can be a part of “a large-scale systematic plan or arrangement for attaining a particular object or putting a particular idea into effect by a force, a power that is far above what we can imagine or even feel.”  How is it?

“Every atom you possess has almost certainly passed through several stars and been part of millions of organisms on its way to becoming you. We are each so atomically numerous and so vigorously recycled at death that a significant number of our atoms – up to a billion for each of us, it has been suggested – probably once belonged to Shakespeare.  A billion more each came from Buddha and Genghis Khan and Beethoven, and any other historical figure you care to name. So we are all reincarnations – though short-lived ones. When we die, our atoms will disassemble and move off to find new uses elsewhere – as part of a leaf or other human being or drop of dew.” – Bill Bryson

In Spirituality, one can find meaning in a power separate from ourselves (whether it be God, or an entity that represents supreme power, wisdom, and goodness) or find purpose and representation in one’s private mystical journey. Transpersonal Psychology offers the belief that a greater connectedness involves the shifting away from a physical attachment of the Self to transform suffering into healing. Psychoneuroimmunology in theory suggests that the mind and its reaction to stressors can lead to physiological changes that impair the immune system, therefore setting the stage for disease and dysfunction within the organism. Higher power, physical self, health, and wellbeing. As spirituality unfolds it means belonging to the moral flow of all life, joining with it, drawing in its juice and vitality, and making your contribution to it. There is a much bigger life force than yourself that moves and fuels the basic units of life, atoms, and in this game, there is no room for an unfettered ego. In other words, it is not just a private journey, it is coexisting with all “atoms” in the universe: an ego-regulating force that is a source of greater hope, peace, and love.  As an ordained Whole Medicine and Healing Minister, I embrace Transpersonal Psychology, also known as Spiritual Psychology, in the quest for personal growth, spiritual understanding, or self-realization: centered around the private spiritual aspects of my private journey.

***Side note: Emphasis is on the word Spiritual and not Religious. Religious belongs to a public realm of membership in religious institutions, participation in formal rituals, and adherence to official denominational doctrines.

When we embrace impermanence, we can experience “shifts” in our own, unique identity, and the more we loosen our sense of control, the more enlightened and rational we become. Who is to say that we are not connected to a bigger Whole encompassed within the realm that we call Earth in a finite space in an infinite dance?

The last time I went camping in Wrightwood California far away from the Light pollution that clutters our vision of our existence today, I stared into the vast dark sky with twinkling diamonds something that until a decade ago was still partly visible from the City of Angels below. Although life on Earth may seem rather stable and unchanging, this time I felt an intimate fleeting connectedness: the sun rose and set as sure the tides went in out 100 miles west in the Santa Monica bay (I was taken back 100 years driving by the North Tower, all that is left of the grand Davidson arch, an icon of a then small mountain town of Wrightwood, California that was envisioned for Angelenos as a place where they could have a place to enjoy the great outdoors or that part of the word removed from constant human contact).  I felt the days pass, then the months bled forward here I was again, 100 years later, in the same place, with different people, different topography, same forest—in the grand scheme of things we never are the same person that we were just a minute ago.

We have a saying in Spanish, “Cada loco con su tema,” or, “To each his own.”  In other words, when we let go, our unique metaphysical being separates from the needs of the DNA body, and the world becomes a passionate place full of wonder and hope. The phrase in Spanish above embodies this situation because when we become self-absorbed and filled with the “static” between ourselves and the Universe, we lose our minds. Feeling out-of-sorts? Stop everything you are doing right now! Take a deep breath and look around. How important is it, your thought at this very moment? Breathe deep and let the breath out with a deep sigh, what is it? What does your intuition say?

To each his own, focus on yourself, change your energy, and that beautiful person that you are will attract all the Joy it needs; personally, financially, romantically, and the list goes on. Stop labeling everything in life. The biggest surprises come when we live and let live and know our Self-Worth. The latter comes when we are “static” free.

From the book Transformations of Consciousness  (Wilber, Engler, & Brown, 1986), the authors describe transformations of consciousness, both psychopathological, in the direction of psychic disturbance, and psychotherapeutic, in the direction of psychic health. So we can go either way. Be happy or continue to be miserable! 

Once a reporter asked Albert Einstein, “Dr. Einstein, if you could ask the universe a single question and receive a direct reply, what would you ask?’ His response was immediate. “Is the universe friendly?”  How would you interpret this essential question in your life? It can be nothing but fruitful, no matter what disasters the human condition has created, there is a greater purpose, a connectedness beyond our comprehension.

Spirituality is not rocket science. It is a “dance in the middle.” In the middle of an often tragic condition where we humans are so distracted by physical things and their perceived pleasure that we have lost the ability to trust what is unseen, we do not understand the visceral discomfort from within which comes not from the physical self but takes place with a connection at a higher realm: the Spiritual.  

For further information on how you or a loved one could benefit from a Holistic Wellness, Whole Health path, please do not hesitate to contact me at sixto@drsixto.me

To your wellness, naturally!

Sixto J. Sicilia, Ph. D.