Life happens! As long as life happens we will always be busy with finding answers and solutions to take on the challenges that disturb our wellbeing and wholeness.
In my last blog “Is it possible to live a balanced lifestyle?”, I wrote that for a integrated lifestyle we need wholeness and not just coping skills. Wholeness means that we embrace our challenges and brokenness, but are not defined by it, and continue our journeys towards living as healthy whole people.
This brings three questions to the front (1) What is the difference between wellbeing (or wellness) and wholeness and (2) Is it possible to live with wholeness in a broken world? (3) How can we go about in living with wholeness?
What is the difference between wellbeing and wholeness?
Dr Charlie Grantham wrote an article in the Work Design Magazine – “The Difference Between Well-Being And Wholeness At Work”. He made the following distinction:
“Well-being brings you balance in the present. Wholeness pulls you toward the future. Well-being is a necessary — but not sufficient — idea to promote the growth, resiliency, and totality of a person. Wholeness is more than physical. It’s the emotional connection reflected in company purpose (or culture, if you must), brand, and an individual’s true north.” (https://www.workdesign.com/2015/09/the-difference-between-well-being-and-wholeness-at-work/)
The WikiDif make the distinction as follows:
“As nouns the difference between wholeness and wellness is that wholeness is the quality of something considered as a whole while wellness is the quality or state of being in good health.”
Without falling in the trap to find perfect definitions, we can see that the two are interconnected and has to do with not just existing in the current situation, but also with moving, growing towards the future.
Jonathan Borofsky made a a series of aluminium sculptures named Molecule Man ( see picture above) and are installed at various locations around the world, including Germany and the United States. The sculpture model depicts three human form silhouettes with hundreds of holes, leaning toward each other. According to Borofsky, the holes represent “the molecules of all human beings coming together to create our existence.”
“[The sculpture is to remind] of the fact that both people and molecules exist in a world governed by probability, and that the objective of all creative and scientific traditions is finding wholeness and unity within the world.” (https://www.visitberlin.de/en/molecule-men)
What I personally see in Molecule Man is “a movement towards … an embracing of imperfection … a continuous action … something beter to become”. In a way this answer also the second question for me.
Is it possible to live with wholeness in a broken world?
One can approach this question from many angles ranging from philosophically to practically. We find wide-ranging answers from the many different religions, cultures, tribes, nations, worldviews etc. There is not enough space here just to even try to mention all of the answers, what to say to discuss and compare it with one another.
From a practical viewpoint I want to say “Yes it is possible to live with wholeness in a broken world!” I will immediately qualify it with “… as long as you move and grow towards it.”
This means, that in the challenges of everyday life in this broken world, wholeness is not a state, position or place where you arrive, but a way of living in WHO you are, WHERE you are, WHAT you are doing, WHY your are doing it and WHERETO and HOW you are living towards it.
This brings up the third question.
How can we go about in living with wholeness?
I want to share a few pointers I’ve learned in my own life and also in coaching sessions with many people
1) Explore and Own your Life Story
Life is a continual journey of exploring, discovering and living towards the future. As life progress, we go through different periods or seasons. Along this journey, successes, failures, crises, mistakes all become part of our story.
The good news is that we can learn from it. We can learn the positive lessons and motivational circumstances of both the successes and crises of our lives. We can discover the talents unique to us and identify the sources of inspiration in the words and pictures that resonate with us. We can formulate our own core values and can integrate these lessons, motivational circumstances, talents, inspirations, words and pictures and values as building blocks for the future.
2) Unlock and embrace your Potential
One of the main reasons why people fail to move forward, is because they are unwilling to risk anything. Unlocking our potential will also challenge us to take risks in our life journeys. We can embrace the potential that lies in our personalities, our skills, our strengths and abilities, our talents and gifts. It will help us to explore, discover and live with new horizons. It helps us to answer the question “Who am I?”
3) Live your Passion and Life Purpose
Living with wholeness also entails that you can answer the question “Where am I going?” What is you Passion, Purpose and Vision in life? Answering these questions is an investment in wholeness – the investment to thrive and become the person you are created and desire to be.
4) Integrate and Align your life.
Integration means every part of your life is important and that your whole person (who you are!) aligns with with your passion, your purpose and your dreams (where you are going!) aligning is the doing part – a constant cycle of putting into action the areas of your life you want to align with who you are and where you are going.
I have developed an online course or journey , Integrated Life Journey, for people to live with wholeness.
You can undertake this journey in two ways:
- A journey of self-discovery on the Online Platform in your own time and own pace. Just follow this link to register and then continue your journey. https://inhandonline.com/courses/integrated-life-journey/
- Guided coaching sessions either one-on-one or as a group where you are guided on this journey in six coaching sessions. Contact me at groberts@maxistrat.co.za or go to the Contact page on this website and send me a message.