I am telling this story for anyone who may need 'to be found' by this little book, as it happened to me.
Many years ago, before deciding to change my career and start training to become a health practitioner in natural medicine, I was finding myself in a somewhat difficult spot.
I did not find fulfilment in my job (as an associate editor for a major scientific publication), and my health was showing signs of chronic stress and imbalances that I wasn't sure how to manage (other than taking medications, which I didn't want). Mentally and emotionally I was on a roller coaster of low moods, which I tended to suppress in the name of having to ‘function well’ in the world, and in fear of having to face the root causes of such unease. My spiritual life was near zero, having abandoned religion as a teenager and never really tried to find my way back to some sort of spiritual connection, even more so because the path I had chosen in life was that of science (i.e. all that matters is what we can see, nothing else).
Needless to say, I wasn't well, or happy. So one day after coming back from a very long and draining work trip I decided to quit my job and take a few months off to rest and regroup. I think a primordial instinct had kicked in at that point, urging me to find some way to nourish myself back to thriving rather than surviving. I needed to make space in order to allow something perhaps more meaningful for me to emerge in my life.
As many people do, I instinctively turned to nutrition and started to discover very quickly that the type of fuel we give our body affects not only physical health (as everyone knows), but mental health as well. I can’t say that I was eating badly, but certainly I was not putting any intentional focus on ensuring regular intake of various essential nutrients, balancing my macros, planning meals so that I could avoid junk-ish options while travelling, etc. I was doing my best (I come from a family with excellent cooking skills and an instinct for healthy eating), but without any real awareness of the consequences of this random approach to fuelling my body.
I took time for exercising every day, and doing walks in nature and around town (I still lived in central London at the time), I realised I had never really given myself the time to just wander around without having to go anywhere specific, just being.
One day I walked into a bookstore, one of those where they sell second-hand books. I wasn't looking for anything specific but somehow I knew I had to go to that particular shelf and pick up that particular book, which was small and colourful.
The small size was probably what guided me, the last thing I wanted was to sit down again with something to read, having just left a job where I was reading all day long, complex scientific manuscripts that I had to make decisions about very quickly about whether the findings were good enough to merit peer reviewing or not (as it turned out, the constant rejecting of people’s hard work was not making my soul sing).
Anyway, as soon as I had this book in my hands all I wanted to do was to rush back home and discover its contents, as if I had found a small treasure.
The title was: The Four Levels Of Healing, A Guide to Balancing the Spiritual, Mental, Emotional, and Physical Aspects of Life, by Shakti Gawain.
The fundamental idea in this little manual was very simple: finding good health, fulfilment, purpose and meaning in life — in other words, healing from whatever imbalance and disconnection someone may be experiencing — involves acknowledging and nurturing not just one but all four levels of the human experience: Spiritual, Mental, Emotional, and Physical.
The emphasis was on the interconnectedness of these different levels and how imbalances in one area can affect the others. Not something I had spent a lot of time thinking about, up to that moment.
To say it with Shakti’s words:
“To experience balance, integration, and well-being in our lives, the mental level must support and harmonise with the other three levels of our existence. We need to have a spiritual philosophy that gives us a broader perspective and helps us find meaning in our lives. We need to have an understanding and acceptance of our own emotions that helps us to love ourselves. We need to know how to care for our physical bodies in a healthy way.”
The good thing about the book was that it is practical in nature, and it offered me tools and activities to work on all four areas. Looking back I am still amazed at how little clue I had at that point about the healing potential of a holistic lifestyle. This very accessible book suddenly switched on so many lights for me, it made me change the order of my priorities. I went on reading the other books from the same author, and then the books she based her work on, and kept expanding my research more and more… I went really deep into reconnecting with thoughts, emotions, aspirations and lifestyle practices that I had no time (or willingness) to address with such conviction before.
This included exploring what motivated my life choices up to that point, asking myself what was that I really wanted to do with my time on this earth, and what changes were necessary to be myself, regardless of what had gone on before, the present circumstances, and what everyone else thought about me.
To make a long story short, since starting that journey of self-discovery and self-nurturing my life really started to change. I had already left a job that, while wonderful on paper, did not align with my values and deepest aspirations. In the space of a few months, I started a new position that was far less demanding both mentally and emotionally, which allowed me to follow my newly-found desire to go back to school. I eventually qualified in naturopathic nutrition - the first step of many that followed in the pathway of growing my education and experience as a health practitioner. After four years I happily left the corporate world for good, I set up my practice and I started seeing clients straight away.
My circle of connections also changed as a result, I started to meet wonderful like-minded people, and I was learning at speed from everyone. At around that time it is also when I met the love of my life, now my husband, and we started a new life together in a nice flat of our own. I kept going back to the idea of the four aspects, and working on them to the best of my abilities (with ups and downs of course, the learning is never ending and life is always full of surprises!). I continue to practice meditation daily, which I believe is the key factor that keeps me present and connected with my true self and sustains my spiritual awareness. Something I would never do without.
It all developed from ‘taking time off’ and wandering aimlessly into a second-hand bookshop on an otherwise uneventful afternoon almost 15 years ago now… A series of coincidences, or perhaps not? Well, this is a whole other story, but what I can say is that this long journey has certainly given me a passion for helping other people discover the potential of honouring and exploring all aspects of life, as a way of finding healing, purpose, balance, connection, or anything else each person needs to find to feel loved and fulfilled.
“For our own personal satisfaction, we need to find ways to develop and express all aspects of who we are. And for the common good, we have to find a way to live on earth with greater consciousness. In order to do this, we need to look honestly at ourselves, to recognise the areas of unconsciousness in our lives.”
The story is not over, as I am currently embarking on a new training in Health Creation Mentorship, to specialise further in supporting people through their own 360 degree journey of becoming creators of health and happiness, in body, mind and spirit. I’ll keep you posted!
Shakti Gawain (1948-2018) was a prominent American author and teacher in the fields of personal development, consciousness, and spirituality. Her accessible and practical style made complex spiritual and psychological concepts approachable for a wide audience. Her work continues to inspire new generations through its emphasis on intuition, self-awareness, and authentic living.
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