The moment we hear ‘health’, the only thing that comes to the mind of many is the physical strength and fitness. That means the definition of health is confined to the periphery of body alone. Of course, a healthy and fit body void of any ailments is a basic necessity of our system and most of us do all that is in our capacity to maintain it that way. But, is that all health is?  If we ponder a little deeper, we’ll find that usually, we are more ailed by our thoughts, emotions and attitude than our body. The field of medical science has proved beyond doubt that these have a direct impact on the physical and physiological body. So that brings us to think of health beyond the realm of gross body into the subtle arena of thoughts, feelings and energy. Nothing can drain us worse than our own negativity, mood swings and inertia. These are tendencies of an inner harbour and no matter what exercise, diet and treatment we stay on, these cannot be fixed from outside. Because these are ‘inside’ stuff and they can only be sorted out not with a workout, but with a ‘work-in’!

This is the basic reason behind ‘health’ being such a huge global concern even in today’s most modern of the times and technologies so much so that the United Nations had to dedicate a day for its awareness and name it ‘World Health Day’! The glaring gap is in not considering the health as a ‘holistic’ approach in the sense that the awareness of our ‘Being’ in the form of not just body and breath, but the mind and spirit as well and the interconnection between them.

Thankfully, a few great spiritualists of today have decoded our ancient rich heritage which turns out to be an essence of living a holistic life to fill this gap, understand the interconnection and fix our lifestyle. According to them, the source of all mood, attitude, energy levels is right inside us. Yes, we ourselves are the whole and sole source of what we have in life today – be it joy, positivity and enthusiasm or misery, negativity and inertia. Amazingly enough, this heritage has discovered many remedies to reverse the harmful tendencies of misery, lethargy and so on into desirable qualities of love, happiness, kindness etc. They termed every such remedial treatment and technique that uplifts the energy and infuses life in its right spirit as ‘Spirituality’. Cosmic singing and dancing, inner stillness, wisdom, sense of universal belongingness, proper breathing, yoga, meditation and selfless service to name a few are all different flavours of this ‘holistic’ living called Spirituality.

“The Sanskrit word for health is ‘Swastha’, means one who is established in oneself, one who is centered. Health is not merely an absence of disease; it’s a dynamic expression of life!” says Gurudev Sri Sri RaviShankar.

So, if you haven’t yet, this may serve as an eye-opener. It’s high time you begin barging into this hitherto oblivious doorway of untapped source of infinite comprehensive well-being so closely and easily available right within. Remember to take this whole into account next time, before actually declaring yourself ‘fit and healthy’!