What is integrative care anyway? Last week we talked about how our pursuit of wholeness has to include an integrative approach to soul-care. Human beings are more than flesh and blood. The essence of the human soul is an integration of the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects of our being.
These are all important parts of our makeup, which means they all affect our well-being. So, that means, physical deficiency can create emotional and mental deficiency. For example, if I don’t get regular sufficient sleep I can become cranky. I realize that’s pretty benign, but it can grow to become very serious if we don’t pay attention to the cause-and-effect interplay in the soul.
Some people only focus on issues when they become problematic. The old adage, “The squeaky door gets the oil,” certainly rings true in this context, doesn’t it? I know I have also lived by the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” line of thinking too, which is essentially living in autopilot.
Choosing to take an integrative care approach to well-ness is about recognizing that all parts of our being need attention and care. This is helpful in most everyday moments of life, but it is especially critical when we find that any one of those aspects is operating in dis-ease.
I remember trying to find my bearings after my father passed away suddenly. It was one week into the grief journey that I began to recognize serious signs of breakdown. I mean, let’s be real, grief is beast, so there’s that, but I could see the deficiency right down to the core of my being. My physical body began to shut down and I became sick (for months). I have never been so emotionally drained in my life as I was in those early days, and mentally? The fatigue that descended upon my brain would cut access to my vocabulary center. It was embarrassing because I’d substitute words using them incorrectly. And, a loss is confronting; it takes time to wrestle that with God.
Can you relate to any of that? Your story will have different details and context, but the point relates. Things happen to us and around us all the time. Some of these things have a greater impact than others, but it’s also important to recognize that the pursuit of wholeness requires a holistic approach to wellness.
I want to invite to you check out this week’s episode of The Pastor and The Counselor as, Pastor Ryan, Jon Burchard, and Corryn Vento talk about what it means to take an integrative care approach to wellness.
PodcastWritten by Maureen Brown
Maureen Is our Worship and Communications Pastor. She has served New Life Community alongside Pastor Ryan for 19 years. She is passionate about Jesus and His Church, which is why she does what she does. Maureen has been leading worship, teaching, and mentoring her entire adult life. She graduated in 1996, from Emmanuel Bible College with a Bachelor of Religious Education in Professional Studies with a double minor in Christian Education and Music and then married Ryan—the love of her life. Maureen is a blogger so she brings a special set of gifts that are well used in the area of Communications here at NLC.