By: Wellsource

This is the sixth and final post in a six-part series focusing on the Six Dimensions of Wellness: emotional, occupational, physical, social, intellectual, and spiritual. Each post has featured a different dimension of wellness. This post will discuss spiritual wellness and the importance of pondering life and your place in it, being mindful, and finding peace within.

Crowds of onlookers with mouths agape stared toward the early morning sky. This was no ordinary morning in New York City because 24-year-old Philippe Petit had chosen this day—August 7, 1974—to walk a wire he had secretly strung between the Twin Towers. More than 1,300 feet above the ground, Petit took one step, and then another. He felt the building sway in the breeze as he stood on the 131-foot cable.

“After a few steps, I knew I was in my element and I knew the wire was not well rigged… but it was safe enough for me to carry on,” Petit said in an interview with Ric Burns, producer of the PBS history series American Experience. “And then, very slowly as I walked, I was overwhelmed by a sense of easiness, a sense of simplicity.”

Petit felt alive! He danced and ran on the 5/8-inch thick wire. He sat down and took in the muffled cheers from the ant-sized crowd below. He fully and intentionally experienced each moment. He heard police officers yelling commands, and yet he chose to focus on the wind, the wire, and the joy of remaining balanced.

Spiritual Wellness, Like Balance, Takes Practice

Pictures show Petit smiling broadly, but looking back to that moment he recalls feeling disbelief that it was so easy “after all those years and months of ups and downs and detours, victories, and disasters.” The journey toward spiritual wellness is a lot like that high-wire walk. There may be moments of anxiety, distress, doubt, despair, and disruption, but there are also times of pure joy, happiness, and discovery of who you are, what you value, and how you fit into your world view. To find balance, a spiritually well person embarks on the same process as a tightrope walker: “He discards the movements space will not support,” Petit writes, “and gathers up the others into a group that he will polish, refine, lighten, and bring closer and closer to himself.”

Tightrope walker crossing between two huge waterfalls.

Finding balance—or as the National Wellness Institute says, harmony—between your inner “feelings and emotions and rugged stretches of your path” demands as much poise as walking near clouds. When asked how he copes with the 1992 death of his nine-year-old daughter, Petit replied, “Oh, I cope with joy….One has to find balance between joy and sorrow. I have immense sorrow over the loss of that child, but I also have immense joy when I think of her.” When faced with despair, a spiritually well person moves forward, step by step, exhibiting consistency and focus.

What would happen if your population engaged in a similar kind of balance and practiced focus?

Workforce Benefits of Mindfulness

Spiritual wellness follows these tenets:

  • It is better to ponder the meaning of life for ourselves and to be tolerant of the beliefs of others than to close our minds and become intolerant.
  • It is better to live each day in a way that is consistent with our values and beliefs than to do otherwise and feel untrue to ourselves.

Source: Hettler, B. The Six Dimensions of Wellness Model. National Wellness Institute.

The most common definition of mindfulness is “the state of being attentive to and aware of what is taking place in the present.” Being mindful requires a person to devote extra-focused attention on their thoughts, feelings, sensations, and environment. This hyper-attention to the “now” forces you to block out worry and stress. And that simple act has tremendous benefits:

Mindfulness is increasingly being promoted as a way to improve well-being, boost performance, and enhance working relationships.

But Is Mindfulness Hard?

Practicing mindfulness can be challenging at first—just like high-wire walking. But with enough practice, it is also “the simplest, the most beautiful, and the easiest” thing to do. “I shouldn’t say that, but why not?” says Petit. “It’s very easy to walk on a wire if you spend a whole lifetime practicing it.” For Petit, a lifetime of practice has made performing on a tightrope both the most difficult and the easiest art form on the earth.

Mindfulness—the focused path to spiritual wellness—gets easier over time. And the benefits make it worth the effort.

Ready to get started? Download our health challenge “Practice Mindfulness” which includes:

  • A basic quiz for participants to see how much they know about mindfulness
  • An inspiring story of how mindfulness changed one man’s life
  • The benefits of mindfulness to both mind and body
  • Trips for practicing mindfulness
  • A calendar to track your progress as you practice mindfulness each day

About Wellsource

Wellsource, Inc. has been a premier provider of evidence-based Health Risk Assessments and Self-Management Tools for four decades, making us one of the longest-serving wellness companies in the industry. With a strong reputation for scientific research and validity, we offer an innovative family of products that empower wellness companies, health plans, ACOs, and healthcare providers to inspire healthy lifestyles, prevent disease, and reduce unnecessary healthcare costs. Our assessments connect lifestyle choices with healthy outcomes, measure readiness to change for maximum results, and drive informed decisions with actionable data.

Works Cited

Bartlett, Larissa, et al. A systematic review and meta-analysis of workplace mindfulness training randomized controlled trials. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology. 2019:24(1):108-126. doi:10.1037/ocp0000146

Brown, Kirk, and Ryan, Richard M. The Benefits of Being Present: Mindfulness and Its Role in Psychological Well-Being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2003;84(4): 882-848. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.84.4.822

Burns, Ric. Interview with Philippe Petit. “Philippe Petit, High Wire Artist.” American Experience. WGBH Educational Foundation. Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Sept. 2003. Feature clip from the documentary film The Center of the World. From https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/newyork/

Dang, Jonathan M. The Efficacy of Mindfulness-Based Interventions on Depressive Symptoms and Quality of Life: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials. OBM Integrative and Complementary Medicine, 2018;3(2): 011. doi:10.21926/obm.icm.1802011
Day, Elizabeth. “Philippe Petit interview: ‘There is a child inside me that wants to come out.’ The Guardian. June 21, 2004. From https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2014/jun/22/philippe-petit-man-on-wire-highwire-creativity-book

Good, Darren J., et al. Contemplating Mindfulness at Work: An Integrative Review. Journal of Management, 2016;42(1): special collection. doi:10.1177/0149206315617003

Hart, Jane. School-Based Mindfulness Eases Stress and Improves Learning. Alternative and Complementary Therapies, 2019;25(5): 266. doi:10.1089/act.2019.29237.pro

Hettler, Bill. The Six Dimensions of Wellness Model. National Wellness Institute. 1976. From https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.nationalwellness.org/resource/resmgr/pdfs/sixdimensionsfactsheet.pdf

Hülsheger, Ute R., et al. Benefits of Mindfulness at Work: The role of Mindfulness in Emotion Regulation, Emotional Exhaustion, and Job Satisfaction. Journal of Applied Psychology, 2013;98(2):310-325. doi:10.1037/a0031313

Johnson, Jill R., et al. Resilience Training: A Pilot Study of a Mindfulness-Based Program with Depressed Healthcare Professionals. Explore, 2015;11(6):433-444. doi:10.1016/j.explore.2015.08.002

Justh, Matthew. (Scott Rubin, Ed.) The effect of Mindfulness on Problem Solving Ability in High School Students. Proceedings of the Berkeley Carroll 8th Independent Research Conference, 2019: 74-79. From https://www.berkeleycarroll.org/uploaded/Publications/SRD_Journals/BC_SRD_2019_8th.pdf

Khoury, Bassam, et al. Mindfulness-based stress reduction for healthy individuals: A meta-analysis. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 2015;78(6): 519-528. doi:10.1016/j.jpsychores.2015.03.009

Luken, Michelle, and Sammons, Amanda. Systematic Review of Mindfulness Practice for Reducing Job Burnout. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 2016;70(2): 7002250020p1–7002250020p10. doi:10.5014/ajot.2016.016956

Petit, Philippe. “Philippe Petit Meditates on His Life Walking the High Wire: Glimpses of the Finite and Infinite.” On the High Wire. 1985. New Directions Publishing Corp: New York. Translated by Paul Auster. June 3, 2019. From https://lithub.com/philippe-petit-meditates-on-his-life-walking-the-high-wire/

Márquez, P.H. Ponte, et al. Benefits of mindfulness meditation in reducing blood pressure and stress in patients with arterial hypertension. Journal of Human Hypertension, 2018; 33(3): 237-247. doi:10.1038/s41371-018-0130-6