Our book, The Well-Being Bucket List: 29 Mindful Choices is a sort of written podcast of twenty-nine conversations between us in which we explore possibilities for living that could better serve our well-being (and that of those around us) each day.
One of our favorite conversations unpacked the meaning underlying the quotation from Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”
WILL: “One of the things I have noticed most of my life is the pure transformative power that comes with having my values and actions in alignment. I have confirmed this by looking back at my best thinking, work, creativity, balance and centeredness, humanity, and happiness. Like so many, my appreciation and understanding of the power in this alignment resulted from repeatedly reaping the consequences of being out of it. When I strived for excellence with integrity, my life has worked well. But when I missed a step or went sideways or backward, I always felt the pain and consequences of failing to live in that kind of alignment. But, as good this alignment is when I’m in it, I realize that it is purely at a ‘human’ level.”
Our conversation centered around taking the undoubted excellence of this human “alignment,” to a higher level. In one form, this is embodied in Spiritual Psychology, brought forth thanks to the lifetime of work lovingly rendered by Drs. Mary and Ron Hulnick, founders and directors of the University of Santa Monica. They developed a systematic approach to bring the focus of our individual alignment more clearly onto the latter part of the equation: “We are spiritual beings having a human experience.” Steve had the privilege of learning, teaching, and consulting with them and the faculty and students at USM.
STEVE: “What I loved most was seeing how effectively their programs delivered systems to their students for true psychological and spiritual transformation. Through interactive teaching programs, they demonstrated that when spirituality and advanced psychology are successfully integrated, the change in the student can be rapid, profound, and long-lasting. My life as an author and coach has focused on this kind of transformation: discovering that we are spiritual beings having a human experience. Can people really change? Or are they stuck inside a permanent personality? And if they can change, how does it happen?”
WILL: “The Hulnicks wrote about the ‘how’ in their excellent book, Remembering the Light Within: A Course in Soul-Centered Living. “When you hold a clear intention, your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors—including your words—align. As you align your purpose, choices, words, and actions with the outcomes you wish to experience or manifest, you initiate inner alignment with the Essence of who you are—a Divine Being having a human experience.”
STEVE: “The Light they talk about is our true nature, divine creativity, and innate well-being. Its realization can be harmonized with the great spiritual teachings. The concept of the ‘Light’ is deceptively simple: It’s already within! You’ve got it and waking up to it will enlighten you to infinite creative possibilities for change.”
We recommend the great book Remembering the Light Within: A Course in Soul-Centered Living by our friends and colleagues Ron and Mary Hulnick, but more than that, consider discovering and practicing greater alignment between your humanity and spirituality, whatever form it may take. Maybe starting in 2023.
~Will Keiper and Steve Chandler, co-authors of The Well-Being Bucket List and The Leader and The Coach: The Art of Humanity in Leadership
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