A holistic exploration of how meaning, connection, and alignment are essential to vibrant health and lasting wellbeing.

When Achievement Isn’t Enough

It’s a quiet moment that many women recognise: looking around at the life they’ve built—career, relationships, responsibilities—and asking, “Is this all there is?”

It’s not a breakdown. It’s a breakthrough. And often, it’s the first sign that spiritual wellbeing is calling to be heard.

Spiritual health is often the most neglected pillar of wellness. Yet it underpins our motivation, resilience, joy, and connection. Without it, even the most disciplined nutrition and fitness routines can feel hollow.

This blog explores spiritual wellbeing through a holistic lens, integrating science, lived experience, and practices that help women come home to themselves again.

Defining Spiritual Wellbeing

Spirituality doesn’t require religion. It’s not about dogma—it’s about depth.

Spiritual wellbeing is your sense of meaning, purpose, and belonging. It’s your connection to something greater than yourself—whether that’s nature, creativity, community, intuition, or faith. It’s also your connection to your self—your values, your voice, and your truth.

When spiritual health is neglected, we can feel:

• Disconnected or numb

• Overwhelmed by small things but detached from big ones

• Busy, but unfulfilled

• Out of alignment with our true self

• Like we’ve lost our inner compass

These feelings are not failure—they are messages. Signals that something deeper needs space.

What the Science Says

Spirituality and purpose are not abstract ideals—they are measurable aspects of wellbeing.

• A 2022 Frontiers in Psychology review found that individuals with a strong sense of purpose report lower stress levels, better immune function, and reduced risk of chronic illness.

• The Journal of Behavioral Medicine reports that spiritual practices such as meditation, prayer, and time in nature enhance parasympathetic (rest-and-digest) nervous system activity.

• Spiritual wellbeing has been linked to higher levels of self-compassion, greater life satisfaction, and more successful health behaviour change.

In short: your spiritual health is your health.

Why Purpose Feels Out of Reach

Many women spend years—or decades—focused on roles and responsibilities: worker, mother, partner, caregiver, leader. While these identities matter, they can eclipse the deeper question of who you are beyond what you do.

You may feel:

• Over-identified with your career or family role

• Unsure of what lights you up anymore

• Afraid to explore a new path in case it disrupts everything

• Longing for something more—but unsure what that “more” even is

The first step in reclaiming spiritual wellbeing is permission. Permission to pause. To ask different questions. To consider that who you are now might not be who you were ten years ago—and that’s not a crisis. That’s growth.

The Holistic Perspective: The Wairua Within

In holistic health, we draw on models like Te Whare Tapa Whā and Te Wheke which honour wairua—the spiritual dimension—as equally vital to wellbeing as physical, mental, and social health.

Without wairua, the house is incomplete.
Without meaning, the body and mind are often overwhelmed.
With spiritual connection, healing deepens.

Spiritual wellness is not a side practice. It is the centre.

Pathways to Spiritual Wellbeing

There is no one-size-fits-all spiritual practice. The goal isn’t perfection—it’s reconnection.

Here are key pathways I guide clients through in coaching:

1. Create Space for Stillness

Noise—both external and internal—drowns out our inner voice.
Stillness allows it to rise again.

Try this:

• Begin each day with five minutes of silence before checking your phone.

• Breathe deeply and ask, “What do I need today?”

• End the day with reflection: “Where did I feel most like myself today?”

Stillness is not empty—it’s where truth begins.

2. Explore Meaning Through Journaling

Journaling helps process emotion, clarify values, and reconnect to purpose.

Prompts to try:

• What gives me energy and what drains it?

• What did I love doing as a child that I’ve forgotten?

• If I wasn’t afraid, what would I change?

• Where in my life am I out of alignment?

You don’t need all the answers. But asking the right questions can be life-changing.

3. Connect with Nature

Nature is one of the most powerful spiritual teachers. Time outside lowers cortisol, improves mood, and reawakens our sense of awe and presence.

Simple practices:

• Walk barefoot on grass or sand

• Sit under a tree and listen to the wind

• Gaze at the stars and remember how vast life truly is

You are part of something bigger. Sometimes we just need to remember.

4. Return to Creativity

Creativity is spiritual expression made visible. Whether through art, dance, music, or writing, creating reawakens joy and flow.

Ask yourself:

• What creative expression feels lost?

• What would I create if I wasn’t trying to impress anyone?

There is healing in colour, sound, movement, and voice.

5. Redefine Purpose

Purpose doesn’t have to be grand or public.
It can be subtle, quiet, personal.

Purpose is:

• The impact you make in others’ lives, even through small acts

• The legacy of how you show up, not what you achieve

• The alignment between what you value and how you live each day

You don’t need to change careers to live on purpose—you need to live on purpose within what you do.

Integrating Spiritual Health into Everyday Life

Spiritual wellbeing isn’t something to add to your to-do list. It’s something to live into.

You might integrate it by:

• Saying no to what no longer aligns

• Meditating for five minutes each morning

• Creating rituals to mark transitions in your day

• Surrounding yourself with people who reflect your values

• Letting go of identities that feel too small for who you’ve become

Spiritual health is not a destination. It’s a daily remembering.

Final Thoughts: Come Home to Yourself

Reconnection doesn’t require you to be perfect, productive, or always calm. It only asks that you be honest.

Your spirit—the deepest part of you—is not gone. It may simply be buried beneath exhaustion, noise, and the need to hold it all together.

Health isn’t just how well your body performs—it’s how alive your soul feels within that body.

You are allowed to slow down.
You are allowed to change direction.
You are allowed to live a life that feels like your own.

Let’s make space for that kind of life.