Article May 13, 2013 Issue

Destination: health and wholeness

Caryl Emra Farkas

This article was originally published on csmonitor.com.

In the article “Destination: Wellness,” New York Times journalist Jesse McKinley describes his tour of treatment centers dedicated to helping people feel healthier. “I was left, on various occasions, body-weary, sleep-deprived, and incredibly waterlogged. ... I meditated and hyperventilated, and was plyometric-ed, watsu-ed, and ceremonially ‘crowned.’ I hiked and ran, floated and swam. I had my chakras read ... and ate more quinoa than I can remember.”

It’s important to realize that behind the trillion dollar “wellness cluster” market that the article describes is a yearning for some procedure that will give us, in the words of Dr. Jim Nicolai, a “feeling of confidence, this feeling of vitality, this feeling of ‘You got this.’ ”

Contrast these methods, however, with a spiritual perspective on well-being. Jesus said, “Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?” and “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:25, 33).

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