MISSIONARY SERVANTS OF THE MOST HOLY TRINITY SPIRITUAL LIFE COMMITTEE   MONTHLY Reflection: May 2005     Healthy Human Development tc "Healthy Human Development " Paul Michalenko, ST   The focus of this reflection is “the barriers to healthy human development which serve as challenges to our passionate desire to be faithful to the vowed life”. My first response after being asked to prepare this paper was; why was I matched to this topic? I was assured it was the Holy Spirit.   Before talking about barriers I thought it important to attempt to name what is healthy human development. In my work with the Institute of Religious Formation I came across an article that summarized health for me. Health can be seen as the quality of aliveness with which an individual moves through their day to day life. So a barometer of health would be to examine ones aliveness. On an aliveness scale from one to ten where are you? How alive? The author continues to name seven components or dimensions of health that produces this aliveness: Physical – having to do with our physiology, heredity, immune strength, stamina, Emotional – how we feel about ourselves, self esteem, coping with stress, expressing feelings, Spiritual - the discovery of personal meaning and values, the ability to experience connectedness to the ultimate, Intellectual – how we process information, make decisions, clarify our values, Sexual – intimacy, the ability to experience connectedness to others, gender/orientation awareness and comfort, Social – relationship building, communication skills, insights, Cultural – able to contribute to your community, understanding and pride in your ethnic and religious heritage, willing to share your skills and talents. All seven dimensions work together in harmony and balance to produce this sense of aliveness and to accomplish our appropriate life goals. They are interconnected like seven guitar strings. You can’t play one without affecting the others. Appropriate life goals vary over time according to different developmental needs and individual life paths. The path of a vowed religious is different in ways from that of a married man. Imbalance in our lives may dictate the need for an adjustment in our life goals. A geographic move distancing oneself from primary social supports will surface the need to build social relationships. Also, one of the dimensions of health may need more attention at a particular developmental time in our life. The life tasks of adolescence are certainly different from mid-life and later-life. Development psychology is a rather recent science. It was not too long ago that we thought we are born, we live and then we die. We now understand that as long as we are alive we have “work” to do. The seven components of health are that work. Sometimes we may feel that we have dealt with that, settled that issue, it is finished. What we come to realize is that our lives are like spirals we are constantly confronted with the same issues at different life stages deepening the understanding, awareness and “work” that they call for. We are only finished when we die. We know we are not dead when we have the ability to reflect upon our lives and can honestly examine our own aliveness or better yet on journey with a friend or spiritual guide. Honest feedback from those who know us is a great beginning.   In the popular growing field of “Life Coaching” the dimensions of health are often the focus of the conversation. A coach leads a client through a process of awareness about their lives and the areas they wish to change by taking greater responsibility. The result is a “game plan” for greater aliveness. Can we learn something from being this open and vulnerable?   For me the barrier to healthy human development is to not do the work. That is to ignore our health and aliveness. There are many ways to anesthetize ourselves from having to deal with issues of emotional growth, relationships, deeper spiritual connectedness and intellectual expansion. Our busy lives, our compulsions and our fears not to mention past resentments contribute to our lack of aliveness. An African student asked me in class recently, for my opinion as an “older religious” if celibacy got easier as I got older. I guess he didn’t realize that in the US, a fifty-five year old religious is considered a youth. My response was that it doesn’t necessarily get easier it just has its own “work” to address. It may not be about having sex but it’s about maintaining and growing caring relationships. It’s about having others in your life that you are intimate with, who know you, love you and who you can share anything about yourself with. It’s about staying alive. It’s about doing your work.   Many of us are quick to assess the aliveness in organizations or communities. There are telling signs of a lack of life. Obsessions with its own survival and needs, disgruntled unhappy people, distanced relationships, lack of value or vision are perhaps a few of those signs. Yet organizations are just a structure. They have no health other than what their members bring to it. Why would the members choose to live and bring unhealthy and non aliveness to the culture they create? We are only as healthy and alive as a community as the members of our community choose health and aliveness. Can we choose to bring this to ourselves, each other and the people we serve?     Reflection Questions:   What is the quality of your aliveness?   What are the specific dimensions of health that are asking for attention from you at this time of your life?   What are your personal barriers to becoming more alive?             What can you do about it?