Health, physical and spiritual

Zdrowie, to najważniejsze, goes the Polish saying, often uttered while raising toasts. Health is certainly extremely important to us - but is it the most important?

Question - would you rather swap a fit and healthy body within which sits a troubled mind, for a body, that's immobile in a wheelchair but in a serene and blissful state?

I'd argue that spiritual well-being is even more vital to our lives, to our experience of living, than good health. The sense of being connected with the universe, with the infinite, of feeling at one with the unfolding, the becoming, of the journey from Zero to One. The eternal path from the brutish to the angelic, from ignorance to awareness - the purpose, the ordination of which can be represented by our human concept of God.

It is too easy to get distracted from the spiritual journey by our base human emotions, but we must not lose sight of the deeper current that links us all, our world, our universe, as it is unfolding. There are setbacks, we forget, we are distracted. And when that happens for too long, life's meaning gets muddied. At our human level, that 'unfolding' is represented by our new discoveries, by shared wisdoms that elevate our understanding.

This active search for understanding, for a higher awareness should be constant. It is repaid in that serene and blissful state of mind, which befalls us all too rarely. Two years ago, I asked 'how much spirituality do we need?' For my church-going readers, the experience of attending a religious service ought to bring about some sense of re-connection with the beautiful mystery of the infinite. Sometimes it does - sometimes just flashes - sometimes - empty ritual. And yet we owe it to ourselves, to our spiritual well-being, to actively seek moments of deep insight through which we build that serenity which should grow with age.

Yes, we age, nominally at one day per day, one year per year and yet our perception of the passage of time is that it is accelerating ever faster away from the past. At the age of ten, a year is one-tenth of our total experience, at the age of 50 it is one-fiftieth, so a 50 year-old perceives a year as galloping by at a much faster rate than a child - and at 75 it is even faster.

Even if blessed with good health, old age is marked by a deterioration in physical form, frailty, tiredness and poorer stamina. If you have built up, over the decades, a spiritual fortitude based on an awareness of one's place within the eternal unfolding of the universe, you will be in much better spiritual shape than someone who can do little more than bemoan the passing of youth.

The biggest enemy of your health is complacency; just because you're feeling well today doesn't mean you'll be feeling well tomorrow. I am convinced that praying - willing - yourself to be well does work. Plugging your biology into the current of the universe, so to speak. For a positive, spiritual reason. Healthy = happy, happy = healthy... if you will it, it is no dream. No matter how you are today, you can guard against further deterioration by engaging the soul.

Practising meditation, focus on breathing, listening to the universe - listening to God, if you will - actively seeking awareness - this all needs to be worked on over time if you are to enjoy serenity in old age, spiritual strength with which to overcome the encroaching physical frailty. As you lie in bed, before you drop off to sleep, think about the wonder of the endless and the eternal...

This time last year:
What's new on the Warsaw-Mysiadło borders...

This time two years ago:
Four stations from Jeziorki to Czachówek

This time four years ago:
High over Eastern Ukraine

This time five years ago:
From shouted slogans to practical policy

This time seven years ago:
Who should pay for railways?

This time eight years ago:
Grunwald - the big picture

This time ten years ago:
"Take me right back to the track, Jack"

This time 11 years ago:
The summer sublime