Exploring Wholeness
When I was trained as a Registered Nurse, the body and their systems were treated separately from the mind and spirit. We sought to fix (cure) the patient of the disease. My definition of health today is a holistic approach. Everything is deeply connected from how our thoughts impact our choices which impact our body, and the environment. We are connected within ourselves and to each other. We are held together by our Spirit.
Cure versus Healing
Frederick Reklau’s description captures my training as a Registered Nurse in a health model to fix patients with the hope of cure to a model of wholeness, healing and accompaniment.
- Cure may occur without healing; healing may occur without cure.
- Cure separates body from soul; healing embraces the whole.
- Cure isolates; healing incorporates.
- Cure costs; healing enhances.
- Cure combats sickness; healing fosters wellness.
- Cure fosters function; healing fosters purpose.
- Cure alters what is; healing offers what might be.
- Cure is an act; healing is a process.
- Cure acts upon another; healing shares with a sister, a brother.
- Cure manages; healing touches.
- Cure seeks to conquer pain; healing seeks to transcend pain.
- Cure ignores grief; healing assumes grief.
- Cure encounters mystery as a challenge for understanding; healing encounters mystery as a channel for meaning.
- Cure rejects death and view it as defeat; healing includes death among the blessed outcomes of care.
Adapted with permission from Cure versus Healing, Frederick W. Reklau, 1993.
The Wholeness Wheel
The Wholeness Wheel was designed with a blurring between each dimension, signifying that our work within one dimension impacts other aspects of our wellbeing. Spiritual wellbeing is woven into each of the dimensions. At the center, we daily live our baptismal call as a new creation in Christ.
I served on the Inter-Lutheran Coordinating Committee of Ministerial Health and Wellness of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America and the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. Together, we created the Wholeness Wheel helping our churches embrace what it means to live well in Christ.
Wholeness Wheel Labyrinth
While serving as the ELCA Wellness Manager for Portico Benefit Services, I created a Wholeness Wheel Labyrinth for prayerful discernment about your first faithful step in living well.
Expanding My Definition of Wholeness
