3 Essential Nutrients for Human Flourishing
In his book, Recapture the Rapture: Rethinking God, Sex, and Death in a World That's Lost Its Mind, Jamie Wheal suggests there are three essential nutrients to human flourishing.
The Sacred Design Lab of Harvard Divinity School distills these three core elements down to Beyond, Becoming and Belonging. Put another way, says Wheal, you might call them Inspiration, Healing and Connection. The Ancient Greeks had their own names for these three essential categories of experience: Ecstasis, Catharsis and Communitas. Another (more modern) way they might be described is as waking up, growing up and showing up.
At Wild Within we call these three elements Adventure, Wild Work, and Community.
Adventure plunges us into the new and unknown. It is a journey into the beyond to the wellsprings of inspiration. Adventure expands our world and rejuvenates us.
Through Wild Work we remember and embody our true nature. It's an ever unfolding process of becoming who we are.
Community is what forms around those undertaking such a journey together. It is an attitude of seeing our fellow travelers as a source of help and refuge.
All three are intimately related. The support of a community sustains, encourages and deepens our explorations. Answering the call to adventure sparks and facilitates our healing and transformation. As we grow up we naturally are inclined to share the fruits of our work and aid others on their own journey.
These three elements are the very things often lacking in our modern culture. I believe Wheal has put his finger on what many of us already intuitively sense is missing in our lives. The good news is that discovering we are nutrient deficient is a huge step toward restoring our health and thriving.
Here is an experiment you might try: reflect on a time in your life that felt intensely meaningful. Were these three elements at play? How so?
Where do you find these essential nutrients in your life today? Do you feel undernourished in any or perhaps all of these areas? How might you lovingly tend to your flourishing?
Where do you find these essential nutrients in your life today? Do you feel undernourished in any or perhaps all of these areas? How might you lovingly tend to your flourishing?
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