Total Health: Author Maureen Sharphouse on How We Can Optimize Our Mental, Physical, Emotional, & Spiritual Well-being

Befriend your body. It is not the enemy. Give up the fight. Fighting against your weight gain, ill-health condition, pain, or illness will only ever feel like fighting. Likewise, battling something will only ever feel like a battle. Instead, connect with your body regularly, speaking directly to it — and asking it what it needs from you to help keep it healthy and well, so that it can help you feel alive and energized and best live a full and rewarding life. Get in the habit of regularly saying to your body, “How can I serve you today? What can I do for you? In what way can I help you best as you help me?” Whatever you intuitively hear, act on it. Work in partnership with your body, not against it. It is the vehicle your soul operates through on planet Earth and the suit you wear. It is your responsibility to nourish, feed, and give your physical body what it needs daily and look after it well.

Often when we refer to wellness, we assume that we are talking about physical wellbeing. But one can be physically very healthy but still be unwell, emotionally or mentally. What are the steps we can take to cultivate optimal wellness in all areas of our life; to develop Mental, Physical, Emotional, & Spiritual Wellbeing?

As a part of our series about “How We Can Cultivate Our Mental, Physical, Emotional, & Spiritual Wellbeing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Maureen Sharphouse.

Maureen Sharphouse wrote the international bestselling book “Unhackable Soul: Rise Up, Feel Alive, and Live Well with Pain and Illness,” and her 30-Day online “Unhackable Soul” course, a 30-day elixir to reignite the light within you, after not having a pain-free day in 35 years. A neurolinguistic programming expert, Sharphouse evolved a thriving coaching practice into a passionate mission to empower people living with pain and illness across the globe to not only be alive but feel alive. If you know someone facing chronic pain, connect them with free resources at MaureenSharphouse.com where they can find a community that cares.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive into the main focus of our interview, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory?

I was born and raised in Scotland, the middle child of three. My father was in the Navy and away from home a lot in my early years. While we didn’t have money for luxuries, I had a happy childhood. We always had food in our stomachs and enjoyed days out at the seaside, holidays visiting extended family, and picnics in the park. My parents had a strong work ethic and saved hard to give my brothers and me the opportunity to follow a career path. I was the musical one of the family; I loved playing the piano, singing, and acting, and went on to study at Glasgow University and successfully gained a Master of Arts degree in Music and Drama. On leaving University, I started teaching in a high school but learned very quickly it didn’t appear to be the best plan; I spent most of my time disciplining rowdy teenage boys whose testosterone levels appeared on overload at the prospect of being taught by a slim, young, and attractive blonde!

Shutting the door on my high school teaching career after only a few months, I moved to London to carve out a career as an actress and singer. One evening, however, I overheard someone say my performance had been disappointing. Those words replayed over and over in my mind in the following weeks and months. The outcome was that I developed crippling stage fright. I didn’t have the tools or experience to overcome it and returned home to Scotland, feeling I had let my parents down. My enthusiasm for life was severely dampened; my confidence in my ability to make a success of a career disappeared. It didn’t help when I developed an incurable debilitating neurological illness at the age of thirty after contracting a severe infection while on holiday in Mexico. It makes me smile now that despite my ongoing health challenges, I have a thriving career that I love and passionately deliver talks and personal development workshops to audiences both large and small across the globe.

What or who inspired you to pursue your career? We’d love to hear the story.

There is no doubt that I was inspired by a voice inside whispering and calling me to be and do more with my life. I developed this feeling that wouldn’t go away that I was here on Earth with a unique purpose — and that all the experiences and challenging circumstances I had gone through were part of a much bigger plan. The voice of that higher presence still speaks to me daily, encouraging me to step up and serve in a bigger way. I have learned to not only listen to it but to allow myself the space and silence to hear fully, feel, and trust it. I take inspired action with faith, one next best step at a time…

None of us can achieve success without some help along the way. Was there a particular person who you feel gave you the most help or encouragement to be who you are today? Can you share a story about that?

My father, Bruce, died at only 59 years old, some thirty-plus years ago. However, the unconditional support and love he gave me while alive continue to shape who I am today. He encouraged me to be me and follow where my heart takes me. He inspired me to make the very most of life by making a difference in some way to others while I am here in human form on Earth. His final words — “Life is precious. Life is short. You owe it to yourself to live it fully, for none of us know how much time left we have on this Earth” — have been the catalyst to my making many changes in my life, including leaving an unfulfilling marriage after 28 years.

Buddhists believe that people taken from this Earth at a young age are special messengers put on Earth to teach us about the power of love and the truth of life’s impermanence. And that principle brings me much comfort.

Although my father passed in 1991, he continues to uplift me. I feel his presence and love daily. Thank you for allowing me to reflect on my relationship with him. My father, Bruce, has played a significant role in strongly shaping who I am today.

Can you share the funniest or most interesting mistake that occurred to you in the course of your career? What lesson or take away did you learn from that?

Fairly early in my coaching career, I worked with a renowned coach, whom I had greatly admired for years, on a 12-month business mentoring program. It was a significant investment — both in terms of finances and time — and an investment I hadn’t taken lightly (I can still hear my husband’s voice saying, “HOW much is it going to cost???!!!). I looked forward to starting the program and was fully committed to making the most of the opportunity. Right from the initial brainstorming strategy session, however, I found myself being steered more and more down an increasingly uncomfortable path. Nevertheless, the voice in my head told me to trust the process, and I tried to convince myself that all would fall into place for me eventually. After all, I was working with a coach I admired and respected — and convinced myself that they perhaps knew best and had seen something I hadn’t seen in myself!

And so, with laser focus, I steered my coaching business down a different trajectory, rebranded, changed my marketing strategy, had a new website designed (spending more money) — and reinvented myself as a coach working in a specific niche which was completely out of alignment with myself, and in a high-pressured sales-orientated way. It took courage to shut the door on the experience a year later and write it off as a personal career mistake. One morning sometime later, however, as I was journaling, the light came on for me that indeed what I had seen as a mistake up until that point had been worth every single dollar I had spent (and more!) — for the whole experience had shown me very clearly exactly the type of coach (focusing more on sales than service) I had no desire to be!!!

It can feel quite uncanny when you recognize that the Universe has a way of delivering exactly what we need to experience, see, or hear at the right time in our lives. To this day, I feel indebted to the coach I worked with, for my “mistake” brought my biggest learning: trusting my heart more than my ego. It taught me the importance of remaining true to my core values and always being true to myself.

Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?

I remember visiting a large bookstore and picking up the book Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach while I was at University in the 1970s. It felt like it had jumped off the shelf at me that day to get my attention. Somehow, I knew I needed to buy the book, although I had no idea why at the time and could not explain. Some fifty years later, I have that very same copy of Jonathan Livingston Seagull on my bookshelf in my office. The pages are quite dog-eared, as I have re-read them many times.

It is such a simple story, yet with a profound message: that we can all be so much more than we are given to believe or have come to believe ourselves. It reminds me that I am in control of my own life and whether I choose to fit in to others’ expectations of me, be influenced by self-limiting beliefs, or be a soul and spirit empowered, ultimately comes down to me.

Interestingly, for several years before I left my first marriage, I dreamed almost every night of breaking free from my world as I knew it then, flying high and soaring above it all, just like Jonathan. My dreams were real and lifelike; I felt I was in them. The exact same day I left my first husband, that dream stopped.

I still to this day, however, doodle soaring bird silhouettes beside every entry in my journal or when I make notes in my diary. And when I initially set up my life coaching practice in 2010, it felt natural at the time to use the company name Find Your Wings.

Today, I work as a coach and mentor in my name. However, it’s safe to say that Jonathan Livingston Seagull will always hold a very special place both on my bookshelf and in my heart!

Can you share your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Why does that resonate with you so much?

Oh, my goodness, that’s such a difficult question. I have so many quotes that I love and that resonate deeply with me. Many of them I share in my book Unhackable Soul… and even then, I couldn’t include them all and had to trust my gut on which ones to use and where. To pick one favorite quote to share with you above all others is hard … so I will trust my gut again … and see what arises…

And, here we are: “Don’t think, it complicates things. Just feel, and if it feels like home, follow its path.” — R. M. Drake

I think that says it all!

When we overthink things, the answers can be hard to find. However, decisions can become a much simpler process when we drop down from our busy, over-thinking heads into the stillness of our hearts and body and allow ourselves to intuitively feel the answer that flows with ease and grace outwardly from within.

What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? How do you think that might help people?

I am still on an excitement high from the publication of my book Unhackable Soul at the beginning of April this year. I felt I was birthing triplets — as I launched my book, the associated 30-day Unhackable Soul “‘Reignite the Light Within” online course, and my brand new MaureenSharphouse.com website all at the same time!

Incredibly, Unhackable Soul became a #1 Amazon bestseller in the USA in the Pain Management category, as well as a #1 bestseller in Personal Transformation & Spirituality. That same weekend it hit the #2 and #3 bestseller lists on Amazon in three other categories also. That was an incredible achievement for a sixty-five-year-old wheelchair-using Scottish lady with a serious and debilitating incurable neurological health condition who lives in Scotland on the other side of the Globe! So, you will get an idea of why I am still on an excitement high!

What am I working on now? I am thrilled that my diary for the rest of this year is filling up with further writing, speaking and workshop opportunities — and my second book is already cooking (working title: Reclaim Your Power). It’s exciting to begin new projects that focus on helping others rise up from within their challenging circumstances to feel alive; experience greater joy, peace and comfort; and live a unique legacy on Earth they are proud of.

Living with chronic pain and illness is far from easy. I know first-hand that, left unchecked, it can erode your spirit and keep you living in the dark. I am on a personal mission to help reignite the light within individuals with chronic pain and illness and empower them with practical and spiritual practices and strategies to live a life fueled by enthusiasm and purpose. No one with ongoing pain and illness should have to walk their life’s journey living in a restricted or dark hazy bubble, feeling misunderstood, unsupported, overwhelmed, or alone.

OK, thank you for all of that. Let’s now shift to the core focus of our interview. In this interview series we’d like to discuss cultivating wellness habits in four areas of our lives: Mental wellness, Physical wellness, Emotional wellness, & Spiritual wellness. Let’s dive deeper into these together. Based on your research or experience, can you share with our readers three good habits that can lead to optimum mental wellness? Please share a story or example for each.

When it comes to mental wellness, it’s important to take on board that negative ways of thinking bring about negative emotions and feelings. These negative feelings then impact the actions you do or do not take, how fully you participate in those actions, and the outcome or results you get. The bottom line is that staying stuck in the ongoing cycle of negative ways of thinking is never going to bring you positive feelings and a happy, fulfilling, and rewarding life.

Here are three nourishing practices that can help encourage mental wellness and adjust a negative mindset to a more beneficial place:

1. Regularly connect with your “happy.” Get in the habit of grabbing a pen and paper (or opening a note on your phone) and finding a quiet spot where you can be uninterrupted for about ten minutes. Then list all the things you know that make you feel happy, tend to make you feel better, and lift your mood. If you are mentally not in the best place and need a major mood shift, aim to make as comprehensive and lengthy a list as possible. It is amazing how many feel-good activities or happy memories can come to mind when you ask yourself, “And what else?”

Here are a few examples:

• I feel happy when I spend time beside the ocean.

• I get so much joy from talking to friends and hanging out with family.

• I love snuggling up with a good book and a hot milky coffee.

• Sitting in my garden is my happy place.

Making it a nourishing practice to take time to do this exercise regularly will help lift your mood and encourage a more positive mindset. Abraham Lincoln famously said, “Folks are usually as happy as they make up their minds to be.” There is a lot of truth in his words!

2. Become more aware of what you think and say throughout your day. The words, pictures, and thoughts you feed your brain have the power to lift you from where you are — to strengthen, build self-esteem and confidence, inspire passion within you, or comfort you — or to tear you down, see you withdrawing into your shell, lead you to a dark or depressing place, and at worst lead you to doubt whether you can carry on. If a thought no longer serves you well or fails to bring you feel-good feelings, you must learn to interrupt it, thank that thought for coming to your attention, tell it you no longer need it, and consciously choose to redirect your thoughts elsewhere.

Decide each day, and commit to it, to choose to laugh more than you cry, to love more than you hate, and to do all you can to improve your situation rather than dwell on what you can’t. Kickstart an attitude of gratitude for both the big and small things by writing in a journal every evening before you go to bed the best thing about your day and three things to be grateful for that day. Then, on a day you feel particularly low, you can read back through your entries to help flip your mindset from seeing your cup as half-empty to seeing it again as half-full. Echoing the words of Amit Ray, “Mind is a flexible mirror; adjust it to see a better world.”

3. Be your own best friend. When you find yourself in a dark place and struggling mentally to cope, be your own best friend by getting in the habit of digging deep with kindness, compassion, and love for yourself and rising strongly to meet it. Gift yourself grace. Hang on as best you can at the moment you are in. Know you will get through it. Remind yourself that this moment will pass, like all moments, whether good or bad.

If you are feeling particularly upset, stressed or anxious, interrupt the short, shallow chest-breathing pattern of stress. Instead, try inhaling two quick breaths through your nose followed by one long exhale through your mouth. Repeat this pattern of two sharp inhalations followed by one longer exhalation two or three times over. Alternatively, try slowing your breathing down, imagine dropping down into the safe place deep within your body, and visualize connecting with a calm peace and stillness within. Then, with your next breath, imagine breathing in a bright golden light of uplifting, renewing, and cleansing energy that works its way through your entirety: mind-body-spirit-soul. And as you exhale, put your loving arms around yourself and let go of any negative thoughts or tension that no longer serve you well.

The bottom line is that your mental wellness is your mental wellness. And making even the smallest of positive changes to your ways of thinking can significantly impact the quality of your life. Conversely, hanging around in any negative or unhelpful thoughts only blocks the light from cracking in.

Do you have a specific type of meditation practice or Yoga practice that you have found helpful? We’d love to hear about it.

As well as morning journaling and reading and spending time in my garden in nature, for the last fifteen years or so, I have had a non-negotiable daily practice of creating quiet, space, and stillness and gifting myself time to sit in that silence and stillness initially allowing my thoughts to go where they want to go — and then pulling myself deeply into the present moment by opening my awareness to what is around.

I mentally take note of five things I see around me; five things I hear; and five things I can touch, taste, and feel in that moment. I then consciously open my awareness even further and mentally note what I perhaps hadn’t noticed before.

With enlivened senses, I then shut my eyes and turn my focus inward to the sensations in my body and my breathing, noticing the rise and fall of my chest and abdomen, what the air feels like as it enters through my nostrils and as it leaves through my mouth. Next, I slow my breathing down, and as I do so, I imagine dropping down into a deep serene place of calm and stillness within me. And that peaceful, safe, tranquil inner place is where I stay for around the next ten minutes — not forcing anything, not doing anything, simply being. And when I finally open my eyes, I gently stretch and say aloud, “Thank you for the gift of this new day.”

Rather than refer to this daily practice as meditation, I prefer to think of it as quiet time being fully present in my own space, enjoying “relax, breathe, be” time for me.

Thank you for that. Can you share three good habits that can lead to optimum physical wellness? Please share a story or example for each.

As someone with a challenging physical health condition dealing with muscle atrophy, experiencing intractable pain, living on a liquid diet, and unable to walk more than a few yards unaided, that is an interesting question! However, while to an outsider, my physical body may appear somewhat challenged (and my illness and pain are far from easy to live with), I feel well.

When it comes to aiding and maintaining your optimum physical wellness, here are three good nourishing habits I have found to help:

1. Befriend your body. It is not the enemy. Give up the fight. Fighting against your weight gain, ill-health condition, pain, or illness will only ever feel like fighting. Likewise, battling something will only ever feel like a battle. Instead, connect with your body regularly, speaking directly to it — and asking it what it needs from you to help keep it healthy and well, so that it can help you feel alive and energized and best live a full and rewarding life. Get in the habit of regularly saying to your body, “How can I serve you today? What can I do for you? In what way can I help you best as you help me?” Whatever you intuitively hear, act on it. Work in partnership with your body, not against it. It is the vehicle your soul operates through on planet Earth and the suit you wear. It is your responsibility to nourish, feed, and give your physical body what it needs daily and look after it well.

2. Give yourself grace. Cycling daily, jogging, running, working out for hours in the gym, or participating in competitive sports may work well for some people and fit their lifestyle. However, it may not be feasible, enjoyable, or work well for you. And that’s okay! So, stop giving yourself a hard time and comparing your physical wellness or fitness regime to others. It can be just as beneficial to your optimum physical wellness to play with your kids each day after school or go a daily walk to the park with your dog as it is to spend a couple of hours at the gym once a week. Likewise, your physical self-care doesn’t mean you need to become obsessive and start religiously counting the vitamins, nutrition in your food and calorie intake. Simply do what you can to aid, promote, and maintain your physical well-being, and commit to starting somewhere. Work with your body and honor and respect its needs. See your physical wellness as an ongoing nourishing process and not something only to be addressed when you are struggling to fit into your clothes, feeling unhealthy or unfit, or in times of health challenges or crises. Even making the smallest changes to your daily physical self-care practices will add to your overall well-being in time.

3. Develop an ever-growing awareness of the mind-body connection. Your mind and body are intrinsically linked, and it is imperative you understand how each interacts and impacts the other. Coming to terms with or letting go of past trauma and taking steps to keep yourself mentally, spiritually, and emotionally in the best place are all important components critical for optimum physical well-being. However, despite what many mindset coaches or mind-body gurus teach, full healing at a physical, functional level is not always possible. Wellness is often about keeping your soul and spirit healthy, even when your physical body is injured, deteriorating, aging, or impaired in some way. There is no need to feel guilt, blame, or shame if, despite all your best efforts at maintaining a positive mindset (along with getting exercise as you are able, plenty of rest and good nutrition), you are not as physically fit at a functional level as others. Get in the habit of regularly reminding yourself that you are not your physical body. Nor are you your self-limiting mind. You are a soul. You are spirit. No matter the shape, size, appearance, or functional ability of your physical body, your body is not you. You are who you are within.

Do you have any particular thoughts about healthy eating? We all know that it’s important to eat more vegetables, eat less sugar, etc. But while we know it intellectually, it’s often difficult to put it into practice and make it a part of our daily habits. In your opinion what are the main blockages that prevent us from taking the information that we all know, and integrating it into our lives?

It is easy to take the information about healthy eating at an intellectual level; you are absolutely right. There is a difference, however, between knowing the path and taking the path. There is a difference between gaining knowledge about what foods are healthy and nutritious and putting that knowledge into actionable practice. You must commit to being the change to craft change in your world. You must give up your excuses and the stories you tell yourself about why it isn’t easy for you. You need to stop putting off changing your eating habits until tomorrow, next week, next month or year. In very simple terms, the only way to stop eating unhealthily is to take ownership of your actions, stop buying unhealthy food, stop cooking it, and stop putting it in your mouth (sorry if that sounds a bit harsh, but I believe in being real!). And that takes willpower, staying connected to your “why” behind what you are doing (i.e. having a clear picture of how good you will feel / the difference it will make to your self-esteem and energy levels / the overall outcome of your healthy eating and feel-good feeling reward).

The problem is that unhealthy eating can become a habit — a repetitive learned behavior pattern that becomes our automatic default and stays on replay unless you consciously interrupt it. And habits, when they are long-standing, can be hard to break, for they can shape our beliefs about what we can or cannot do. However, it only takes 21 days for your brain to learn and install a new habit, and the new nourishing relationship you develop with your eating habits in those 21 days can last a lifetime. The bottom line is that often the excuses you make to yourself are not genuine reasons. If you truly want to eat more healthily, you will find a way to do so. If you are stuck in comfort eating, fast-food mode, or repetitive unhealthy eating patterns, you need to make a firm decision to stop getting in your own way.

Can you share three good habits that can lead to optimum emotional wellness? Please share a story or example for each.

My goodness, there are so many nourishing practices that can help your emotional wellness. Here are three that are hugely beneficial:

1. Be proud of who you are. It’s easy to compare yourself to others in life, to feel they are more deserving of happiness or success than you. When you see yourself as less worthy in some way, your emotional wellness is threatened. The hunger for life in your soul risks being extinguished as you lose a piece of what makes you you. The secret to your emotional wellness and feeling good about yourself is to learn to love yourself as you are. Each one of us is perfectly imperfect in some way. Having a perfect body, enjoying excellent health, or living an ideal life is not the reality of our world. Perfect is not real life. We each have our quirks, strengths, weaknesses, talents, skills, preferences, interests, passions, and abilities. It is up to each one of us to own our story, live and tell it well, and fulfil our unique place in the world. In the words of the wonderful Mariah Carey, “You really have to look inside yourself and find your own inner strength and say, ‘I’m proud of what I am and who I am.’” A great nourishing practice is to get out your journal regularly and list 10 things you are proud of yourself for — both the small and the large.

2. Own your space. It is important to recognize that what you let into your world will impact who you are. You can surround yourself with a space that erodes your soul and enthusiasm for life, or you can consciously choose your inputs to uplift, nourish, and positively benefit you. Put simply, what you take in shapes what you put out; your inputs will impact your outputs. The space you create around you will subconsciously make and influence your emotional well-being and how you show up in your world. And so, become more self-aware and get in the healthy habit of taking ownership of what you feed your subconscious. Surround yourself with things that light you up or uplift you in some way. Likewise, be intentional about mixing with people who feel like sunshine. Own your space and who and what you allow in it. Every day, aim to touch base with some of those soul-nourishing people, events, or things. Whether it is picking some fresh flowers from your garden or having them delivered with your supermarket shopping, buying a new uplifting book or magazine, lighting a scented candle, enjoying the smell of fresh bread from your kitchen, or uploading an inspiring image or quote as the background on your phone or computer, get in the habit send positive messages to your brain!

3. Find joy in the journey. Consciously and actively get in the habit of taking steps to let more of the joy come back into your life. It is joy that will uplift you at an emotional level and bring more meaning and purpose to your life. It’s important to understand that living with joy doesn’t necessarily mean that you will not experience adversity, feel acute sadness, experience grief, or be overwhelmed by loss or pain at times. Like happiness, joy does not depend on circumstances. It is the light that you choose to emanate and shine from within you — expressing your heartfelt appreciation for life itself and freely embracing your soul and spirit within. In short, if you are serious about achieving optimum emotional wellness, you must do more of the things that nourish and feed you and spark joy in your soul and do less of the things that deplete your soul, pull your spirits down, or drain. Asking yourself the following questions regularly can help: “In what ways are my current actions and living patterns separating me from the joy within me? What could I start to do differently to craft and let more joy into my life?”

Do you have any particular thoughts about the power of smiling to improve emotional wellness? We’d love to hear it.

A smile costs nothing. But it is one of the most precious and empowering things you can ever gift to both yourself and others. I love to think of smiling as free “spirit uplifting” therapy. You never know what someone is going through. Your smile may be the first one sent in their direction for quite some time. In coaching sessions, I often induce a smile in my clients who are going through a particularly hard time by asking them to hold a pen horizontally between their teeth, forcing their facial muscles to replicate a smile. The science behind it? When your smiling muscles contract, they fire a signal to the brain, stimulating the release of mood-uplifting “happy” hormones and natural stress-reducing chemicals, including dopamine, endorphins, and serotonin. These natural hormones have been proven to reduce blood pressure, elevate your mood, relax your body, and reduce physical pain and stress. It creates a win-win cycle: for when we smile, our brain feels happy — and when our brain feels happy, we tend to smile more, which in turn fuels the feel-good happy feelings to continue…

And therein lies both the beauty and magic. When we smile, we not only feel good but also encourage and give permission to others to do the same. And that means happier mood-uplifting hormones all around!

Finally, can you share three good habits that can lead to optimum spiritual wellness? Please share a story or example for each.

Spiritual wellness means different things to different people. For some, it is having a profound and deep relationship with God. For others, it is believing in being supported by the Universe, or a higher power, or connecting with the soul and spirit within them. I am a firm believer that each of us, as we go through life, develops an individual and deeply personal relationship with a Higher Power and that it matters not what you choose to call that presence. Therefore, whether you choose to name that presence God, Supreme Creator, or some other name you are comfortable with, is not what is important. In truth, I do not think God would mind or be upset if you referred to him by a different term or name. What I do believe is important is that you openly welcome his presence in your life.

Here are three nourishing practices I have found to be helpful when it comes to spiritual wellness:

1. Develop an ever-deepening relationship with your God.

I openly speak, and I ask. I create and hold the space to listen and hear — and he answers. I invite his words to enter, and I reflect on them. And then, with soul stripped and open, I respond. That is the thing about communication — communication is always a two-way thing. So make it a habit to regularly check in with yourself and reflect on your God and the quality of how you interact together. Ask yourself: Do you speak? Do you create quiet and space for your voice to be heard? And to listen to his answer? Jot down your reflection in your journal, and brainstorm what actions you think you could take to further your spiritual growth and enrich your place of rest within…

2. See death as a natural process and not to be feared. Death is not something to fear and is as natural as birth itself. Although death may be an end, it is also a beginning — a soul flowing seamlessly from having a physical experience to returning to the Universe or spirit world from whence it came. So, connect with your soul daily, and rest easy. Be at peace with your soul, for we are all souls on a journey. A wonderful Australian Aboriginal proverb says, “We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love…and then we return home.” Make it a nourishing spiritual practise to set aside time regularly to allow your thoughts to be with your loved ones who have passed before you. Sit in quiet reflection and explore what place they hold in your heart and how you mostly remember them. Open your awareness to the moments when you feel you may have sensed their presence around you and the small events or happenings that made you stop and think about them with the sense that, in spirit, they are still very much here.

3. Give up the need to understand the magic and mystery of everything that happens in life. Nobel Prize-winning author Doris Lessing said that synchronicities and coincidences are God’s way of remaining anonymous. Accept that spiritual experiences are spiritual experiences. Accept those moments, honor them, and feel blessed by them. Be open to receiving the magic that the Universe presents you with. Make it a nourishing practice to be more attentive to your innermost desires and dreams and to pay attention to your intuitive nudges, for they are your soul and spirit’s way of calling you to attend to their needs and usually come from a heartfelt and sacred place.

Do you have any particular thoughts about how being “in nature” can help us to cultivate spiritual wellness?

The twenty-first-century world can often feel demanding, stressful, or busy. Living in this world is not always easy. At times the pressure of challenging life circumstances can get on top of you, leaving you feeling soul eroded and spirit depleted, and so downtrodden that life can feel downright difficult. Joy can start to feel like a distant memory. You can start to live in a hazy bubble — or at the other extreme, become like a horse with blinders on, so focused on going places and achieving things that you can inadvertently miss out on the richness and beauty that is all around you. I believe that while we are here on Earth, we owe it to ourselves to be here fully. To richly experience life, we must live it with our senses alive, awakened, and open. And that means we must allow ourselves to see, hear, taste, touch, and feel more of the world in which we live. And there is no better way to do that than spend time refueling our soul in the beauty of nature around us and spending time in stillness to connect with the higher power that nourishes and uplifts our spirit — being physically alive and feeling alive are not the same thing.

Let me tell you a story….

In June 2017, I travelled from Scotland to Bristol in the south of England for a specialized hospital appointment. I arrived a few hours early and had some time to explore the city, so I took the opportunity to visit Bristol’s stunning cathedral. After looking around, I wandered towards the cathedral gardens to enjoy a seat in the summer sun.

The beautiful gardens felt peaceful. I could not help but want to capture the moment and took out a pen and notebook from my handbag. I wrote the following words that morning. When I connect with the feeling these words bring me, I can still imagine I am there now.

Warmth and light of the golden sun radiating down upon me, pointing straight at me as if it only exists for me —

flushing my cheeks, radiating through my chest wall, and warming my soul. Traffic noise in the distance, yet not breaking the perfect calm and stillness. Cherry blossom tree standing in all its splendour, protective arms outstretched — a mix of masculine strength and resilience, weaving effortlessly with feminine softness and beauty, bending, flexing, swaying in the gentle breeze with delicate pink fairy-like petals bowing their heads, dancing, and curtsying, with seamless ease and grace. Vibrant shades of green, a myriad of hues and colours, gently swaying soldier stalks with button moon faces flowing, faces stretched upwards towards the sun. Peace of tombstones, feeling sacred, savoring an overwhelming sense of deep inner peace. Birds singing, high-pitched chattering insects hovering and playfully dancing around the verdant bushes. A weeping willow silhouetted against the clear blue sky, branches bowing as if in prayer, marrying the most beautiful and perfect union of heaven and Earth.

About twenty minutes earlier, I had spent a few moments chatting with a young French couple who told me they were on honeymoon and having the trip of a lifetime — a month-long tour of Europe. They told me they were greatly impressed by the cathedral’s stunning architecture. When I mentioned I was about to head out to the gardens, however, they told me, “It’s just a graveyard out there. I wouldn’t bother. It was quite disappointing. There is nothing much there to see.”

The bottom line is that your personal experience of each moment is your personal experience. Your world can only

ever be as rich and rewarding as you allow it to be. Do I believe being in nature can help cultivate our spiritual wellness, help us feel fully alive, and will enable us to feel closer to our great creator? Absolutely, yes!

Ok, we are nearly done. You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

I am on a mission at present to create a global Unhackable Soul movement dedicated to being the light and lighthouse of guidance, help, support, kindness, compassion, grace, grit, strength, love, and courage to the chronic pain and illness community. I believe together we are stronger and that no one should feel they have to navigate the journey of living with pain and illness alone. We are all here on Earth with our own unique purpose. We each are beautiful in our own imperfections. The Unhackable Soul tribe and movement is a community that cares and is committed to standing strong as pain warriors to reignite the light within individuals living with chronic pain and illness so that they, too, can rise up from within their challenging circumstances, feel alive, show up fully to life, and live well.

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we both tag them :-)

I would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with Barack and Michelle Obama. Although I live on the other side of the globe in Scotland and have never met them, I have always felt drawn to them at a deep soul level. There is something in each of their eyes that inspires and reaches out to me in a way that is hard to fathom or explain. I ask no questions. I am aware in life that we do not always need to have all the answers and understand. I trust that if it is meant to be, in God’s perfect timing and in his perfect way, we will have the opportunity to meet and serve each other for a higher good.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

I would be delighted to connect with your readers via my website MaureenSharphouse.com and on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, where I share empowering affirmations, inspiring quotes, best life living strategies, and practical and spiritual nourishing practices, and words of wisdom. Together we are stronger, can learn from each other, and collectively can make a bigger difference in this world.

Thank you for these really excellent insights, and we greatly appreciate the time you spent with this. We wish you continued success.

Many thanks for giving me this opportunity and asking me such thought-provoking questions. I have thoroughly enjoyed sitting in my space and stillness to connect and reflect!