At the recent Wellness Festival in which FMBR participated, the health of the body, especially via proper nutrition, was the key focus. In describing FMBR at the Festival, I endeavored to present a larger definition of wellness, one that must encompass the balance of mind, heart and spirit as crucial to wellness. As a means of explaining the balance of heart, mind and spirit, one can use the terms consciousness and bringing consciousness to a higher level. This concept stems from David Hawkins' definition of levels of consciousness using a logarithmic scale. According to his scale, the emotions of anger and fear are below 200, beginnings of enlightenment are at 500 and the avatars of spirituality (Christ, Buddha, Krishna, others) are at 1000 (see Power vs Force, Eye and I). But then, what does a higher level of consciousness mean and why is it relevant to the wellness of the individual, the society and the planet?

Some of the aspects of what I would call a higher consciousness include the following:

Understanding the connectedness of all beings (in The Way of Mastery, by Jeshua ben Joseph, we are each a wave, but underlying us is the ocean);

Understanding that Love is our basis and the glue;

Understanding that compassion, forgiveness and lack of judgment is the foundation.

Being consciously aware and moving up the scale of consciousness results in greater happiness and wellness.

Since each aspect of consciousness is a treatise unto itself, let's expand on just the last point: compassion, forgiveness, lack of judgment. At the heart of this point is the ego. The ego tends to take positions and make perceptions. Of necessity, everyone has an ego so there are lots of different positions and perceptions. As a consequence, we make judgments and we tend to take actions on those judgments. When not offset by a sufficiently high level of consciousness, problems arise. On a political, global basis, this results in wars and intolerance. On a personal basis, this results in anger, resentment, broken relationships. The anger and resentment are consequences of the ego's judgment; if the ego takes another view, that judgment goes away along with the anger. The answer is very simple but very difficult to implement - don't let the ego take control, don't make judgments, and live in a state of compassion, forgiveness and Love.

On a personal basis, if one truly forgives all the perceived "wrongs" that have been done (which are merely a result of one's judgment), one can then release resentfulness and anger, allowing the body and mind to naturally start to heal. This would increase one's state of health and happiness. Thus, increasing the level of consciousness is the road to wellness of the individual, and, when extrapolated, is the road to wellness for society and the planet.