Maintaining Good Attitudinal Hygiene: Getting Clean and Healthy - Mentally, Spiritually and Emotionally

Most of us pay pretty close attention to our physical cleanliness. We shower, brush our teeth and perform daily bodily functions with intention and consciousness. In the West, it is considered good personal hygiene and adds assurances we’ll remain healthy.

According to Wikipedia, “The term "hygiene" is a reference to Hygieía oder Hygeía, the Greek goddess of health, cleanliness and sanitation (Roman equivalent: Salus). Hygiene is also a science that deals with the promotion and preservation of health.

In some countries, personal hygiene has become more an issue of social acceptance or fear of offending others with annual sales of deodorant, lotion, mouthwash, powder and cream in the billions. But the hygienic focus is almost always physical. We pay close attention to our hair, teeth, underarms, genitals, nails and underarms – all parts of our physical bodies. Some of us exercise regularly, watch our diets and take supplements so we feel better and enjoy better health. But how much attention do we pay to our emotional, spiritual and mental health? What about our “attitudinal hygiene?”

How much attention do we pay to our intellectual diets? How discerning are we about what we read or watch on TV or hear on radio? What attention do we pay to the lyrics of the music we listen to or the talk shows and Sunday morning pundits we endure.

What degree of consciousness are we employing when we allow ourselves to become emotionally constipated, with suppressed feelings bottled up and turning rancid inside us? 

We take such care to avoid infections of our bodies yet most of us are so careless about exposing our thinking and feelings to infection from negativity, cynicism, resentments and imagined fears. How well do we nourish ourselves spiritually? Do we maintain our spiritual practice whether it is structured religion, private meditation or walks in Nature?

How would you rate your hygiene in these three areas of your life? This might be something to consider – perform an inventory of sorts. Where could you improve your health spiritually, emotionally and intellectually?

In seems to me that we’d have a much healthier society and a much better world if we spread the idea of good personal hygiene to include the entire environment around us, the people we spend time with, the physical space we occupy, the entertainment we consume as well as what we eat and drink. Good attitudinal hygiene offers us an opportunity to be healthy emotionally, spiritually and mentally as well as physically. As comprehensively healthy people we will more likely be making wiser more mature choices and, therefore, create a better future for ourselves, our children and generations to come.