Spiritual Health: The Missing Piece in Your Wellness Journey

Welcome to the Healthy California podcast. In this special episode, I explore a frequently overlooked dimension of wellness: spiritual health.

Health isn’t just physical or emotional—it’s also spiritual. Without this key component, we’re often left chasing after happiness, clarity, and purpose in all the wrong places. To help unpack this topic, I invited Pastor Dan from Restoration Life Church in Sacramento, someone I deeply respect for his spiritually and physically grounded lifestyle.

Together, we explore:

• Why spiritual health is essential for overall well-being
• How our physical, emotional, and spiritual lives are interconnected
• The meaning of “Shalom”—a biblical concept describing wholeness and harmony
• The dangers of living in a scarcity mindset and how it contrasts with God’s design for connection and peace
• How connection with God and community offers deeper fulfillment than the constant pursuit of happiness

Pastor Dan offers rich insight into what it means to live in alignment—with God, with others, and with yourself. He explains that spiritual health isn’t just about attending church, but rather about connecting to the Source of life—God—and living in a state of Shalom, where all parts of life work together in harmony.

They also discuss the common excuse: “I don’t have time for spiritual health.” Just like going to the gym isn’t the goal but a tool for physical fitness, church and spiritual practices are tools for deeper spiritual wellness—not the end goal. Prioritizing your spiritual life doesn’t require more time; it requires new priorities.

This episode also explores our human longing for connection and belonging—whether through family, faith, or community. Using stories from the Pacific Crest Trail and the Camino de Santiago, Pastor Dan and I reflect on the power of finding your tribe and how community can transform isolation into joy.

Finally, I remind listeners that true health includes body, mind, and spirit. You can take all the right supplements, eat clean, and exercise daily, but without spiritual health, you’re still missing the core of who you are.

📬 Need support on your wellness journey?
 I offer 15-minute consultations and recommends building a care team that includes a functional nutritionist, physical therapist, and a functional medicine practitioner.

💡 Key Quote:
“Spiritual health is the pursuit of Shalom—everything working together just as it should be.”

Connect with me:
heal-throughfood.com | linda@heal-throughfood.com

If you enjoyed this episode, please like, subscribe, and share the podcast. Your support helps keep this information free and accessible to all.

Let’s keep moving toward whole health—one episode at a time.
 Stay healthy, California.

Thank you for listening to Healthy California.

If you have tried all my suggestions and are still having trouble with your health, and would like an appointment with me, please email me, text, or call me via the contact information below.

My contact:

Linda Brown, MPT, Doctoral Candidate Functional Nutrition

916-426-2543

linda@heal-throughfood.com

www.heal-throughfood.com

Transcript

Hello and welcome to Healthy California podcast. My name is Linda Brown and I am the host of Healthy California where my goal is to help educate you on your daily choices. So we all can become healthy. I believe you, your family, your neighbor and your community are all looking for better ways and simple ways to return to being healthy.

00:00:23

Many of you have health issues or have family that's going through tough times that seemingly have no answers. It's frustrating. There are questions about health, environment, foods, exercise and lifestyle, and it can be all overwhelming. And who do you believe and where is the science behind it?

00:00:39

This podcast will unravel the mystery behind being unhealthy and talk about little things that we can do in our lives to make a positive change in our health from all angles.

00:00:48

So to be healthy, we need to have physical health, mental health, environmental, health, financial and social health, and, of course, spiritual health. Let's answer some of these questions to get healthy. What good is just listening to a podcast? I will give you resources as well. Ways to take steps and make positive changes in your life to becoming healthy. This is a journey not an assignment, so be kind to yourself.

00:01:21

Hello. Welcome back, California. Thank you for joining me today. I have a very special interview that I'm excited to share with you. You know that when I look at health, there's many aspects of health. We've been talking about how to get ourselves physically healthy and we've had a couple episodes on emotional health, mental health, brain health, gut health.

00:01:47

Today we're talking about spiritual health. Spiritual health is very important when we are just talking about health in general, because health isn't just physical health. There is more to us than just our bodies and more than just our mind. So I have my pastor with us.

00:02:06

He is the pastor of Restoration Life Church here in Sacramento, and I've been going to this church since 2010.

00:02:14

And I really admire him because of his living, a very healthy life in general. Spiritual health, of course. And then physical, you know, physically healthy and healthy family, healthy minded. And that's kind of what we're striving for. So I wanted to pick his brain.

00:02:35

On how California can live a spiritually healthy life and therefore be healthy. So here is that interview

00:02:44

I'm just going to give California a little bit of a background of our background, me and you. So Pastor Dan here is the pastor of the Church of my, the church. I go to called restoration life. I've been going to restoration life since 2010, so quite, quite a while. And Pastor Dan is a person that I look up to in regards to health because he lives a healthy lifestyle, he's lives a spiritually healthy lifestyle. Of course we have been through a lot of challenges as far as physical challenges run, you know we've done trail runs together. We workout at the same gym. And of course we've done the PCT pretty much every year besides this year. So when I think of someone who lives a healthy lifestyle, including spiritual health, I think of Pastor Dan. So thank you for being here with me.

00:03:33

Yeah, thank you. I would say the same thing about you. 

00:03:36

Thanks.

00:03:37

What I want you to explain to California.

00:03:40

Yeah, is what do you consider spiritual health? What does that? What does that look like?

00:03:47

Yeah, that's a great question. It's a question everybody should be asking. I hope that the folks that are listening have asked that question, thought about it before. But I think the the short answer to that is Shalom, which is a Hebrew word. And the reason I'm using a Hebrew word is it's translated into the English Bible as peace. But when we think of peace.

00:04:07

You think of like, no more strife no more.

00:04:10

Agreement. It encompasses that, but it's much bigger than that. The the Hebrew word Shalom actually carries the idea of everything exactly as it should be. Perfection just in the right amount, just at the right time. All working together with no disconnect. It's a completely connected life. And so I would say that.

00:04:31

Spiritual health is the pursuit of Shalom, the pursuit of everything as it should be and we all know in our lives there's things that aren't right, you know, whether it's relationships or health or finances. We got things that are disconnected and not working like they should. And we feel that in our soul, like this isn't right, but we don't always know how to get back to good. And so I would say spiritual health is when you find that good.

00:04:55

That Shalom everything as it should be, and so I would put that into a broader category as a Christian minister, that Shalom.

00:05:05

Comes from connection with God. It's a connected world view and most of us have a scarcity world view where there's not enough time. There's not enough love. There's not enough money and I gotta get mine for me and my family. And and we're all out there running the rat race and trying to, you know, get in front of each other on the freeway.

00:05:23

And we're all concerned about our stuff.

00:05:27

And all of that is antithetical or against Shalom. We should be working together. We should be working in harmony. There should be people who are leaning into the same direction. And so how do you get there? You got to get back to the source of life, which is God, and God is the.

00:05:46

Creator of all things, he gave us the Bible. He gave us the Holy Spirit. He gave us the church and all of that is so that we can discover how to live. Shalom on this earth. And so I would say, you know, spiritual health is the pursuit of Shalom, which is ultimately the pursuit of God.

00:06:02

Yeah, that's a that is a great answer when you know everyone, not everyone that is listening is a Christian. And but I think that answer applies to just all across the board. I you know I believe that God is the source and I think that when people are listening to this and they don't necessarily believe in God. Or maybe they believe in multiple gods, or I think that that source of just being.

00:06:32

Believing in something is is so important. However, God is is the answer to that. What? You know I'm not explaining. I'm not as quite as eloquent in this field in this part, as much as you are. But I think that when when we think about spiritual health that goes in so many different directions.

00:06:52

And it really needs to be kind of honed in into One Direction.

00:06:58

Yeah, no matter what you believe.

00:07:00

You see a common thread throughout all of humanity, all people, all times, all places. People are in pursuit of something better. We have an imagination. We can imagine a utopia. We can imagine a better we just can't. Quite grab a hold of it.

00:07:14

And so no matter if you consider yourself a Christian or not, we can all find some common ground on.

00:07:20

This space of the pursuit of better the pursuit of good. And so I'm talking about how do you actually get there and it can be very confusing when you see people use the name of Christianity or use the Bible for self-serving purposes. And it's not Shalom, it's scarcity world for you, it's I'm going to win. You're going to lose but all of this is contrary to what the Bible actually says, and you know, as a Christian minister.

00:07:49

I would just encourage people to let the Bible speak. It's God's word for us and the Bible tells us the exact same thing that I'm telling you. I didn't make any of this up. I it got it.

00:07:59

Straight from the pages of scripture.

00:08:01

The fact that human beings have distorted that, have abused that have Co opted, that doesn't take away from the fact that that's actually the way it works. And so yeah, I would just encourage folks, you know, however you feel about the Bible, it probably has a lot more to do with the people that you've interacted with than the words on those pages, but if you turn to the words on those pages, you're going to find that Shalom is something that God offers to humanity and Shalom has got. That's his his loving gift to his creation. And it's on offer for all people, all times, all places. It's what we all aim for in in our world, we say, you know, everybody has a God shaped void in their heart and so that's how we describe this, this desire that we have to pursue something to worship, something to long for something. And you know, whether it's a sports team or a significant other.

00:08:57

Or a job.

00:08:58

Or any number of things. We all pursue things with vigor that we think are going to connect the dots and make it.

00:09:06

All work, but ultimately none of that stuff really fills that void and you can just, you know, like stuffing a a sleeping bag like the ones we use on the PCT. You have this fluffy sleeping bag and you try and stuff it in a small little bag. It looks like it won't fit and you just keep shoving it in. And I think a lot of people are living their life like that. They're like.

00:09:27

You know, if I buy a paddle board and get into paddle board and I'll be happy if I find the right gym and get in shape, I'll be happy if I get a little bit more money, I'll be happy. If I just and they're just shoving stuff in there and none of it satisfies because that was meant for God. That's God's space. So that's the way I would describe spiritual health.

00:09:45

Yeah, great answer. What?

00:09:47

What if someone would say I don't have and?

00:09:52

You you kind of already alluded to this I don't have time to add church into my life.

00:10:00

Yeah, I would say, yeah, church is more of a byproduct of being connected to God than it is the answer. You know, it's kind of like if you, you know, go to the gym, which you and I do regularly.

00:10:17

It can be great for getting in shape.

00:10:20

But you're not in shape because you go to the gym.

00:10:23

That it's one way, one tool to get there in churches similar to that in terms of our spirituality. Church is a great tool. There's there's a lot of people who found a lot of good stuff in church, but the goal is not to get to church and any more than if you were trying to get physically fit. The goal is to go to a gym that might be part of the the the tool that you use.

00:10:44

But it's not the goal. The goal is to get spiritually fit and that is getting connected with God. And I would say, you know, reading your Bible is probably the best way to do that. And if you read your Bible, you get connected with God. You might go, hey, I want to go to church. But.

00:11:01

That would come later.

00:11:03

Yeah, yeah. I I've told people on this podcast many times. When I when I talk about stress.

00:11:08

Yes, and I I I list all the things that you can do to decrease your stress and if someone says, well, I don't have time to do yoga, I don't have time for that then well, that's the problem. That's the problem is that you don't have time and it's it's not your priority. So you can complain about it all day long. But if you don't make.

00:11:29

Something your priority you will never have time for what you truly need to accomplish.

00:11:35

Yeah, I've heard it said you don't have time. You make time and you know when there's something that's important to us. Like if you know a loved one dies and there's a funeral, we make time for that. Like we get time off work, we we move everything out of the way because it's important we make time and the things that are important, we make time for.

00:11:40

Yeah.

00:11:48

Right.

00:11:55

The things that aren't important, we might say I don't have time.

00:11:59

Yeah. Yeah, that's a that's a great point.

00:12:03

What? What is one thing you want people to know about?

00:12:07

Like if you were to say one last thing about being healthy.

00:12:14

Being healthy, spiritually healthy is there like one thing that you you want people to know about it?

00:12:20

I think I would go down the road of, you know, your spiritual health is not a standalone topic. It's connected to your your physical health. It's connected to your mental health. Like when we talk about being healthy.

00:12:35

We can't really just pull the spiritual out and go well. Do I want to include that element like it's, you know, part of a recipe? And we're like, well, we're going to leave the flour out, like, spiritual health is part and parcel to every human being's core needs. And so it's part of being.

00:12:56

Emotionally healthy, it's part of being physically healthy to try and leave it out. You'll never find success in your other goals either. We are made to be body, soul and spirit, and they're all together and to try and separate them out as folly. It never will.

00:13:12

Works and so I would say to somebody who's going. Oh, I don't think I have time or I want to make time for my spiritual health. You're also going to be foiled in your other areas of life that you're trying to be healthy. And so as we look at healthy California, I would just encourage people to put spiritual health very much in the middle of their target.

00:13:32

Of things they want to do in life because without spiritual health, you're never going to have any other health.

00:13:37

Right. Yeah, it's it's so important. And you know we're we're always chasing health, you know, and what is that? What is health? And we think that it's maybe taking the right medication so that we can bring our labs up to you know what looks good and we think that it's going to the gym working out and it.

00:13:57

Those those are all different. Those are all aspects of health, but truly none of that matters if you don't have spiritual health at God centered because you can just be. You're just chasing your tail.

00:14:11

Well, and in the in the scarcity worldview, you'll use whatever good you have for selfish purposes and ultimately other people will lose as you win.

00:14:21

And that's not the way God created it to be, and that's the sad thing. You could have great financial health, great emotional health, great physical health, but if you're not using that.

00:14:30

And make the world a better place, using it for human thought.

00:14:33

Driving and you're using it for pride. You're using it for, for happiness. You're using it for every.

00:14:41

That's self-centered, then you're living in the scarcity worldview and you're you're disconnected from community, you're disconnected from others and people you know. They'll be haters, they'll be people that say I'm jealous of you or whatever and all of this is the world we live in. We're familiar with it, but to have true.

00:15:00

Health means to let go of that view and live a connected world view and God's at the center of all of that.

00:15:06

Yeah, yeah, I agree. And you, you had mentioned something about being happy and happy. Happiness is fleeting. It's it's more external. And you know, I I'm happy like ice cream makes me happy, but doesn't bring me joy. So God brings you joy. Everything else around me bring you happiness, but never truly deep enough to be joyful, so it's yeah.

00:15:33

Yeah, I would say Americans have made happiness their goal, and we've been in the pursuit of happiness for, you know, over 200 years now. And and that's that's part of the American Dream, is to be happy. And yet it's so elusive. I mean, how many people do our listeners know that are on, you know, antidepressants or anxiety?

00:15:52

That's like we're we are not happy. We're struggling. Struggling. Yeah. And so we have all of we have more of the things that we want than any other generations ever had.

00:15:55

Yeah, and and that's just growing. Yeah, that's just a growing number.

00:16:05

And why hasn't it made us happy? Because it's not really what we need and that's where we go back to that connected worldview. And you go God knows what you need. He knows when you need it. It's everything at the right time and the right place. Sometimes we need adversity and that's goodness that sometimes we need sorrow and that's goodness.

00:16:26

It's not supposed to always be happy, happy, happy. And this reminds me of, like, you know, raising kids, any of us who've raised kids you.

00:16:32

See that you.

00:16:34

Know they they go. If I had the candy, I'd be happy if I could stay up later. I'd be happy. And the parent says no, you wouldn't. And the kid says no. No, really, I would. But the parent knows better. This is not what is going to be good for you.

00:16:47

In order for you to be happy, you're gonna have to have adversity. You're gonna have to brush your teeth. You're gonna have to go to bed. You're gonna have to learn how to do your times. Tables like you're gonna have to do all of these things.

00:16:59

Because that's going to produce goodness in your life. And so again I.

00:17:04

I think the pursuit of happiness is folly, and it's not that being happy in and of itself is a bad thing. But being happy can't beat that thing. Shalom has to be the thing.

00:17:16

How do you get to Shalom?

00:17:18

God.

00:17:19

We get to show them with connection with God and with his people. You know, we were made to live in community. All of us want to know who our tribe is. If you ever meet an adopted child, they have a deep, deep desire to know where they come from and who their.

00:17:21

Yeah.

00:17:34

People are. That's because God made us to be interconnected. We're supposed to live in the connected world view. We're supposed to be connected to God and to each other. And so it starts with a connection to God, and then it allows us to have connection with each other. That is something that feeds our soul. That's something that helps us figure life out. That's something that.

00:17:54

Allows us to make sure that everybody has what they need, when they need it, because we can share and we can help each other.

00:18:01

So that is the way.

00:18:02

That we get to Shalom, it's through connection.

00:18:05

Yeah, I was talking to someone that was on the that is now on the PCT and they wanted to get out away and lose the connection of media people and really it's not easy. And I think that that they have mentioned that it's that they miss. They miss their family and their.

00:18:24

Friends. And because it is just natural and you want to get away from the the rat race and the stress. But that's not. That's different than getting away from people and those connections, even if you have a even if you have a life that wasn't good or you don't have, you didn't have a good upbringing with your family. There's still connection that you want. And I think a lot of times.

00:18:45

People will go will get themselves into trouble because there's some something that's connecting them one.

00:18:51

Way or another and.

00:18:53

You know, whether it's good connection or bad connection, it's still.

00:18:55

Connection.

00:18:56

Yeah, I my wife's on the Camino right now, which is northern Spain. It's 400 and 500 mile.

00:19:03

Walk that she's on. And so I've watched a few YouTube videos trying to get a feel for like where's she at and she asked me to scope out. Like should I go the coastal route or cut across the inland?

00:19:14

It was a big question. There was a why in the road. And so I watched this woman online and she got out on the Camino because she wanted to get away from everything. And she was having some issues back in Canada, where she was from. And she was like, I just want to be alone. I'm not trying to be rude, but I don't want to walk next to people and meet people I just want solitude.

00:19:35

And so she made the decision to go on the inland route, which was the harder.

00:19:39

Route, but because she went on the inland harder route, there weren't very many stops and what it meant was all the pilgrims, which is what they call the walkers on this path, all stopped in the same town every night, be like a few towns along the way. So they all bunched up. And so she ended up leaving at the same time as them arriving at the same time.

00:20:00

And she's always with this group. And that's exactly what she didn't want in the first two days, she was kind of frustrated and she was filming herself gone.

00:20:06

I'm kind of stuck with this group. I can't quite shake them. They did 9 days together and over those nine days they bonded big time and she ended up like having problems with her feet and her feet were killing her and the group was going to go on without her because she couldn't keep up and she ended up taking a bunch of pain meds.

00:20:27

Because she didn't want to be left out of the group, her feet were just wrecked, but she stayed with the group, and when they got to the end, she made this really touching video. And she's just so.

00:20:40

Sobbing at the thought of not being part of this crew anymore, they're all going back to their places and it reminded me of something we're talking about, which is this deep, deep desire that we have this need that we have to belong, to be part of something. And there are times when we fantasize it would be better to disconnect because relationships are just so hard.

00:21:01

I just wanna do me.

00:21:04

But that's not the truth. And that's what this woman found. She went out there to be alone, and she found something much deeper and much more powerful than anything she had ever anticipated. And it was in the context of becoming part of a tribe. And I think, yeah, there's there's a really, really powerful need that God placed in our hearts also to be connected with other.

00:21:24

People.

00:21:24

Yeah, yeah, that's awesome. What a great story. And I know that Nicole is just having, you know, I'm. I'm really enjoying her. Her daily videos. And yeah, she's having a great time that's on my bucket list to do someday and maybe I'll find a tribe out there as well. It's I know that, you know, when we hike we there's always tribes being formed.

00:21:45

And it's it's. It's pretty awesome. Yeah, yeah.

00:21:49

So thank you so much for joining me on this podcast and I I couldn't. I'd love the church that I go to your church and and I I really hope and pray that people will find their tribe.

00:22:05

Yeah, I do too. And thank you for helping California become more healthy.

00:22:09

Yeah. Thank you.

00:22:09

We need.

00:22:14

Thank you for joining me today. I hope you learned something new health care and treatment should focus on being proactive and preventative, emphasizing the importance of addressing the root cause of a disease or illness. While the US has an excellent trauma medicine system, no helping patients when problems arise.

00:22:32

Our goals should be to prevent disease before they happen. That's why this podcast is so important.

00:22:39

If you're needing further guidance or have questions on a particular matter, you can find my contact information in the show notes where you can set up a 15 minute consultation. I also recommend you adding a functional nutritionist, a functional medicine practitioner, and a physical therapist to your healthcare team.

00:22:56

This podcast reflects my personal opinions based on extensive research and education. It is not intended for medical diagnosis or treatment and should never replace the advice from their doctor or other healthcare professionals.

00:23:08

To continue providing this free information, I rely on your support. Follow subscribe like and share this podcast with your family and friends or on social media. Don't forget to turn on your notifications to stay updated whenever I have a new episode released, educating you and empowering you to take back your health is my ultimate goal.

00:23:28

By gathering knowledge and implementing small but impactful changes, you can reclaim your well-being. This is a journey, not a quick fix, so be kind to yourself and I'll be there to help you. Got this.