As we head into the home stretch of summer and with the back to school season for our children and grandchildren just weeks away, it’s a great time to embrace Cura Personalis in our everyday life and work. Cura Personalis is a Latin term that emphasizes the importance of self-care or what might be better described as the “care of the whole person”. As one of the key cornerstones of Ignatian Spirituality, Cura Personalis invites us to be more present and attentive to understanding ourselves, our specific needs, and the responsibilities that we have toward others. After all, how can I be my best self or that person I desire to be if I cannot take care of my whole self physically in body; emotionally and mentally in mind; and, in a spiritual dimension? How can I really know the most important people in my life if I don’t invest enough time to truly get to know my own self first?
Cura Personalis encourages deeper reflection on whatever feelings reside within each of us — i.e., how are things going at work, in our home life, in our relationships, and whether we need to make any midcourse adjustments to specific goals and priorities we may have set? One highly effective coaching tool that I have used with my clients in the pursuit of Cura Personalis is to encourage them to journal their innermost thoughts with an exercise called the Examen that was perfected by the Jesuits many years ago where we ask ourselves the following questions on a daily basis:
- What were you most grateful for during the day that just ended?
- What moments during the day were you your best self either at work or at home? What people were you with during those moments?
- What moments during the day did you fall short of your best self and the person you desire to be? What people were you with during those moments? And, if the client is doing the Examen as a spiritual exercise, ask for God’s forgiveness for those moments where you weren’t your best self!
- Looking ahead, what can you do to become that better version of who you desire to be and if the client is doing the Examen as a spiritual exercise, who God is calling you to be?
Completing the Examen over a period of time can help you see patterns that you otherwise are unlikely to observe and helps you identify with greater clarity your unique strengths and gifts — i.e., your talents, your abilities, your intellect, and what resides deep inside your heart. The Examen can also help you focus on what fears, anxieties, and weaknesses could be holding you back from realizing your full potential and what you can do to help address them.
Cura Personalis and the Workplace
Cura Personalis not only applies to our own self-care but also invites us to be more present to the needs of others that we interact with in our professional relationships. Through the Examen, we can identify those relationships where we haven’t been fully present to a colleague’s needs, concerns, or unique circumstances. We might even discover a newfound appreciation for a colleague’s special gifts and talents that we had never noticed before or even a particular challenge or difficult situation that they have had to endure, all of which can serve to strengthen the overall working relationship. In applying the Examen specifically to the workplace, we might ask ourselves some difficult questions like:
- Do I ever really detach from my work environment, unplug, and get off the grid when I am home? Can I find moments during the day to be in absolute silence and stay with it?
- Do I get enough sleep during the workweek so that I can be as productive and attentive as my position demands for me to be successful?
- Does a lack of exercise and/or sleep affect my ongoing ability to make timely decisions and problem solve? Does it affect my creativity, my agility, my adaptability, my self-control, and my flexibility for me to be successful?
Cura Personalis and the Unopened Gift
To use an analogy, Cura Personalis is akin to discovering an old gift that someone had given you years earlier but for whatever reason you neglected to open the gift. The gift was always there and available to be opened at any time in the same way that the special gift of Cura Personalis is always there for us to open and the Examen can be that practical tool we can turn to help us unlock it. Fully embracing the gift of Cura Personalis could become a better way of defining our overall wellness in body, mind, and in spirit. And, it may allow us to feel more in control of our well being in both our personal life and in the workplace. So, remember folks that every day is a gift from the creator and that’s why it’s called the present. Don’t send your unique gifts back unopened!
Wishing my colleagues, fellow coaches, clients and friends the gift of Cura Personalis,
Dr. K
