Total Health: Ted Orenstein On How We Can Optimize Our Mental, Physical, Emotional, & Spiritual Wellbeing

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”, we had the pleasure of interviewing Ted Orenstein.

As a child growing up in a normal middle-class suburban family, Ted Orenstein accepted what he was taught in religious school. Later, in his teens, he acquired a cynicism about religion after seeing people going through the motions, reading prayers about a God to which he could not relate, and listening to Bible stories that he could not believe. In college, he saw himself as an avowed atheist. When he was 26 years old. without warning in the middle of the night, he received a revelation that fundamentally changed his life. He was elated while calm, and amazed while filled with quiet contemplation; everything came together, and everything was understood. He had received spiritual enlightenment and is now drawn to help others achieve it, as well.

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 in 1943. As a child, I took seriously what I was taught in religious school. In junior high school, as I and the other students recited prayers at the beginning of each school day, I considered them deeply. Later, in my teens, I acquired a cynicism about religion. In college, I saw myself as an atheist. I loved to debate the issue with believers and discuss it with all others. I rejected the humanoid God spoken of in the Bible.

In the middle of the night, a few days after going Christmas caroling in December 1969, as I was studying for the upcoming bar exam with the happy loving spirit of Christmas in my subconscious mind, I had a revelation as to the nature of life. It struck me with no warning what Christ meant when he said” Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” We are all connected. We are united so that when we hurt others, we hurt ourselves. It was at that moment that I first truly recognized the shining spirit behind those words.

My life was fundamentally changed at that moment. I was elated and calm; amazed and filled with quiet contemplation. Everything came together. Everything was understood.

Revelations kept coming in the two years following that moment. I noticed occurrences hinting at spirituality which I would have previously walked by and ignored. They connected with something in me. I was ready. I was like a blossoming flower. It was during a revelatory experience I had during that time that I realized I existed beyond my physical and mental body. I was a spirit that resided in my body in order to exist in and interact with the physical world.

Soon thereafter, without warning, a fundamental spiritual awakening came over me. It was a wondrous revelatory experience within which I felt a direct connection with the source of life. While within it, I understood all. It left after about 36 hours, but the lessons learned from that experience lingered.

Soon after that I met my first spiritual teacher in a casual conversation while passing on the sidewalk. He invited me to visit his home where he lived with his wife and young daughter, and I soon did. Every night people gathered around that wise man and they had deep probing discussions about the nature of life, of meaning, and of the nature of understanding itself. The enlightening realization of the true meaning of life returned, but this time it was even greater.

I discovered the indescribable, yet believably real, experience of higher consciousness that connects us with our inner spiritual selves. An experience that can bring an absolute understanding of the nature of existence. It is a pure beingness through which we automatically love all and know the basis of all.

I was immersed in that heavenly experience for about three weeks. During that time, I developed a concept of the nature of our existence in this earthly world and how it could be communicated to others.

Having experienced enlightenment, I was drawn to help others achieve it, as well. That is the teaching contained in my book Awaken Your Soul: How to Find Your Inner Spirit and Life’s Purpose.

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

It wasn’t a who. It was a what. While sitting in my car one day in March of 1971, during the period when I was living within spiritual enlightenment, I saw that my purpose was not to become a monk, but to stay within the world and practice what I had learned. It was even later, probably in the late 1970s, that I found that I have a mission to help others find their own spiritual potential. That was when I began recording what I had learned. Now, 40-plus years later, I have brought it out into the world.

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?

Tyrone Campbell was my first and most profound spiritual teacher. I still live by the principles I learned from him. In 1970, my friend Paul and I were walking down a street in Boston when we passed a group of people on the sidewalk and started talking with them. Tyrone was in that group.

Somehow, we began talking about spirituality. He seemed wise to me. I remember he called me an old soul. He invited us to come sometime and visit him and his family at his apartment. We took him up on it a few days later. A group of people had gathered around him, and informal sessions were held in his living room pretty much every night.

The discussions were very deep. I had never before been in such an environment. I had many questions. I learned so much. Every night people gathered around and had nonideological discussions about spirituality, life, meaning, and about the very nature of understanding. The height of my enlightenment experience came upon me. It was a feeling of being at one with all living things, with the entire universe. Pure infinite awareness.

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

I retired from the practice of law in 2002, partially to focus on writing a book to help others find enlightenment. I had wanted to for years, but making a living at the practice of law, putting much time and effort into causes in which I believed, as well as being a husband and raising children didn’t allow for growth and reflection beyond those pursuits. They had been put on the back burner for 30 years. So, my wife Beverly and I decided to retire while we still had enough health left to enjoy life, and so I could follow my greater pursuit.

Well, we enjoyed life and I did continue to pursue my spiritual journey, while taking notes of my inspirational experiences, but it was not until 2012, that I decided to gather together my 40 years of notes and send them to a typist to put into a thumb drive. I had waited 10 years after retirement to begin seriously working on my book. I regret that.

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?

Karen Armstrong is my favorite author. She has written many books on religion and spirituality, including A History of God, Buddha, Islam, The Case for God, and her autobiographical The Spiral Staircase. She has a knack for getting to the essence of each religion, and in her later works she has shown the world her evolved spiritual journey. Like me, she started as an agnostic or atheist, but through her study of religion she has grown to discover the same essence of loving Oneness at the source of all religions, which I also have discovered. I may have been there before her, but we are now in that place together.

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

Wow, do I have to choose? There are so many that ring true to me such as “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” “If you search outside for God, you will be forever searching, but if you seek God within your heart, you will find the connection with your eternal Oneness.” “The only true reality is the reality of the present moment,” and “Prayer is not a spectator event.”

If I had to choose the all-encompassing one, it would have to be “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” That can be followed by anyone from the simplest and least educated person to the most enlightened.

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

Now that my book is out, I am concentrating on spreading the word to as many people as possible through whatever means opens itself to me.

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.

Sometimes we feel fear, insecurity, jealousy, anger, and other negative emotions. Of course, everyone does from time to time. Those negative emotions or impulses can overwhelm us, taking over both our minds and bodies, making us unhappy and causing us to do destructive things to ourselves and others.

Why are those emotions so powerful? Our egos have developed over the years through painful experiences. Feelings of insecurity, jealousy, fear, and other harmful, knee-jerk emotional reactions build up within us as a result of those past wrongs we’ve experienced. Those defenses are so ingrained within us that we do not see them — we do not even realize they exist.

I, myself, encounter the problems and frustrations of day-to-day life. When that happens, I sometimes forget the universal love I have learned through spiritual enlightenment. I impulsively get impatient and angry when my buttons are pushed, which leads me to mistreat others. How does one avoid this? Here are three tips that have helped me keep these unhealthy emotions from taking over.

1. Don’t Let Your Initial Reaction Overwhelm You

By acting out of anger, jealousy, or hatred, you are indulging your need for immediate satisfaction. However, you have lived long enough to know that anger only begets anger in return. What benefits you more: Increasing an adversary’s anger at you, or having them respect you?

The harm that comes from other people can only harm you if you let it. If you see your own failures, and realize that their reactions come from pain within them, you can only pity them and not be hurt. If you let your kindness — your empathy — come forth, you will try to help them instead of becoming angry at them.

If someone hates you, that is their problem. Don’t make it your problem. Be patient and friendly with everyone. Don’t let the base, impulsive, animalistic part of you defeat your true good nature. Be true to yourself.

2. Be Happy with What You Have

When life’s pitfalls and tragedies befall you, it’s easy to feel sorry for yourself. Don’t fall into that trap. Consider the history of people who have lost their limbs, sight, or movement. See how they have modified their lives to become just as happy and fulfilled as before their misfortune.

Look no further than the life of Stephen Hawking, the astrophysicist who wrote A Brief History of Time. Who could have lived a more full and meaningful life than that man who lived in a wheelchair and could not speak or even gesture?

Don’t be a victim of events. You are in control of your own life. Whatever is thrown at you in life, make the most of it. Think of it this way: Life on earth is a school through which we human souls learn gradually to become wise, transcendent, blissful, and eternal. Learn from all events, both good and bad.

3. Meditation Helps You Overcome Those Emotions

Practicing meditation is how you can learn to overcome your negative emotions. It prepares you to be fully aware of every present moment, just as it is. Everything is in the moment. Your memories of the past are faulty, and the future has not yet happened. All you have is this moment. If you take care of this moment, every moment as it comes, the years will take care of themselves.

Meditation opens you to complete awareness of the moment so that you can see your knee-jerk emotional reactions for what they are. You will see through them to your true reality, allowing your loving soul to shine through and making you a light to the world.

In my book Awaken Your Soul, I explain how to meditate and achieve spiritual enlightenment. It’s a practice that has changed my life, and I look forward to sharing that journey with others.

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

A practice that I have personally found very helpful is listening to the musical album named “Tenku” by the musician Kitaro. It has no words. Some of the pieces are inspirational, like soaring among the clouds, and others are calming, like listening to the waves by the ocean.

The first time I heard it, I was in a bookstore. I had opened and was reading the Hindu holy text The Bhagavad Gita. I found myself not just reading the words of the story, but being drawn to the spiritual meaning behind it. I realized it was the music playing in the background which had drawn me out of that earthly moment in the bookstore and into the spiritual realm. I asked what was playing and immediately bought it. I try to listen to it in the background whenever I am alone reading a spiritual text or when meditating.

After having listened for years to that music while meditating, I am able to get into a meditative state faster and easier. It makes it much easier for my consciousness to remember its mindful frame of mind. Just calmly listening to that music while deeply breathing automatically brings me there.

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.

If you are amid negative emotions, you are more likely to ignore the healthy habits that lead to a healthy body. Following the three good habits explained above for optimum mental wellness will also lead you to physical wellness.

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?

The emotional needs we have to overeat or eat unhealthy foods can also be overcome using the techniques described above which are helpful for emotional health.

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

The techniques described above are also helpful for emotional wellness.

You never really know what the people around you may be going through, so treat them with kindness. There is good in everyone, even though they may have been affected by events that caused them to approach the world and its people in destructive ways. Down deep they are like you. They are looking for love. Look for the love in them. Feel it!

Stop the cycle of hate with love. Assume the best, and you may find the best. If you receive hatefulness or aggression, give love in return. “If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man’s life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.” — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Listen to the other person, care about others, be kind, and be patient with people. Giving kindness or generosity is not just your act. Someone is simultaneously receiving your kindness or generosity, so they are acting, as well. You are brought together by that act.

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

Be open to others and accept them for what they are and how they are. Seeing the goodness within others will bring a smile to your face.

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

I am a creature of logic. If I am to believe something, it must not be contrary to my life experience. I now believe in God, but have not changed my requirement that God not contradict science, history, and life’s experience. The difference, I have learned through hindsight, is that my problem was that I had accepted the definition of God taught to me by others, and therefore was forced to either reject such a God or suspend experience.

In order to believe in God, which can also be called spiritual enlightenment, there is no need to suspend reason and experience. Just because a belief in God does not contradict reason and experience, that does not mean that it must be fully explained by reason and experience. Just because you have not yet experienced something, does not mean it does not exist.

I have now discovered God myself and I have been surprised to learn that the God I have discovered is the same transcendental universal love that is at the heart of the beliefs of enlightened Jews, Christians, Islamists, Hindus, Buddhists, humanists, atheists, and enlightened people of every age and place. Some call it God, and some do not, but it is the same.

The operative word is love. The universal absolute love of all. At the heart of the beliefs of the enlightened of all of the Earth’s great religions and non-religious spiritual and philosophical beliefs is the same thing. It is just expressed in different words and seen through the prism of different cultures and times.

I have discovered that God is a dimension within me.

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

Regular emersion within nature improves our physical, emotional, and even spiritual well-being.

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 hope to teach as many people as possible how to find their spiritual oneness, so that they will, in turn, teach it to more and more circles of searchers.

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 spend time with Oprah Winfrey. She is spiritual and has come via her own route to the same concept of God and life that I teach in my book Awaken Your Soul: How to Find Your Inner Spirit and Life’s Purpose. It would be a fascinating talk and would probably enhance both of our spiritual journeys.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

I can be found at my website tedorenstein.com, in Twitter at @OrensteinAuuthor, in Facebook at TheodoreOrensteinAuthor, and in Instagram at TedOrensteinAuthor.

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