Advancing our Character Traits
 
The path to a balanced outer physical world goes hand in hand with balancing our inner emotional, mental and spiritual worlds.

Throughout spiritual communities  world-wide are lifestyles that include self-reflection practices in which one aims to attain better personal characteristics.
The motive behind is explained in a fascinating way by Rav Ashlag, a 20th century 'Modern Kabbalist'. He teaches that in the spiritual world, two things are close when they are similar in character - as opposed to close in physical space-time. If one wants to become more divine one's self, or alternatively one wants to come close to G-d, then one is to align their character traits with those understood as characteristics of the Divine.
Hassidic Masters have taught: S/HE is holy, therefore be holy. S/HE is merciful, therefore be merciful. Just as S/HE is pure, so too, aim to be pure. {See the book Tomer Devora.} If one wants to draw close to what is known as the source of all pleasure and good, one is to align one's characteristics with those of that same source. This practice of aligning with the Divine is practiced by aligning with the Ten Sefirot and/or the related Eastern system of Chakras. Or, it can be practiced by imagining a role model or figure in one's life and their inspiring character traits, and aligning with them. Self-reflection meditations aid a person in connecting with their inner power, responsibility and core.
 
Our characteristics can be judged by our relationships with Self, Others & Whole/All.
 
Another wide-spread teaching is that we are all mirror images of one another;
The legend tells that the United Mirror broke into billions of pieces which make up our world. Now, whenever we look at another and judge or see something, we are judging and seeing our selves. A great practice is to consider judgments - good and bad - that you are harboring or that arise in you of others and analyze how these judgments are actually your judgments of yourself. When we then adjust ourselves, we will find that our mirror images will also adjust. This is an advanced principle in understanding just how much power we have over our lives.
 
A healthy character leads to a healthy lifestyle. A healthy lifestyle leads to a healthy being. There are many, many paths to balance and harmony. No one practice is required.
Each person has a unique story. There is no one correct path. This is an important understanding on the path to making peace with others.
 
So far, we have understood that a holistic lifestyle usually involves first taking care of a healthy inner physical world and secondly caring for a healthy inner immaterial world. This involves sorting out confusions, learning healthy emotional and mental habits, making peace with ourselves and others and finding what our passion in life is. Our inner spiritual world includes understanding our personal gifts, wills and intentions. It involves learning how to become a part of the whole in the most harmonious way, and how to connect with that which is both greater than and weaker than us in order to find our honest places in life. It involves understanding that each of us are unique and influential creations with infinite potential! It involves great confidence in ourselves as divine elements of life itself.
 
 
Holistic - Whole (Shalem) - (Shalom) Peace
 
 
 
The following is a list of some highly encompassing ways to consider reality's order in terms of 5's. Each column is coordinated. The purpose of this is to show that extraordinary order exists in this world, part of one united supra-conscious Genius.  
(Similar lists can show correlations of many other numbers. One is G-d's Oneness. Two see below; duality. Three includes a synthesis to the thesis and antithesis of Two. Four is the Five list without number Five which Unites the Four. Similarly, Six are the six directions/planets and Seven representing Shabbat/Saturn  unites those. Ten are the Sefirot which include the six. Twelve the tribes/months etc. All is correlated, as studied by wisdom traditions the world over.)
 
 
Physical   Emotional   Mental   Spiritual   Universal   
Earth   Water  Fire   Air   Space 
Touch  Taste   Sight   Smell   Sound
Mineral   Plant   Animal   Speaking  Divine   
Skin   Muscles/Flesh   Organs/Sinews   Bones   Bone Marrow 
Action   Speech   Thought  Mind  Will
Action  Formation  Creation  Emanation   Primordial Man ('Worlds') 
אדם קדמון  (א״ק)  אצילות  בריאה   יצירה   עשיה
כתר  חכמה  בינה   חג"ת   נה"י  מלכות (Ten 'Sefirot'/Divine Attributes)
Kingship,  6 'emotion/character' Sefirot,  Understanding,  Wisdom,  Crown
Daughter/Bride,  Son/Groom,   Wife/Mother,   Husband/Father,   Grandfather
אריך אנפין,   אבא,  אמא,   זאיר אנפין,   נוקבא  ('Partzufim'/Personas)
'Indwelling soul',   'Spirit',   'Divine Soul',   'Living Essence',   'Unique/Unified Essence'
יחידה  חיה   נשמה   רוח   נפש   (Levels of the Soul)
Hey   Vav  Hey  Yud   Apex of Yud  (Tetragrammaton)
Negiya   Brit  Lashon  Eynayim   Yichud  (Shmirot, original)


 
 
Now here is a list of some highly encompassing ways to consider reality's order in terms of 2's. Here, too, each column is coordinated. 
 
+                     -
1                    0
White          Black
Yes               No
Yang            Yin
    Soul             Body
  Masculine          Feminine
         Giving          Receiving
      Light          Vessel
Milk           Meat
  Spiritual         Physical
                        צורה (Form)           חומר (Raw Material)
      Creator         Creation
   Love           Awe 
     Intellect         Emotion
     Kindness         Judgment
 Water         Blood
               אין סוף ברוך הוא         אריך אנפין
                    אמונה שלימה         אור שכלי   
Heaven          Earth
Transcendence            Immanence
         Mercy           Justice
             Revelation            Concealment
Divine Omniscience          Human Free Will
            Day         Night
             Sun          Moon


 
On our path to Holistic Health, it is important to understand that all is inter-connected.
From this knowledge comes the understanding that: 

"No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main." (John Donne) 
“Man did not weave the web of life – he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.” (Chief Seattle)
"He who experiences the unity of life sees his own Self in all beings, and all beings in his own Self, and looks on everything with an impartial eye" (Bhagavad Gita)