Healthy Spirit

How do you keep a healthy spirit?

More importantly, what exactly is spirit? And how does one care for the spirit? It is a seemingly abstract and often mind-boggling concept that gets lost in the many other day to day things we have to worry about such as caring for our body and, more increasingly, our mental health. But could these aspects of our life intertwine with our spirit?

How do you feel? Close your eyes and take a moment to reflect on what your spirit means to you. Do you regard your spirit as something akin to your soul, to your outlook and passion in life? Or, do you see it more in the traditional sense of religious practice and prayer? Whatever it is, it is different for each of us and there are different ways to nurture our spirit.

Healthy Spirit is the third instalment in The Health Conscious series, coming after Health Body and Healthy Mind. It features articles from people of all walks of life, from a lawyer, to a psychic, to a publisher and almost everything else in between. The articles are written to be insightful, interesting and useful to you in their differing ideas about what spirit is and how to care for it.

Healthy Spirit has something for everybody and is sure to become an invaluable guide and addition to The Health Conscious series.

Catholic Priest Fr Bob Maguire has a long history working with the poorest and most marginalised in Melbourne's community. He is a pioneer in the social sector. Fr Bob's early life instilled in him a sense of care and concern for the forgotten members of community, the 'unlovely and the unloved'. Bob led the Character Training Unit for young officers in the Australian Army before beginning his well known 39 year stint as parish priest of St Peter and Paul Church in South Melbourne. This is where his outreach work took hold and really grew. He threw himself into the service of the homeless and those down on their luck. He worked with anyone - criminal, addicted, young and old could rely on him. His latest venture, The Fr Bob Maguire Foundation was launched in 2003. Now in his mid 80s, he is currently actively engaged in the Fr Bob Maguire Foundation - an organisation that served more than 40,000 hot meals and around 10,000 hampers this year and growing, along with Outreach and Counselling to over 5000 clients to date. While also driving his Education fund to support our local youth with scholarships for secondary education, one of his dreams is to help beyond and see that our young thrive.