Spirit – an attitude or insight;
Heart – a feeling about oneself or others;
Mind – knowledge; and,
Body – a skill.

I take this to mean that a holistic approach, one that addresses Spirit and Heart, focuses more on process than on product.

Since then, I have felt inspired to superimpose the Medicine Wheel over the Rainbow Approach, and to suggest a learning outcome for Spirit, Heart, Mind, and Body for each of the types of literacy. That work evolves as I hear from Learners and practitioners across the country.

I knew that if funders were to consider the Medicine Wheel model of learning, I would have to educate those with access to authority and decision-making in government (I had worked in the Ontario provincial government for seven years). This meant that I would have to find scientific and educational research that corroborated this Medicine Wheel Approach.

I found the work of The HeartMath Institute, which asserts that the electromagnetic frequencies (EMF) of the heart are five thousand times greater than that of the brain (Childre and Howard with Beech). That is, it’s the heart that entrains the brain, not the other way around as we’ve been socialized to believe.

Aboriginal Peoples have always believed that everything has a “Spirit.” In modern scientific terms, this could be called energy or an EMF. Aboriginal Peoples also believe that thoughts, words, intentions, and feelings have energy. I would like to quote Gregg Braden, who has professional careers in earth sciences, aerospace, and in senior computer systems:

The path of internal technology remembers that each cell of our bodies is approximately 1.17 volts of electrical potential. Statistics indicate that the average body is composed of approximately 1 quadrillion cells. One quadrillion cells times 1.17 volts of potential for each cell equals approximately 1.17 quadrillion volts of electrical potential per person.

1.17 quadrillion volts is a lot of energy. What activates this energy is our feelings which often translate into thoughts, words, and intentions. I don’t know about you, but if I know that I’m capable of that much energy, I want to make sure that whatever I put out there in the universe is positive. In Aboriginal teachings, we say, "What goes around comes around."