Spiritual health is the capacity and ability to seek, experience, and express meaning and purpose in our lives often through love, hope, gratitude, forgiveness, peace, and community in order to enjoy a sense of the Sacred (as you understand it). Spiritual health provides the sense that life is meaningful and has a purpose and is defined by the ethics, morals and values that guide you and give meaning and direction to your life.
Certain spiritual practices can help us care for our spiritual health. Our spiritual health needs attention and intention just as much as our physical and social and mental health. There are varieties of spiritual practices geared towards different strengths, preferences, and our own personalities. Often times, we find these practices in spirituality and/or religious experience. No one practice or discipline is better than another. How can you tell which one is right for you? If you find yourself experiencing more peace, more life satisfaction, and more meaning and purpose in your life, more than likely those particular spiritual practices are right for you.
It is often helpful to approach these disciplines or practices in terms of your entire body experience of sight, touch, sound, and even taste. If you are a visual person, you may wish to try meditating or even praying with art or specifically, religious icons. Simply behold the artwork and allow it to "speak" to you. What details do you notice? What does the artwork signify? What does this artwork say to you regarding your Higher Power?
If you tend to "hold things inside," you may want to try journaling as a way to express yourself, your thoughts, and your feelings. It can provide a creative release of your interior life that can lead to great...
... middle of paper ...
... certain elements of breathing, chanting, meditation, and exercises.
Your personal path to spiritual health may involve any or all of the things shared above. Seek to find a harmony between what which lies within you and with the external forces of your physical and social well-being. One way to begin to engage in the process of spiritual wellness is to do an assessment. Here are a few possible questions to ask yourself: 1) Do I make time for relaxation in my day? 2) Do I make time for some form of meditation and/or prayer? 3) Do my internal values guide my life, including my actions and decisions? 4) Do I accept the views and opinions of others?
How2connect.com is here to help provide the tools, resources, and support you need to improve your spiritual health. Consider seeking counsel from our Interfaith Chaplains as well as our Health and Wellness Team!
Cunningham, M. (2012). Integrating Spirituality in Clinical Social Work Practice: Walking the Labyrinth (1 ed.). Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education Inc.
The assessment tool that I plan to use in this intervention is the biopsychosocial spiritual assessment tool. This assessment tool will give me a good impression of what Marcel is dealing with. This assessment tool will give me information such as some of Marcel’s background information, such as age, mender, and ethnicity. This assessment tool will also give me some insight on Marcel’s childhood. Some of the things he may have experienced in that time in his life that has caused a negative effect on his life and if some of those experiences are connected to the problem that he is having. This assessment tool will also address some of Marcel’s family background. This information is important because it may show some of the
With this in mind whatever method is chosen, modern medicine or alternative, spiritual healing is a crucial part of the whole process of healing.
The notion of Holistic Medicine has been around for many years. But why now, has interest in this area skyrocketed? People are starting to prefer a more natural approach when it comes to healthcare. Holistic Health is actually an approach to life. Rather than focusing on illness or specific parts of the body, this ancient approach to health considers the whole person and how he or she interacts with his or her environment. It emphasizes the connection of mind, body, and spirit. The goal is to achieve maximum well-being, where everything is functioning at its best.
Throughout history, it seems that medicine and spirituality have been linked in many circumstances. In a study looking at the use of complementary and alternative therapies in cardiac patients, spiritual healing was one of many practices patient sought to utilize. In another study, 29% of participants chose to use prayer or premeditation as a way to cope with their chronic illness. In both studies, prayer or meditation was more likely to be used by individuals who had a large social network, as well as support from another person in the same health situation. Based on these studies, it seems that many individuals (not just cardiovascular patients) turn to their spirituality in times of health distress.
Religion and spirituality is a major essential part of one’s’ health. They have included things such as prayer in healing, counseling, and the use of meditation. Spiritual issues make a difference in an individual’s experience of illness and health. With spirituality, the health care providers can learn to support the values for the art of healing. The health care provider must have respect for their patient’s religion. (Larry Dossey. Healing Words: The Power of Prayer and the Practice of Medicine. Harper Collins, San Francisco. 1993.)
A spiritual individual does the good works because they are a changed human who wants to benefit others. The downfall to only being spiritual is the idea of not having a community to hold you accountable to doing these deeds, and to have others, that have the same faith and trust in the same supernatural world. To not have spiritual guidance or the help from others to assist in another's internal development with the spiritual
They emphasize admirable yearnings of the human spirit to be in touch with God. Certain things touch different people more, like doing yoga may be more spiritual for some than others thus the use of multiple styles of spirituality.
Most people question the purpose of writing a journal. People who write a journal keep it to fulfill a basic human need – “self expression and reflection” (Sagan 1). Writing is known as one of the easiest ways to express your personality and who you truly are. You can write in a journal without having anyone judging you – unless you chose to have someone else read it of course. You may reflect on your writing while you are writing your journal/diary entries. Then, once you have expressed your thoughts, you can even go back to your past entries to reflect on what you have said before. Reflecting on your writing can help you develop as a person. It helps you think through a situation and possibly solve it. Reflections help generate ideas for how to improve as an individual. But really, it’s entertaining to re-read past memories and see how much...
Knowing what each of these dimensions of wellness requires can feel overwhelming. However, one should not be discouraged because of what they lack, but look forward to the improvement we are capable of bringing to our own lives. Becoming more spiritual will always be beneficial. Anytime one can improve their relationship with God one can improve their life astronomically. Emotional wellness is possible even for those who have been through horrible experiences. Practicing emotional wellness can bring healing. Physical and nutritional wellness will lead to a longer, pleasanter life and social wellness will make that life worth living. Sharing a well life with family, friends, and God will make time on this earth an irreplaceable experience.
Spirituality is not restricted to any religious denomination nor is it limited to the pursuit of knowledge. It is however, the fundamentals of Eastern and Western medicine in their approach towards health and wellbeing.
I’d like to state the most obvious observation that I’ve made about spiritual formation; that is that I will always need to be seeking for ways to nurture my personal spirituality throughout my life. I know that to most people this may sound like a “duh” statement, but for me it has truly become a reality and one that I must admit I have been struggling to embrace. I was brought up in a church that, like most traditional churches, stayed happy living in the “comfort zone” of their Christianity. They took everything that the Bible said at face value without digging in to find out why they believed what they believed. I had never been challenged to look deeper into the text. In the past few years I have felt the need to tunnel out of this cave of what I feel is best labeled “Christian ignorance”. In the process though, I have had to come to terms with letting go of the things that brought me comfort and provided me with what I thought it took to have a close relationship with God. Some of those things were tangible. Most were not. The things that were the least tangible actually ended up being the hardest to let go of.
The concept of health introduces multiple complexities further deepening the meaning of what it is to be healthy. The definition of health is arbitrary and can differ from individual to individual. Otherwise, my basic perception of health is experienced through the things I learned at school and from the people around me. Growing up, I was taught practices such as coughing into my sleeve and washing my hands to prevent the spread of germs. What I always understood about health is just to simply avoid sickness. However, my perspective gradually changed as I experience events involving my well-being and those around me. I began to realize that health has a plethora of definitions which helped create my own idea of that concept. Health, to me,
A spiritual individual does the good works because they are a changed human who wants to benefit others. The downfall to only being spiritual is the idea of not having a community to hold you accountable to doing these deeds, and to have others, that have the same faith and trust in the same supernatural world. To not have spiritual guidance or the help from others to assist in another's internal development with the spiritual
Ganga and Kutty stated (2013) spirituality refers to a path of life that enables people to seek reason of their existence and helps people explore challenges. Ganga and Kutty (2013) conducted a study on adults to see if spirituality had positive effects on their life, meaning did their life have purpose or value. Each participant partook in a study that asked questions about their life and purpose. The study consisted of a daily spiritual experience scale, it was a point scale that consist of 16 items to be rated on a 6-point scale. The results concluded that spirituality has positive effects on their life when seeking their purpose. Each participant felt that he/she had a purpose and that their life was valuable and meaningful (Ganga and Kutty, 2013). According to Ganga and Kutty (2013), spirituality is a way for people to discover the meaning of their life. Spirituality is a personal adventure to understand answers to the questions they seek to find about their spirituality and purpose in life. It says spirituality is a set of beliefs and practices that concludes with life changing paths that make a person’s life meaningful. Spirituality has been viewed as an important factor when realizing the purpose of life. Ganga and Kutty (2013) expressed spirituality enhances our emotions, thoughts, beliefs, relieves stress and it finds meaning and purpose of one’s life. I believe