| Spiritual development for mental health |  |
Spirit or spirituality are not synonymous with religion or
religious. Church has nothing to do with spirituality
directly. Rather the spirit is that part of each human that
makes us a distinctive personality. It is the part of us
that defines us and yet connects us to others. It has long
been known that a strong healthy spirit will guide us
successfully through adversity, whereas a conquered spirit
will succumb to illness and death.
It was Mother Theresa's strong spirit that transcended her
small stature and seemingly insignificant role as a nun to
profoundly affect thousands of people for the better.
Conversely, it is the conquered spirit that explains the
powerful effects of subtle forms of brain washing in
prisoner-of-war camps. In other words, spirit is that
singular life force that directs and shapes our attitudes,
beliefs and behaviors. Therefore, keeping spirit or life
force healthy is essential to the process of achieving
healthy balance in any life. The key to effective stress
management is the proper alignment and interaction of a
healthy mind, a healthy body, and a healthy spirit.
HOW RELIGON PLAYS A PART
Remember that spirit is not bound by religion. Many
successful people do not belong to a church or any religion,
but they do have a strong sense of spirit and they do
believe in God. According to Gallup Polls as recent as 1997,
90% of Americans believe in God. The spirit connection is
not just a belief in God but the ability to relate to God,
often through communities such as churches provide.
The healthiest Americans are among those religious groups
who have a strong identity with their church. For example
Matthews and Koenig reported in 1997 that even if you
control for dietary practices, Mormons, Jews and Seventh Day
Adventists are healthier than other Americans. These three
religious groups are known for their strong sense of
religious community. Therefore, it is not the religion, per
se, that contributes to overall health, but the intensity of
the commitment to spirit whether by being a member of a
religious community or by maintaining a spiritual connection
in some other way.
Although most Americans believe in God, many of us are prone
to have fragmented and impersonal lives, which leads to
hedonism, increasing drug addiction and other health
problems. Spirituality in the sense of the expression of our
spirit, is not a regular part of our lives because so many
of us have abandoned religion. According to Kabbani, a
physician and author on Islamic spiritual healing practices,
religion gives us something to believe in, an identity, a
way to know ourselves in relation to others. Churches,
therefore, provide a community within which to know
ourselves, to belong, to repair our fragmented lives.
MAKING SPIRITUALITY A PRIORITY
Many people list church attendance as the last thing on
their list of things to do. After all, you are busy, busy
people, working 49-60 hours a week. When would you find the
time? You barely have a few moments to eat a quick meal and
watch television before falling into bed at the end of your
day. However, if you really want to create a balance among
intimacy, family life and meaningful work, you need to
repair the third leg of the mind - body - spirit connection.
Einstein once said, "Religion without science is blind.
Science without religion is lame." As we move into the
twenty first century we are realizing the truth of this
statement more and more. We are part of something much more
than the sum of the parts. Those who embrace their spirit
connection are finding greater health and prosperity and
science is starting to prove it.
For example, in a Duke University study by Herb Koenig,
elderly patients who are regular church attendees stayed in
the hospital a shorter length of time (ten days on average)
than those patients who did not attend church (twenty-five
days.) In another study (Desmond and Maddox, 1981), this on
of heroin addicts, researchers reported that 45 percent of
participants in a religiously oriented treatment program
were still abstinent at the time of a one year follow-up,
compared to only 5 percent who participated in a
non-religious program.
It is true that you cannot always prevent pain. Although
change is constant, you cannot always predict accurately
what those changes will be and pain may be a natural by
product of the interaction of your dynamically interacting
systems. Yet if you have a healthy spiritual connection your
suffering may be minimized, as the previous few studies
indicate. For Viktor Frankl, a Jew confined in a Nazi
concentration camp: "Man is not diminished by suffering,
but by suffering without meaning."
It is time to make not just new years resolutions but
resolutions for a lifetime. If working hard to be successful
and profitable results in workaholism, drug addiction,
financial problems, domestic violence, extra-marital affairs
and divorce, what's the point? Even if your life has led
you in one of these stressful directions, don't despair.
Make meaning of the experience and put the disaster into the
context of your life. Then reorient that life to meet your
values.
If one of those values is a belief in God (as is true for
90% of Americans), yet you are not attending to that
spiritual relationship, the balance in your life is
compromised and will inevitably lead you to some form of
personal or interpersonal dysfunction. On the other hand, if
you develop a stronger sense of self, a sense of self as
belonging to something larger than just this earthly
existence, and you make a commitment to that higher self
(i.e. through prayer or inner contemplation), even when you
have suffering, you will have a meaningful and prosperous
life to share with the ones you love and work with.
There are a variety of resources available to you if you
think you need help finding your spiritual path.
Copyright © 2000 Kathy J. Marshack, Ph.D., P.S.
Kathy J. Marshack, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist with
over twenty-five years of experience as a marriage & family
therapist. Visit her website -http://www.self-helpcentral.com, for more of her practical self-help advice. Sign up for her
free ezine for the latest self-help information and special
discounts on wellness products at
http://www.self-helpcentral.com/newsletter.htm.
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