What is Spiritual Health?
Spiritual health is an important aspect of an individual’s well-being. Spirituality involves understandings of in depth sense of the meaning and purpose of life, a sense of belonging, and acceptance, integration and a feeling of completeness. Spirituality often becomes more significant in our lives in times of emotional stress, distress, loss, physical and mental illness, bereavement and when an individual is in close contact with death. There are many practices an individual can participate in to connect with their spiritual self. Connection with the spiritual self can reduce the overall stress of an individual and limit the onset of potential stressors. Some ideas for individuals to practice to relieve their stress in a spiritual manner are: mediation or prayer, listen to soothing spiritual music, engage in deep reflection, participate in yoga or Tai Chi, spending time in nature, painting, sculpture, cooking, gardening, and surround yourself with people you trust like family members, close friends, and/or sports teams. Some of the information in this paragraph was taken from a website written by the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Spirituality and Psychiatry Special Interest Group Executive Committee.
Source: Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Spirituality and Psychiatry Special Interest Group
Executive Committee.(2010, March). Spiritual and Mental Health. In The Royal
College of Psychiatrists. Retrieved March 31, 2011, from
http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/mentalhealthinfo/treatments/spirituality.aspx
For an at home activity, you can create a journal. The journal can be something you write in whenever you feel stressed and want to write down your feelings at that moment. The songs below can help relax your mind while journaling about your stressors.
Another way using the spiritual dimension of health is to create a talking circle with close friends that you feel comfortable with. In a talking circle, one individual speaks at a time (person holding the talking object). To talk the individual has to have to talking object in hand. Talking circles allow for individuals to express their feelings and know they are being heard.
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPfdVW30HCE&feature=related
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmA-dWdaI5k
I LOVE this. You know I am especially excited to see you all teaching and passing on contemplative practices as a necessary component for our populations, but critically for ourselves as health educators. We need the oxygen masks on first before we can assist others:)
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