Definitions of Spiritual Health
 Adherence to a religious doctrine
 Ability to discover and express one’s purpose in
life
 Ability to experience love, joy, peace, and
fulfillment
 Ability to help yourself and others achieve full
potential
Religion and Spirituality
 Both affect health
 They have similarities and differences
 Spirituality
 Orientation to the transcendent features of life
 Religion
 Organized entity with basic beliefs and practices
Spirituality and Health
 Some researchers have shown evidence that prayer can
improve health
 Living a spiritual life correlates with healthy behaviors
in general
 Prayer is the most common form of complementary
and alternative medicine
 Businesses have begun to recognize the role of
spirituality in the health of employees
How Spirituality and Religion
Affect Health
 Control theory: when someone feels a degree of
control over a stressor, the person’s health is less
affected by the stressor
 Two different approaches
 Primary control: attempts to change the situation
(problem focused)
 Secondary control: attempts to control oneself (emotion
focused)
 Religion or spirituality can function as either
primary or secondary control
USA Weekend Faith and Health Poll
 79% believe spiritual faith can help people recover
from illness, injury or disease.
 56% say their faith has helped them recover from
illness, injury or disease.
 63 % believe it’s good for doctors to talk to patients
about spiritual faith.
 Yet only 10% say a doctor has talked to them about
their spiritual faith as a factor in physical health.
Making the Most Out of Patient
Spirituality
 Today, 70 medical schools have classes on spirituality
and medicine, compared to 5 schools as of thirty years
ago.
 90% of patients who have spiritual beliefs want their
doctors to ask about their spiritual beliefs. The focus
should be on the ‘whole person.’
Making the Most Out of Patient
Spirituality
 Spirituality gives people purpose and meaning.
This becomes more important when people
become ill. It becomes more important than
money, job, status, etc.
 “We are not destroyed by suffering, but by
suffering with no meaning.” – Victor Frankel
Spirituality and Stress
Philosophical Stress (Distress or Eustress)
 Purpose vs. randomness
 Hope vs. despair
 Order vs. chaos
 Social support
 “Servant” mentality
(thinking of others)
 Helping others
 volunteerism
 Health impact
 Power of prayer
(intercessory)
 Longevity (life span)
 Family stability
 Perspective
 Forgiveness (benefits)
Forgiveness as a Clinical
Intervention
 Dr. Richard Tibbits
 Teaching people how to forgive to relieve
anger/anxiety. Anger correlates to
hypertension/heart disease. Short term/long term
resentment is reduced by forgiveness.
Forgiveness as a Clinical
Intervention
 Psychosocial components to forgiveness
 Interpersonal
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
Reconciling with another (relationships)
Bridge building (not every relationship will be reconciled)
Forgiveness as a Clinical
Intervention
 Psychosocial components to forgiveness
 Intrapersonal



Letting go (what goes on inside of the individual)
Learning to let go, or the only one who suffers is me.
Don’t hold onto your ‘grievance’ story, quit recalling ‘the story’
which is physiologically stimulating.
Forgiveness as a Clinical
Intervention
 Three steps to forgiveness:
 Discovering the purpose for the future



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My future will not be affected by what you did to me (control).
I will not play the ‘victim’ role because it will control my
future.
Forgiveness allows a person to move on with their life.
Nobody gets better by ranting or contemplating about the
past.
Relaxation Techniques
 Meditation-2 components
 Figure- what you are focusing on (breathing)
 Ground- everything else blocking out
 Autogenic Training- self generated
 Daydreaming
 Find that “enjoyable “ place
 Progressive Relaxation
 Biofeedback- instant results, physiological
 Prayer- focus on specifics
What Is Meditation?
 Meditation requires an
object of focus
 The object of focus
could be a word
(mantra), your
breathing, or a
geometric shape such
as a mandala
Approaches to Meditation
One of two approaches is used regardless of
the type of meditation selected:
1.
Opening up of the attention



2.
Requires nonjudgmental attitude
Allows external/internal stimuli to come in
All stimuli are absorbed
Focusing of the attention

Object of focus is either repetitive or unchanging
“Burning up the Engine”
Richard Swenson’s “Margin”
 The healthiest lifestyle comes equipped with four
gears.
“Burning up the Engine”
 The first gear is PARK, for the contemplative times.
This gear is used for rest and renewal to recharge our
batteries. We sit and think about values and
spirituality.
“Burning up the Engine”
 The second gear is LOW. The gear is for relationships,
for family, for friends. We use this gear to talk with
someone, read your kids a story. No hurry here.
“Burning up the Engine”
 The third gear is DRIVE. This is our usual gear for
work and play. This gear uses lots of energy. The fast
speed feels good because it’s productive. It gets us
from place to place quickly. This is the gear we mow
the lawn or exercise in.
“Burning up the Engine”
 The forth gear is OVERDRIVE. This gear is reserved
for times that require extra effort. If we have a
deadline, we kick into this gear. This is the gear you
use during flu season when your schedule is
overbooked.
We must be able to downshift.
Dr. Richard Swenson