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Spirituality - Is It Important for Your Health?

What is it really, spirituality? It is not as easy to explain as one might expect. I thought I could just google "spirituality" and out would come a simple and concise answer. Well, it turns out it depends on who you ask. Most would probably deem it part of being religious. Is it? Yes...and no. According to a 2005 poll by Newsweek together with beliefnet.com, 55% of Americans consider themselves spiritual as well as religious while 24 % consider themselves only spiritual. Only 8 % considered themselves neither religious nor spiritual.

How important is spirituality to our health and well-being?

Japanese spirituality
If you go by the more than 70 research studies published in 2006 that examined the relationships between religion, spirituality and health (most studies were of Judeo-Christian populations in the US) it is very important. Many found positive relationships, the researchers say. Going to church or other places of worship seems to keep people living longer. For example, a US study found that life expectancy at age 20 for people who attended church services more than once a week was, on average, seven and a half years longer than those who never attended. That sounds great. Except for the fact that in Japan, a country where most don't ever go to church, people live on average four and a half years longer than church-going Americans. In secular Sweden - a country in which most people don't even know what a church is - people live on an average two and half year longer than Americans.

Yet, despite my seeming aversion to spirituality, I do believe, as do more and more doctors, that spirituality is indeed very important for an individual's health and well-being. As long as we can agree on that the term "spirituality" is as elastic as a well-designed male contraceptive. It all just depends on who you are and what works for you. It can be, but doesn't have to be connected to traditional religious practices.

Many find singing or simply listening to music spiritual. Others say practicing Yoga, tai chi or other disciplines that use meditation, physical movement and breathing techniques to promote harmony between the mind, body and spirit make them spiritual. Some say mental exercises such as visualization (picturing yourself the way you wish to be) or positive thinking fall into the spiritual realm. Sometimes, just being genuinely kind falls into the category of spirituality.

Here are some personal definitions on spirituality:

- A belief in a power operating in the universe that is greater than myself.

- Acts of charity and kindness and noble self-sacrifice especially from the private ranks of life; all these things and more, inspire a sense of awe in me that I deem to be spiritual.

- My sense of the spiritual seems to reside more in my intuitive rather than my rational sphere. Love, joy, sorrow, hope, empathy, awe all well up within me and sustain me, not so much from the reality of particular situations but seem to come from some deeper wellspring.

- A sense of interconnectedness with all living creatures.

- It is a person's capacity and means to deal with and explain life's issues which have no obvious explanation. It is also the means by which a person conducts life and defines life goals.

- Spirituality is subjectively experiencing life both inside and outside of myself.

- Spirituality is a belief. Even atheists, who do not believe in a creator, have a belief. They cannot prove their belief any more than a "true believer" can prove his or hers.

Did any of these definitions coincide with your own personal definition? (The third one is closest to my definition.)

The following five bullet points which I found on the University of Maryland's Medical Center's Web site are very interesting and thought-provoking. I think they also prove my point that being spiritual is indeed important for your health, but that spirituality doesn't have to be religious.

Faith. A person's most deeply held beliefs strongly influence his or her health. Some researchers believe that faith increases the body's resistance to stress. In a 1988 clinical study of women undergoing breast biopsies, the women with the lowest stress hormone levels were those who used their faith and prayer to cope with stress.

Hope. Without hope -- a positive attitude that a person assumes in the face of difficulty -- many people become depressed and are more prone to illness. In a 35 year clinical study of Harvard graduates, researchers found that those graduates who expressed hope and optimism lived longer and had fewer illnesses in their lifetime.

Forgiveness. A practice that is encouraged by many spiritual and religious traditions, forgiveness is a release of hostility and resentment from past hurts. In 1997, a Stanford University clinical study found that college students trained to forgive someone who had hurt them were significantly less angry, more hopeful, and better able to deal with emotions than students not trained to forgive. Another survey of 1,400 adults found that willingness to forgive oneself and others and the feeling that one is forgiven by God have beneficial health effects. Some researchers suggest that emotions like anger and resentment cause stress hormones to accumulate in the blood, and that forgiveness reduces this build-up.

Love and Social Support. A close network of family and friends that lends help and emotional support has been found to offer protection against many diseases. Researchers believe that people who experience love and support tend to resist unhealthy behaviors and feel less stressed. In a clinical study of a close-knit Italian-American community in Pennsylvania, researchers found that the death rate from heart attack was half that of the United States' average. Researchers concluded that the strong social support network helped protect this population from heart disease.

Prayer. The act of putting oneself in the presence of or conversing with a higher power has been used as a means of healing across all cultures throughout the ages. Today, many Americans believe that prayer is an important part of daily life. In a 1996 poll, one half of doctors reported that they believe prayer helps patients, and 67% reported praying for a patient. Intercessory prayer (asking a higher power to intervene on behalf of another either known or unknown to the person praying; also called distance prayer or distance healing) is also being studied. Although it is particularly difficult to study the effect of distance prayer, current research in coronary care units (intensive care units in hospitals devoted to people with severe heart disease, like those who just suffered a heart attack) suggests that there is benefit. Compared to those who were not prayed for, patients who were prayed for showed general improvements in the course of their illness, less complications, and even fewer deaths.