Spirituality in Health Care - Relationship & Connectedness

     Spirituality can be conceptualized in terms of "relationships with Self, Others, Nature, and Higher Being. Love, harmony, and integrative wholeness are cornerstones of these relationships. Communication and commitment are avenues to spirituality.

     Relationship with Self involves personhood and inner dimension, which include awareness of inner self or other dimensions ... the ability to draw on inner strength and resources ... ambition for better self-understanding and inner balance ... includes awareness of the tragic and self-redefinition, and release from self-defined limitations. ... authenticity and openness are cornerstones of this relationship.

     Relationship with Others involves a sense of community, compassion, altruism, and giving the gift of self. ... manifested in sharing with and helping others. 

     Relationship with Nature involves the interaction between person and environment. ... spirituality as awareness of human-environmental integrality.

     Relationship with Higher Being includes relationship with Universe, God, Higher Power, and/or Ultimate values.

     Spirituality can involve a well-defined worldview or belief system that provides a sense of meaning and purpose to existence in general, and that offers an ethical path to personal fulfillment. Instead of focusing on a belief structure, others defined spirituality as the way in which people live their lives in view of their ultimate meaning value. ... spirituality has to do with the search for one’s ultimate significance."

     Chiu L et al. An Integrative Review of the Concept of Spirituality in the Health Sciences. Western Journal of Nursing Research 2004; 26(4): 405-428.

Photo: Georg Eberle   www.dpreview.com

Spirituality in Health Care - Meaning & Purpose in Life

     "Spirituality can be defined as one’s views and behaviors in the search for meaning in life. ... a bridge between hopelessness and meaningfulness in life ... a person’s need to find the answers to ultimate questions about the meaning of life, illness, and death. ... in palliative care, spirituality is meaning making, making the most of life now, and making sense (meaning) of life. ... creating meaning ... Instead of a quest for a Higher Being, spirituality in was focused on meaning in day-to-day lives. ... changes occurred in the sense of purpose in life: a reason for injury/accident, God’s plan for them, and disability as a test. ... the discovery of meaning and purpose are essential components of spirituality."


     Chiu L et al. An Integrative Review of the Concept of Spirituality in the Health Sciences. Western Journal of Nursing Research 2004; 26(4): 405-428.

See also: http://www.johnlovas.com/2013/02/fantasy-existential-attitude-and-then.html

Spirituality in Health Care - the Experiential / Existential Domain

     "Spirituality is a universal human phenomenon, yet confusion and incomprehension of the concept is ever-present. ... Health research on spirituality in the past decade was reviewed quantitatively and qualitatively, as well as cross-culturally and historically.

     A thematic analysis of current definitions of spirituality revealed the following themes: existential reality, transcendence, connectedness, and power / force / energy.

      In the experiential / existential domain ... spirituality is an individual, subjective, intrinsic, conscious experience, a way of being ... manifested through becoming, (and) grows in scope and power. Spirituality is a personal journey to discover meaning and purpose in life. In this journey, a person learns to face fears, to deal with the unknown, to face mortality; and at the same time, to love, forgive, and to comfort others. Additional facets include a person’s will to live and to realize the law of kama (originated from an Indian belief that every action has a corresponding reaction, and that every effect has a preceding cause), to live life with fulfillment and with satisfaction. This growth process is evolving and integrative."

 

     Chiu L et al. An Integrative Review of the Concept of Spirituality in the Health Sciences. Western Journal of Nursing Research 2004; 26(4): 405-428.

 

 

Deep Insight, Achieving Goals, Normal Human Evolution

     I wonder how a child, who cares and feels deeply about the people and world she encounters in daily life, can essentially ignore them all, in order to focus most of her energies towards achieving a specific distant goal eg becoming a dentist or physician?
     Many of us squeezed our considerable spiritual sensitivity into a tight professional box. Certainly during one's youth, one has to choose EITHER remaining deeply in communion with life in general, OR becoming a skilled health-care professional.
     But by age 50 or 60, one's authenticity often can no longer be subdued, and one's profession can come to feel claustrophobic. To the extent that we allow ourselves to open our mind-heart, we realize that we must begin living undivided lives**, where our core spirituality**** and our daily lives become progressively more congruent.
     This is healthy normal human development or evolution of consciousness. This is essential to promote, and extremely pathologic to suppress or ignore.

     ** http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/search?q=undivided

     **** "matters of truth, reality, and ultimate importance. … personal, affective, visceral, and passional dimensions of being and knowing"
        Parks SD. Big questions, worthy dreams. Mentoring young adults in their search for meaning, purpose, and faith. John Wiley & Sons, San Francisco, 2000.

Young Violinist at the Halifax Seaport Market, February 23, 2013

Collaborative Team Players & Psychosocial Developmental Stage

     Having good team players, and a family-like atmosphere in the workplace, are popular ideals floated by employers these days. Some employees already fit this mold, some aspire to do so, while some are (overtly or covertly) antagonistic.
     It's easy to dismiss those who don't collaborate for the common good as selfish, immoral and antisocial. However, these very same people may be quite ethical and generous in other ways, in other environments. In other words, many of us live divided lives - quite appropriate at times, highly inappropriate at other times.
     What's the difference between team vs solo efforts? 1) willingness or capacity to freely & productively communicate vs no need for communication; 2) sharing recognition more or less equally vs having all of the recognition for oneself. People at the relatively early, egocentric level of psychosocial development are solo players, not intentionally, but because that's simply where they are developmentally. Many of us in health-care fit this category. A fragile ego is a powerful, albeit unhealthy, motivator - ask any workaholic overachiever.
     Any organization or profession that claims to value good team players and a family-like atmosphere needs to create the cultural climate that actively promotes normal psychosocial development.

     See also: http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/2012/09/empathy-civilization-healing-connections.html
      and: http://mindfulnessforeveryone.blogspot.ca/2013/02/284-societal-expectations-authenticity.html

Photo: alcetelu   www.dpreview.com

Living, Freezing, and Escaping Life

     We use different ways to prevent ourselves from succumbing to the adverse impact of real life events.
     Perhaps the most common is by keeping life more or less "unexamined", despite the fact that according to Socrates, it's then "not worth living." Avoidance of depth and meaning may be active, driven by the fear that there is no greater depth or meaning available than what one has already experienced. The search for depth and meaning can simply be neglected (passive) if continuously chasing after things, experiences or people to make us happy. The latter activity is very much like an alcoholic or other substance user who keeps trying to extract happiness out of substance(s), until they "hit rock bottom" - the end of a heroically enduring effort.
     A huge problem we have, as health-care professionals, is unrealistic confidence in our analytic thinking - and by extension - that our present self-concept & worldview is "as good as it gets." We are as attached to this as a substance user to his substance(s). "And how's that working for you?" Dr. Phil could ask either. Einstein said, "We cannot solve the problems of today at the level of thinking at which they were first created."
     Mindfulness practice is training to continuously elevate our level of thinking, awareness or consciousness, and thus, overall quality of life. Improvement is progressive over a lifetime.

See also: http://mindfulnessforeveryone.blogspot.ca/

Photo: Lynn Ellis   http://500px.com/lynnellis

Resilience - Many Questions

     "Characteristics such as high level of intellectual functioning, efficient self-regulation, active coping styles, optimism, and secure attachment were observed in youth who had faced adverse situations and settings, yet did not succumb to the adverse impact of extreme stress." 

       Wu G et al. Understanding resilience. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 2013; 7: 1-15. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2013.00010 

     What proportion, if any, of people who fulfill the criteria for resilience above, continue to evolve to their full human capacity? What model do each of us use as to how far we can possibly evolve? How well do each of us know ourselves and where we ourselves are approximately on this trajectory? What priority and energy do we put into this journey of a lifetime?

 http://sarahmacdougall.com/