Spirituality matters health-wise
There are many reasons why it’s good to develop
Stress for Success
1/30/07

What strengthens your spirituality? Meditation? Religious services? Kayaking the beautiful Southwest Florida waterways? Volunteering? For me, I expanded my spirituality in recent years through singing in the SW FL Symphony Chorus and volunteering as a Cuddler at Lee Memorial.

There’s no "one size fits all" religious or spiritual practice; they all give your life more meaning and connect you to something bigger than yourself. And, they all give you significant stress reduction benefits.

Over the centuries we’ve largely lost touch with historic ties to spirituality that permeated earlier societies. That’s why Western medicine has only recently focused on the connection between spirituality and health.

Dr. Harold G. Koenig of the Duke University Medical Center has found that religion and spirituality have a profound effect on health. He says, "In all the world's major religions the virtues of forgiveness, gratefulness, kindness, and love are all encouraged and doing these kinds of things likely improves one's health." Dr. Koenig has found that spirituality gives people a sense of direction, connectedness, support, optimism and self-worth that helps them cope with their stress.

We know from much unrelated research that stress negatively affects your immune system leaving you more vulnerable to illness and disease. Spirituality gives you a sense of peace leading to improved immune function.

Developing greater spirituality is good for you for additional reasons:
• It helps you define what’s most important to you; what gives you meaning in life. This leads to better decision-making about where and how to invest your time and energy. You’ll focus more on what’s important to you and less on what’s not.
• When you’re connected to something that’s bigger than yourself it’s much harder to become depressed since depression is a very self-focused state. Feeling connected you’ll also feel less alone in the world, which brings you a sense of peace.
• Most spiritual practices involve other people allowing you to develop more meaningful relationships, also good for stress reduction.
• Interpreting life’s events in a spiritual way can make them easier to cope with.

To become more spiritual, start with an internal journey. Try prayer or meditation techniques. Keep a journal to express your thoughts and feelings to track this internal journey. You may want to travel this path with a trusted friend who’s also open to learning new things.
If your choice is to explore organized religion consider learning more about a variety of different faiths. One will almost certainly speak to you more personally than the others indicating which one to pursue.

If you choose to explore spirituality in a secular way, read about the world's different philosophies and about the history of world religions to better understand their philosophical underpinnings. Again you’ll be most drawn to that which touches you the most significantly. Also, explore the arts to see what tugs on your heart.

No matter your spiritual or religious quest, it’s the quest that matters. Exploring and finding what you’re looking for is a reward in itself, not to mention the benefits they bestow upon your well being.

Jacquelyn Ferguson, M. S., of InterAction Associates, is a trainer and a Stress Coach. E-mail her at www.jackieferguson.com or call 239-693-8111 for information about her workshops on this and other topics or to invite her to speak to your organization.