Spiritual health, thoroughly explained for you to deeply understand it. “Western medicine has it all wrong”

By Jean Baptiste Ndabananiye.

Spiritual health stands as one of major types of health like other ones namely physical, mental, emotional, financial, environmental, intellectual, social and occupational. People, particularly those in the medical field, don’t generally comprehend and recognize the mammoth importance of spiritual health.

 Besides providing the detailed definition of spiritual health, this edition attempts to furnish some facts justifying the reason why spiritual health forms a vital health type mattering to you extremely more than you might know it.

In the meantime, Wespath Benefits and Investments simply abbreviated as Wespath says that spiritual health is achieved when you feel at peace with life. “It is when you are able to find hope and comfort in even the hardest of times. It can help to support you as you experience life completely. When facing a chronic illness, it may be easy to lose your spiritual health. There is a time in which you may be tempted to let go of your beliefs. It is important to remember that by keeping a healthy spiritual life you can better manage your physical health.”

Wespath is a non-profit pension agency affiliated with the United Methodist Church and headquartered in Illinois in the United States of America. This organization established in 1908 supervises and administers retirement plans, investment funds, health and welfare benefit plans, among others, for active and retired clergy and lay employees of the church.

The University of New Hampshire situated in the United States of America defines spiritual health or wellness as connecting to your inner and outer worlds to support you in living your values and purpose. It adds that signs of spiritual soundness include (1) developing a purpose in life, (2) possessing the ability to spend reflective time alone, (3) taking time to reflect on the meaning of events in life, (4) bearing a clear sense of right and wrong and acting accordingly, (5) having the ability to explain why you believe what you believe, (6) caring and acting for the welfare of others and the environment, and (7) the ability to practice forgiveness and compassion in life.

The university states “Check in with your spiritual wellness. Do you allow yourself time alone? Do you pray? Or reach out to a higher power? Do you pause to remind yourself that life isn’t all about you?”

This university further says that a lot of factors play a part in defining spirituality. Those are religious faith, beliefs, values, ethics, principles and morals. “Some gain spirituality by growing in their personal relationships with others, or through being at peace with nature.”

The United States National Library of Medicine, operated by the United States federal government, constitutes the world’s largest medical library and a national resource for health professionals, scientists, and the public. It contains a study published online on the 9th April 2018. The study is titled “Explanatory definition of the concept of spiritual health: a qualitative study in Iran.”

Its abstract reads “Scientists and researchers have examined spiritual health from different angles and proposed various definitions, but a comprehensive definition does not exist for the term as of now. The present study aimed to offer the definition, components and indicators of spiritual health from experts’ perspective.”

This abstract adds that this qualitative study involved individual in-depth interviews with 22 experts in the area of spiritual health in various fields selected through purposeful sampling. “Member check, credibility, reliability, transferability and allocation of adequate time for data collection were measured to increase the validity and reliability of the results.”

According to the study, the participants defined spiritual health in three dimensions, namely religious, individualistic, and material world-oriented. The study disclosed four types of connection in spiritual health: human connection with God, himself, others and the nature. “The majority of participants stated that spiritual health and spirituality were different, and pointed out the following characteristics for spiritual health: it affects physical, mental, and social health; it dominates other aspects of health; there are religious and existential approaches to spiritual health; it is perceptible in people’s behavior; and it can be enhanced and improved.”

“Most experts recognized human connection with God as the most important part of the definition of spiritual health. In conclusion, the connection between humans and themselves, others and the nature was not seen as a component specific to spiritual health.”

This study highlights that other studies, on the other hand, didn’t not show the superiority of one component over the others. It also points out that human connection with himself, others and the nature is not specific to spiritual health “because these components of spiritual health are present in mental and social health as well.”

The study nevertheless agrees that even its definition of spiritual cannot be qualified as perfect or complete, so that it recommends more studies to attain the perfect definition. “Although we found different definitions for spiritual health, we believe that these may differ based on individuals’ beliefs and opinions.

It is suggested that further longitudinal studies be conducted to provide more accurate explanations for spiritual health by interdisciplinary collaboration between mental health specialists, social health specialists and religious scholars. Such studies would result in more accurate research on spiritual health and its causal relationship with physical health, mental health and social health.”

As already suggested and even underlined by the mentioned university, spiritual health is essential but largely ignored. “The human spirit is the most neglected aspect of our selves. Just as we exercise to condition our bodies, a healthy spirit is nurtured by purposeful practice. The spirit is the aspect of ourselves that can carry us through anything.

If we take care of our spirit, we will be able to experience a sense of peace and purpose even when life deals us a severe blow. A strong spirit helps us to survive and thrive with grace, even in the face of difficulty,” specifies the university.

Though the study points out there arises a need for more studies, we believe that the definition actually suffices for people to understand spiritual health. Using the definition, people can fathom all actions which they have to implement, to enhance their spiritual health. Furthermore, the other sources which we have featured in this article don’t deviate from the definition.

The Center for Bioethics of the Harvard Medical School in its lengthy June 1, 2019 article entitled “Do Spirituality and Medicine Go Together?” affirms incredible connection between medicine and spirituality. It also highlights that evidence demonstrates the medical profession immensely ignores the spiritual dimension of patient well-being and illness. The article reads “Within the experience of serious illness, empirical research reveals an indelible connection between medicine and spirituality—broadly defined as the way individuals seek and express meaning and purpose, and experience connectedness to self, others, the significant or sacred.

Spirituality, experienced individually and/or within communal, religious forms, impacts patient well-being, satisfaction with care, medical decision-making and medical care outcomes. However, evidence demonstrates the medical profession largely neglects the spiritual dimension of patient well-being and illness. Collectively this evidence demands reevaluation of how medicine interfaces with spirituality and religion.”

The physician expert with 17 years of research on the field of miraculous cancer healing, Dr. Jeffrey Rediger, is promoting spirituality, also demonstrating that medicine and spirituality need to complete each other. This Harvard psychiatrist states that Western medicine has it all wrong. “No wonder doctors dismiss these outcomes [cases of miraculous cancer healing] — the original diagnosis must have been wrong. The very subject is taboo in mainstream medicine,” he says.

In his compelling book being the result of the 17 years spent tracking these people and verifying their stories, Rediger has written “These were irrefutable, documented diagnoses, which were then followed up — weeks, months, or sometimes years later — by documented evidence of complete remission.”

Life In Humanity will come back to this medical expert’s 17-year work having begotten his book “Cured: The Life-Changing Science of Spontaneous Healing,” enormously commended by other highly prominent medical practitioners across the United States of America.

In fact, spiritual health constitutes such a vital field that you have to perform every endeavor to comply with it. Beware that this field of health rests largely upon God and a human. For you to be really spiritually healthy, you need to know that your fellow human being [every person] is a key path for that [being spiritually healthy] to happen. In other words, you will be rarely spiritually healthy, if you intentionally harm your fellow human; which will eventually hinder some other types of health.

The point is underlined in the holy scriptures of Mark and 1 John. Mark 12: 30-31 30 reads “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.

He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God love his brother also.”

Life In Humanity is convinced that if you harm your fellow human, it will assuredly beget you disastrous consequences. For instance, there are people who have been overwhelmed by killing their neighbors and friends during the 1994-Genocide against Tutsis in Rwanda. Those overwhelmed are genocide perpertrators who have refused to sincerely request genocide survivors, against whom they have committed crimes, for pardon. These people have consequently developed intense mental diseases and also been devastated in all possible ways. Life In Humanity will clearly demonstrate it in some of its future editions. Life In Humanity also concurs that spiritual health represents the foundation of good health, as we it will also illustrate it in some future articles.