Having faith and trust in God brings peace and hope. This translates to better mental attitudes and less stress, a key driver of inflammation and disease in our bodies. Here is another quote that I think speaks to the power of the mind in the development of illness in the body. “The condition of the mind has much to do with the health of the physical system. If the mind is free and happy, under a consciousness of right doing and a sense of satisfaction in causing happiness to others, it will create a cheerfulness that will react upon the whole system, causing freer circulation of the blood and a toning up of the entire body. The blessing of God is a healer, and those who are abundant in benefiting others will realize that wondrous blessing in their hearts and lives.” 

References 

White, E.G. (1940). Counsels on Stewardship. Washington: Review and Herald Publishing Assn.

White, E.G. (1876). Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4. Washington: Review and Herald Publishing Assn.

Reference:
Kluger, J. (2009, February 12). The Biology of Belief. Retrieved May 31, 2018, from http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1879179,00.html

According to Dr. Koenig spirituality can be in any forms like, focusing on music, transcendental meditation and practicing religion. As a health care provider, we should know the different process of spirituality screen, spirituality history and spiritual assessment.

In spiritualty assessment, there are lot of tools, I am interested in HOPE since the word itself has some positive impact.

H-  Sources of hope: Looking to find out what is in life to give some support at difficulty times.

O- Organized religion: Belonging to some religion, does it help you or which aspects of religion is helpful to you

P- Personal spirituality/Practices: What aspects of religion is more helpful to your personality

E- Effects on medical care: Are there any specific restrictions as a health care provider we should know.

This will give us enough information to help people who are in real need.

Dr. Newberg find out faith indeed brings us health. This can be positively impacted by practicing meditation or prayer. By doing meditation or prayer, there is a scientific evidence on, reducing cortisol thereby reducing stress and increasing relaxation response. This is achieved by biochemical change in body- increase in Nitrous Oxide (NO), decreased in VO2, decrease in blood pressure, this will have positive impact on cardio vascular system, protective immune function.¹ This is what I understood, when we fix our mind positively everything will happen positively in our life. This was proved by doing prayer /meditation, our frontal cortex is thickening, Parietal lobe is powering down, so it’s all good. So, if someone is falling sick, we need to address their spiritual need to raise the positive hope.

Reference:

1.     Buttle H. Measuring a Journey without Goal: Meditation, Spirituality, and Physiology. Biomed Res Int 2015; 2015:891671

 

 

Reference

Religion & Ethics News Weekly. (2016). Spiritual Healthcare. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97d1JMKTuk4

Hospitals nowadays feel like a world of machines and electronics--soulless and impersonal which often leads patients to feel unconnected. The practice of spirituality in health care adds a dimension of personal and whole patient care not simply treating an illness. Patients, no matter what state of health, will always appreciate the healing element that comes from warmth and caring, which cannot be received from medications and treatment plans. This not only helps the patient, but it benefits the hospital as well. Scoring high allows for more funding for the hospital.

 

I am really enjoying reading the book. I was expecting that Spirituality would influence mental health. However, I was surprised when I read about immunity. There were a few things that shook me. Anxiety being more common in Church going people is one of them. However, it makes sense. I have seen girls put more effort into deciding an outfit for the church than to listen to the sermon. Depression is a very common condition which is not very recognized in a lot of societies. many people like calling it a disease of the affluent class. This is also not true. There is not enough focus on mental health and as a result, it is not given enough importance and people suffering from mental health problems are constantly judged and labelled "crazy"

Immunity and spirituality was surprising. But to think about it, it does make sense. If you're positive you feel positive and the body feels positive and there is a better functioning of the body.

Even with so much advancement in science, mental health is still misunderstood.

 

​While everything said and this, is my plan for the weekend 😂😂

Shikha

Another thing I found intriguing was the fact that people who give help to other parishioners fared better than those who received it. Though I have always known that people who believe there is meaning in everything they do, live substantially longer. 

One thing that surprised me was the North Carolina black churches United for better health trial. I have always known that Churches are the pillars of the community and are in a position t do a lot of good, but I did not expect the program to become so successful that it would be made into a national project.

I agree with Sloan that the chaplain’s job is to explore the patient’s values and help the patient come to a decision 

The study this week throws more light on the reason why meeting the spirituality needs of patient  is very important because it draws our attention to a better understanding of the concept of delivering healthcare and patient centered care.  To me I feel it answers this very important question: “How do I understand you better so I can assist you” 

To assess a patient’s spirituality need, we need to do a screen, history or assessment as the case may be and in doing that we have to observe some guidelines. Some of which involves respect and providing a comfortable forum for patient to share their values and belief systems, focusing on how this beliefs helps them to cope with the illness. In order words our responsibility in doing this assessment is not to fix the patients’ needs but to identify and refer the patient to the appropriate source where they can get help. We are to partner with patient in their time of suffering by using this tools to discover these needs that some of them may not even realize is the source of their illness.  

We do not make choices for them but we are walking through the journey of illness with them by asking pertinent questions as given in the different types of spirituality genre (e.g. HOPE) to help them discover and tap into their healing potential. The biology of belief shows us how the brain contains a lot of spiritual wiring that helps us understand why  spiritual activities such as prayer, meditation and worship have so much effect on the body.  For instance in the video, we saw an example of a doctor that partnered (he asked what is most favorable to you at this moment) with a patient through music and mediation to achieve peace and the patient was able to find sleep, this is in contrast to the traditional method of medical practice that focuses only on the physical dimension where the patient is treated like a soulless entity, not making that vital connection that is needed to understand patients. 

Marci Campbell’s project with churches really spoke to me as a nutritionist. There are great strategies that can be used to promote health and prevent disease by simple means and the use of the churches' own human resources. The fact that the church played a primary role on the program’s success shows the importance of strengthening it as a social support network. 

It reminded me of the method Jesus used while here on earth. 

“Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness.” Matthew 9:35

I too thought it was mind blowing when I read about the roles of the lobes in the brain. I found this article “Is The Human Brain Hardwired for God?” a physician named Dr. Andrew Newberg found something surprising. He found that religious feeling is not invisible. The lobes of the brain can be seen working together to create a powerful emotional experience. “He believes that what subjects describe as their interaction with God is a shutting down of their concentrative, willful attention in order to allow this experience of transcendence to happen. For them it's the spirit of God which is moving through them. I can't prove that or disprove that on the basis of a brain scan, but I can see the changes that are going on in the brain while they're engaged in this very, very powerful and very deep spiritual practice... It certainly looks like the way the brain is put together makes it very easy for human beings to have religious and spiritual experiences” (Erickson, 2018).

Erickson, M. (2012, June 03). Is The Human Brain Hardwired for God? Retrieved June 3, 2018, from http://bigthink.com/think-tank/is-the-brain-hardwired-for-religion

In the article “Biology of belief (Time)” the author states that people spend most of their time praying for health which points to the importance of spirituality/ religion that causes persons to pray. It behoves the medical fraternity and caregivers to spend time on that important factor in health as it is only the wholistic health care that can assist in the improvement medicine generally fosters. Dr Andrew Newberg stated that “ The way the brain works is so compatible with religion and spirituality that we are going to be enmeshed in both for a long time. What would the critics say?”  Additionally the article states that meditators after fifteen years have thicker frontal lobes than non meditators which leads to boosting of memories and the author spends time speaking of the frontal lobe and how the parietal lobe goes silent with intense meditation which cause humans to have the peace they speak of. He further stated that with praying and meditating enough some changes in the brain become permanent and I would imply positive changes that enhance health as no negative changes were reported.