A contributed article by Jane Sandwood
It isn’t easy to come across media posts reminding us of the importance of supporting our physical and mental health, yet the connection between our health and wellbeing and our spiritual life, is often ignored. Across the globe, physicians and researchers alike are heading away from a purely technological or cure-based approach to illness, based on scientific findings on the vital role that spirituality can play in keeping us happy and helping us weather life’s vicissitudes (including illness) with greater positivity and hope.
In this post, we highlight important findings on spirituality and health, and suggest Integral Deep Listening as an excellent way to build the kind of environment in which our spirituality can flourish.
Findings on the Importance of Spirituality
Spirituality, in essence, can be defined as the belief in a greater life force (not necessarily God) that connects us with all humanity and which enables us believe that our life has meaning and purpose.
There are many studies showing that those with a spiritual practice or religious beliefs tend to be happier than those who don’t. One 2015 survey by researchers at the London School of Economics and the Erasmus University Medical Center in the Netherlands compared a number of different social activities, finding that spiritual practise was the only one that afforded sustained happiness.
The benefits of spirituality sometimes stem from the sense of community that worship affords; that is, those who take part in practise with others often find that they are supported and accompanied during life’s toughest moments.
On the other hands, belief is alone is capable of wondrous things. In an article on the role of spirituality in health care, Dr. Christina Puchalski discusses various studies which show the role that spirituality plays in health and recovery. She mentions specific studies showing that people who have regular spiritual practises tend to live longer; that patients often use belief to help cope with illness, pain, and stress, and that spirituality tends to enhance recovery from illness and surgery.
How Can Integral Deep Listening Help?
Integral Deep Listening (IDL), a unique system of self-directed healing, balancing, and transformation, can help us tap into our innate, unique potential, helping us direct our life towards its fullest expression.
When we are stressed, anxious or depressed, we are often caught in a negative cycle in which our mind either stays in the past (i.e. we become bitter or regretful) or the future (when we worry about specific outcomes). IDL, on the contrary, is deeply mindful. It teaches us how to really listen, both to ourselves and to others, so we become acquainted with our authentic self, the entity that is body and mind, but also spirit.
IDL can successfully treat a plethora of conditions that stop us from feeling whole, or from feeling connected to the life force that unites all sentient things. Currently, it is used to treat everything from anxiety disorders to depression, physical illness, and many psychological, emotional, and spiritual conundrums.
If you wish to avail of the benefits that greater spirituality can bring to your life (including a greater sense of all-round happiness), you can choose many paths. Integral Deep Listening is one powerful way of finding your own compass: of knocking down barriers that keep you isolated from God or the universal energy that affords such happiness when it is allowed to flow freely.
