People who are more spiritual are better able to deal with the discomforts and limitations of chronic disease than their less-spiritual counterparts.
Recent studies have suggested that acutely ill people with strong religious faith or an optimistic personality may get better quicker or live longer than people who lack those traits. The aim of the Johns Hopkins study was to assess the relation between spirituality, disease severity and perceptions of well-being in patients with chronic disease.
To do so, the researchers examined data on 77 patients aged 30 or older who had suffered from rheumatoid arthritis for a minimum of 2 years. Spirituality was defined as the capacity of an individual to stand outside of his/her immediate sense of time and place and to view life from a larger, more detached perspective.
While being spiritual did not lessen the effects of the arthritis, reduce pain or improve mobility, people who were more spiritual tended to be happier and feel better about their general health.
Johns Hopkins is the most highly respected research institution in the US, but they missed it here. They only appreciated the superficial affects of spiritual behavior and found, not surprisingly, that those who were more spiritual tended to be happier and feel better. What they missed is the fact that proper application of spiritual disciplines has more than enough capacity to improve chronic diseases like rheumatoid arthritis.The most widely circulated medical journal in the world even documented this with their publication of the study that showed journaling to improve RA.There are a few variations of journaling that will even further improve its effectiveness. The first is to write continuously. Your pen should be constantly moving on the paper, even if there are no words and it is just lines, eventually the words will come.Secondly, and most importantly, you will need to burn the paper after you finish. If you don't your subconscious will not let you write what needs to be written for fear of someone finding the paper and reading it.Alternatively you could type the document and just not save it to a file.One should also journal on three separate occasions for each trauma event. Journaling this way is a powerful way to activate spiritual resources for healing.
Writing (Journaling) About Stress Helps Asthma, Arthritis
Writing about stressful life events helped reduce symptoms of asthma and rheumatoid arthritis in patients with these chronic illnesses. The effects of the writing exercise were still evident four months later and resulted in clinically meaningful improvements in patient symptoms.
The new findings add to a growing body of evidence linking mental health to physical well-being. Although researchers are not sure how this technique -- called "expressive writing" -- can lead to improvements in health, they speculate that it may help people better cope with stress, which can take a deleterious toll on health.
On average, asthma patients who wrote about their most stressful life event showed a 19% improvement in a specific measure of lung function, while control asthma patients showed no change, the researchers report. Rheumatoid arthritis patients were found to have a 28% reduction in symptoms, whereas control arthritis patients did not improve.
Ventilation of negative emotion, even just to an unknown reader, seems to have helped these patients acknowledge, bear, and put into perspective their distress. In this and a growing number of studies, it is not simply mind over matter, but is it clear that mind matters.
These studies provided a similar outcome evidence about a new drug; it likely would be in widespread use within a short time. This is a very powerful discipline. To have journaling as a form of spiritual discipline and able to journal has been an enormous benefit in your life.
For those interested in following a spiritual approach, many find the formula (Adoration (praise and worshiping God), Confession (reflection on your fewer than perfect actions), (gratitude for all your blessings), and finally Supplication (Prayer requests). It is a strategy that has helped many through both good times and bad.
The Journal of the American Medical Association American Geriatrics Society's
Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
