The Power of Spirituality in Dehumanizing Times

so

with my topic do you think i’m going to

talk about the elephant

in the room the elephant that

we’re taught not to talk about in public

the one that can be dangerous not

physically but socially and politically

because it can be very controversial the

elephant that has caused a lot of wars

and conflict and this elephant

is called religion

but relax i’m not going there

honestly though how many people think of

this word

religion when you see this one

i had to address the elephant in the

room right away because i’ve had

countless experiences like this when i

tell people the topic of my academic

research

exploring the place of spirituality and

health promotion

i watch puzzled faces usually

people restrict spirituality to the

domain of

theology and religious studies and they

have no idea about the richness of the

data that i’ve gathered

my research suggests that spirituality

is much broader than religion

i like to think of spirituality as an

umbrella

under which religion is one path but

there are also many other paths

and one of those will lead me to a story

about my horse

winnie but i’ll come back to that

this was me just a couple of weeks ago

i was feeling frantic frazzled and

fragmented

pulled in many directions i fit right in

with what

some people consider our dehumanized

north american society

dehumanized by our preoccupation with

money

and time dehumanized by

our busy lifestyles and this culture of

do more to be more dehumanized by

our addiction to technology

and all of this is increasingly

isolating us from our own hearts

each other and the natural world

and when we feel like this for too long

we tend to turn to things

to numb the pain of being human in

today’s chaotic world

alcohol and drugs are at the top of the

list but

also think about bingeing excessive

exercise

food sex shopping social media

the list goes on dr gabbar mate

a physician out in bc has actually

written a few books on addiction

and talks about it as a spiritual crisis

we are undergoing i believe that

spirituality may very well be

a missing piece of the puzzle we live in

a society that talks a lot about health

care

and promoting health but that very often

doesn’t include spirituality

for fear of it being equated with

religion

and i’d like to suggest that perhaps

we’ve tossed

the baby with the bath water throwing

away spirituality

with religion as our society has become

progressively secular

ponder the possibility of a link between

the mental health crisis that we’re

currently facing

and a lack of focus on the importance of

spirituality

and through my research i have come to

believe that this spiritual crisis that

dr mate talks about

could be related to this noticeable

missing

puzzle piece within health promotion

but first let me explain the unique

context of how i came to my research

so during my education here at queen’s

university

i continually noticed a gap in

discussions of health

and health promotion you have to

understand that

i grew up immersed in a holistic

understanding of health

a philosophy of body mind spirit

it’s a very interconnected way of

understanding health

and the world but there was this gap

because in my courses i was constantly

surrounded by discussions of health

largely focused on the body component

as an academic field of study health

promotion is

mostly concerned with physical health

behaviors

eating habits exercise smoking

drug and alcohol use so it was this gap

between how i grew up

and these common understandings of

health

that a seed was planted in me a seed

that bloomed into my master’s thesis

research

exploring the place of spirituality in

canadian

health promotion

this book is a key health promotion

textbook

and it’s no small book either as you can

see

it’s what anyone encountering health

promotion in a university setting will

have some exposure to

and so it could be considered the health

promotion textbook

in canada book sparked my research

because when i got a copy of this latest

edition

i was curious to look at the chapter

titles for

mention of spirituality or spiritual

health

but didn’t find any going to the back

and looking in the index those words

also don’t appear

so this book became my academic

playground

i used it as my sampling frame of

leading health promotion experts across

the country

and i interviewed 13 of the authors

which is nearly one-third of the total

contributors

and i took that as a promising sign this

is a topic

people think is important to discuss

so my research had many insights

i’ve been told i should write my own

book

and i’m going to share three major aha’s

with you today

and i frame these as questions pondering

the powerful illumination that

spirituality

might offer in dehumanizing times

the first is what if we use different

language to talk about spirituality

one of my participants said you don’t

have to believe in god

to have a sense of spirituality

to neutralize any of these uncomfortable

feelings

people might have with this word

spirituality

some scholars suggested being subtle and

using words or concepts

like mindfulness based stress reduction

or breathing techniques other subtle

language

included meaning and purpose and

the idea of being on a path that feels

meaningful to us

overall my research suggests that

spirituality

can include the following key aspects

first is a connection with self

and for some people not all

this involves an individual relationship

with a greater force above and beyond

ourselves

and that can take different names god

allah creator universe higher power

spirit just to give a few examples

but it could also be the idea of the

inner self

and whatever practices one does to find

inner peace

and inner strength second

is a connection to others community and

ancestors

third is a connection to nature

environment and non-human animals

and linked to this is the idea of beauty

so that could be the contemplation of

beauty the feelings that come from being

in a beautiful place

experiences that cause awe wonder

and joy this could be

in nature but it could also be human

created beauty

through art dance music

and other creative activities

it’s interesting to note that indigenous

cultures around the world

have included many of these aspects in

their way of being and living

and perhaps we have something to learn

from these traditions

overall i think we can understand

spirituality to be a heart-centered

and a heart-opening approach to life one

that emphasizes the

interconnectedness of life and

relationships

this new understanding of spirituality

led me

to my second insight what if the

material

is the spiritual

traditionally we might think of

spirituality as that

connection or that individual connection

to a

transcendental being or force

but if we broaden the understanding of

spirituality

using different language to talk about

the essence

so connection to nature art and beauty

this places spirituality firmly in the

material world

in which we live work and play

one of my participants emphasized that

for thousands of years

art has been a central part of what it

means to be human

and now many of us neglect that

we need to remember that earth without

art

is just eh

connection to mother earth and to nature

came up often in many interviews

but as i was told we’re 80 urbanized

and we spend 90 of our time indoors

so how do we connect to nature then ask

slightly differently

the question could be are we creating

beautiful spaces

around us spaces that offer

opportunities for

peace tranquility contemplation

meditation and putting the mind at rest

several and this is particularly

important in the workplace

because as adults we spend approximately

one

third of our lives at work

and several of my participants talked

about the

sterility of buildings and workplace

environments

and needed and suggested that we needed

to inject them with

nature art and color

so using brighter uplifting colors

instead of the

institutional gray scale which is

monochrome

boring and depressing

and this brings me to my third insight

what if spirituality is a key missing

puzzle piece

for mental health if we take a look at

this word

and then we see this we could ask

is there a connection between nature

mental health

and spirituality and it appears so

through the concept of solastalgia

a term coined by a psychologist in

australia glenn

albrecht and essentially solastalgia

is the mental health consequences of

having your environment

destroyed so if a broadened

understanding of spirituality includes

beauty and nature the destruction of

nature around us

could be considered a de-spiritualizing

experience

and we’re exposing whole populations to

this

creating this societal sense of

solastagia

that we can’t get solace from our

environment

i believe that the power of spirituality

is to recover a sense of the sacred

in ourselves and in everything around us

reconnecting to a view where we as

humans

are just one part of the ecological web

through my research i’ve come to believe

that the material

is of the spirit and to me there’s

no more powerful an example than that of

my horse

winnie so winnie lives two hours away

and just a couple of weeks ago when i

already had enough on my plate

i found out that she had suddenly gone

lame

limping badly as she came into the barn

for feeding time

and this is a pace very unlike what food

normally produces

nor now horses can go lame at any point

unexpectedly but in the spiritual world

view that i hold

there’s no coincidence things happen for

a reason

and especially if things happen to loved

ones close to us

we better sit up and pay attention

and what made me particularly pay

attention

was that this same situation happened

exactly a year ago

to the month and almost to the day

so what was going on back then

i was at the final stages of completing

and defending my masters

and feeling frantic and frazzled

thinking that i needed to

take this degree go out into the world

and do something with it

to prove myself fast forward to just a

couple of weeks ago

and again feeling frantic and frazzled

this time

preparing this talk and also adjusting

to a new

quite demanding job at the university

i also thought that i could continue to

keep growing my health and wellness

business

and keep seeing private clients for

coaching sessions

and keep teaching yoga multiple times a

week and

well you get the picture when i took

time to

slow down be still and tune in words

i asked myself what message could my

horse

winnie be trying to communicate to me

and what i got is that it’s okay to slow

down

it’s okay to do less and be

more and make time for self-care

just like she got her foot soaked every

day until she was better again

i realized that once again i had fallen

into the trap of thinking

that i needed to do more

dr brene brown calls it hustling for

your worth

hustling for your worth instead of

knowing your value

this whole situation made me decide not

to apply for the permanent position

of the job which would have provided me

well

let’s just say more money than teaching

yoga

and i don’t expect that you might make

the same decision as i did

but i do ask you to think about the

following questions

what are you making time for in your

days

and are you connecting to the parts of

you that make you human

lao tzu tells us nature does not hurry

yet everything is accomplished

we seem to forget that we are human

beings

not human doings through my master’s

research

and as recently emphasized by my horse

winnie

i invite you to bridge the gap consider

doing a little less and being a little

more

enjoy the beauty of nature

unapologetically take time to slow down

be still and breathe deeply

connect a little more to your own heart

and as howard thurman

told us don’t ask what the world needs

ask what makes you come alive and go do

it

because what the world needs is more

people who have come

alive thank you

you