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