In our healthcare practice, Back to Function, we identify six areas of health that impact wellness:
- Nutrition
- Rest
- Exercise
- Stress Management
- Function of the Spine and Nervous System
- Spiritual Health
Most of our clients know that we are skilled in helping them with the first 5 items on this list, but the 6th area, spiritual wellness, can often be ignored when it comes to health. Let’s define what spiritual health encompasses and how it can affect our overall wellness.
Definition of Spiritual Health
Spiritual health is the connection with God, oneself, others and nature. God is the most important part of this definition, as the human connection with oneself, others and nature reflect mental and social health and therefore are not specific to spiritual health. Research studies have demonstrated that spiritual health can contribute to positive health outcomes and can improve physical well-being and quality of life. Furthermore, people with better spiritual health are more likely to select a lifestyle that enhances their overall health. Some health models consider spiritual health the most significant of all other aspects of health.
Spiritual Health & Chiropractic
We are blessed as chiropractors, that we have a profession that is a natural platform for caring for people, not just physically, but also spiritually. One of the ways we can open a conversation about spiritual health with a client is to verbalize the hope we have in our faith in God. If we neglect to speak up because we are afraid it may offend and cost us a paying client, then we are guilty of putting our desire for money over concern for the eternal condition of another human.
Prevalence of Prayer
Prayer is defined as communication with God. We do this by praising Him, confessing our sin before Him, thanking Him and asking Him for our needs and desires.
Prayer is an almost universal expression of the innate human longing to connect with the holy or sacred or divine or transcendent, and it manifests among religious believers regardless of faith tradition. According to research, among the most pressing reasons for prayer, are challenges to health or well-being, such as due to acute or chronic illness or to an injury. Such circumstances disrupt the normal rhythms of life, and they may cause even religiously disinterested people to call out to God, imploring Him to respond to their needs. For active believers and people of faith, prayer, including for healing, is more than a situationally motivated response to one’s own suffering; it is an ongoing expression of piety and of taking up the yoke to be of service to others by acting as a liaison or advocate between suffering individuals and God.
Almost 80% of the American population reports using prayer. Though difficult to define, there must be some meaningful level of efficacy to the healing prayers that were found to be so prevalent. It is unlikely that so many people—most of the US population—would continue to pray for themselves and to serve others through prayer, throughout their lifetime, if they did not perceive that something efficacious was happening in response. One theory that I personally have adopted as I have become older (and hopefully wiser!) is that each of us and God are together bound up by connections made out of love, connections that are healing, activated by praying for each other, and that we all know this innately.
4 things that you can do to enhance your spiritual health:
- Read the Bible
- Spend time in prayer
- Find friends who will encourage this walk (Bible-based church)
- Obey whatever He asks me to do
“I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve” – Albert Schweitzer
If you need help overcoming an injury, please give us a call at 310-534-1900 or email us at info@backtofunction.com. Don’t forget to pray and ask me to pray for you/with you during your next visit to BTF!
References:
Christian Chiropractors Association. https://www.christianchiropractors.org/
Practicing Above the Tree Tops. How to be a Christian Chiropractor in a Secular World. Charles F Roost D.C.
Ghaderi, A et al. Explanatory definition of the concept of spiritual health. Journal of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine. 2018 11:3
Levin J. Prevalence and Religious Predictors of Healing Prayer Use in the USA: Findings from the Baylor Religion Survey. J Relig Health (2016) 55:1136–1158
