Mental Health Awareness Month Spirituality and Mental Health

April is Mental Health Awareness Month but it also coincides with several religious holidays: Easter, Ramadan, Pesach, Hanuman Jayanti, and potentially more! Spirituality has been found to be a protective factor against mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety. Columbia University’s very own Dr. Lisa Miller is pioneering the research on spirituality and mental health at the Spirituality, Mind, Body Institute. But what is spirituality exactly? Do you have to be religious in order to be spiritual? Dr. Lisa Miller defines spirituality as, “An inner sense of living relationship to a high power (God, nature, spirit, universe, the creator, or whatever your word is for the ultimate loving, guiding life-force)” (Miller, L. 2016). So the short answer is no, you do not have to be religious in order to be spiritual. Spirituality is 80% protective against depression when shared intergenerationally (Miller, L., Warner, V., Wickramaratne, P., & Weissman, M. (1997). Religion is a vehicle that allows intergenerational spirituality to develop with ease, but if you come from a non-religious family you can still cultivate a spiritual practice. This blog post will outline secular spiritual practices that you can start today.

The first way to cultivate spirituality is to practice meditation. Meditation can be as simple as breathing in, and breathing out. Or it can be as complex as envisioning the best version of yourself and asking for guidance. Start small, there are plenty of meditation applications that are free to use such as insight timer and headspace. You can also find meditation videos on Youtube. Find what works for you and then start small, maybe just starting with 2-5 minutes every day. Starting is always the hardest part of any journey so be kind to yourself. There are many different types of meditation so experiment with what works for you. Do you like guided

meditations? Visual meditations? Breathing meditations? There’s no right or wrong way to meditate and with consistency this will quickly become a part of your routine. Another way to cultivate a spiritual practice is to connect with nature. This can look like going on a hike or purchasing some plants for your home. The key here is to spend time understanding how the natural world works. Oftentimes, it’s easy to get caught up in the capitalist society–rushing to meet deadlines, accomplish goals, and exceed expectations. However, as you spend more time in nature you will come to see that nature is never in a rush, yet everything blooms in due time. There are seasons to rest, seasons to grow, and seasons to flourish. Incorporate nature into your routine in a way that is accessible and convenient for you. It may look like walks on the beach, or just spending a few minutes in your neighborhood park. The last way to cultivate spirituality outside of religion is to start an embodiment practice. This basically just means moving your body in a way that feels good to you on a consistent basis. This can be playing sports in a community such as basketball, or yoga. Or this can be 10 minutes of stretching before bed. The goal here is to get out of your thinking mind and into your physical body. Is there a movement your body needs? In spirituality it’s said that the body is more intelligent than our minds give it credit for. Can you reflect on a time you had a bad feeling about something in your bones? Or in your gut? And because there was no “logical” reason to decline you did it anyway and realized…this was a bad idea? Being embodied means listening to your body especially when you cannot rationalize the feeling. That’s a sign you’re tapping into a higher power!

Here at the Dean Hope Center we hope everyone has a wonderful Easter, Ramadan, Pesach, Hanuman Jayanti or whatever you celebrate! And if you don’t celebrate take some time to cultivate your own spiritual practice instead.

Sources:

Miller, L. (2016). The spiritual child: The new science on parenting for health and lifelong thriving. Macmillan, pp 6 -7)

Miller, L., Warner, V., Wickramaratne, P., & Weissman, M. (1997). Religiosity and depression: Ten-year follow-up of depressed mothers and offspring. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 36(10), 1416-1425