Ingrid Peschke (Photo courtesy of Ingrid Peschke)

Hope.

That’s the word  I came away with this past weekend after I took part in a panel discussion on the topic of “Spirit and Healing in the 21st Century” at the Open Spirit Center in Framingham. The motto for the center: “A place of hope, health, and harmony” to address the deeper spiritual yearnings of the wider community.

I joined four local spiritual leaders on the panel, along with two keynote speakers: a clinical psychologist with a specialization in health psychology, and a cancer survivor.

A repeating theme was that spiritual practice is incredibly important, if not vital, to healing.Nancy Gaulin, the psychologist, opened the 3-hour event, speaking from her twelve years of experience in the greater Boston area. She said she spends more time now asking her patients about their spirituality and exploring their beliefs, their morals and values, and even discussing their family upbringing–all contributing factors to health and well-being.

These are some of the words Dr. Gaulin’s patients have used to describe their spiritual experience: humility, serenity, peace, inner calm, gratitude, forgiveness, grace, optimism, direction/purpose in life, compassion, connection to self and others, hope.

It’s no secret that some of the necessary lifestyle changes that help with achieving well-being are more exercise, eating better and less, avoiding drugs and alcohol, etc. But Dr. Gaulin also shared some helpful practices that stem from “best thinking practices” vs. “best physical practices”: demonstrate empathy, actively listen, be non-judgmental, be aware, remain curious, be patient, teach forgiveness, reflect back, hold hope.

These habits, which begin with disciplining each thought that occurs to oneself, end up having a positive effect on physical well-being as well.

It’s hard to fathom a person facing illness being told that they should have no hope of getting better–because hope is the doorway that aids in expecting wholeness around the corner. I think of hope as coming from a deep spiritual well within us all that reminds us of our innate goodness, and eventually deepens into confidence and trust in the possibility of good as a permanent feature in our lives.

Hope prompts a person to see more then what they presently see. Scripture says it is our connection to God: “Lead me by your truth and teach me, for you are the God who saves me. All day long I put my hope in you” (Psalms 25: 5). Hippocrates echoed this sentiment when he said that “The natural healing force within each of us is the greatest force for getting well.”

There are well-documented studies on the scientific and physiological effects of hope, some of which are referenced in Jerome Groopman’s book “The Anatomy of Hope,” where he writes: “Researchers are learning that a change in mind-set has the power  to alter neurochemistry.”

Groopman says belief and expectation are the key elements of hope and can even block pain by “releasing the brain’s endorphins and enkephalins, mimicking the effects of morphine. In some cases, hope can also have important effects on fundamental physiological processes like respiration, circulation and motor function.”

During the panel discussion, I shared the book that has been both a spiritual and health guide for me, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” authored by Mary Baker Eddy. Eddy believed in the importance of not suppressing a patient’s hope in the healing process.  She wrote, “Physicians, whom the sick employ in their helplessness, should be models of virtue. They should be wise spiritual guides to health and hope.”

Hope isn’t a pill. It doesn’t cost anything and it comes with no negative side-effects. How often do you hear that in today’s health care system?

(I’m front middle and that’s Mom right behind me)

My mother – through her example and her actions – instilled in me a recognition of the value of spirituality as it relates both to health and to everyday life. She didn’t push spirituality at others, she quietly lived it – in patience, caring, tolerance, and in a daily practice of Scripture reading and prayer.

I remember her caring for me and praying for me when I was sick. And I remember one summer, with us four kids out of school and home each day, how she gave us weekly assignments of questions for which we had to find answers in the Bible. We were also expected to attend Sunday School year round. To this day, I value her making spirituality a priority in our lives. It has afforded me better mental and physical health, greater compassion for others, and a life filled with purpose.

Thanks Mom!

Here are excerpts from Proverbs chapter 31 in the poetic language of the KJV Bible that form a lovely tribute to mothers:

Who can find a virtuous woman?
She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household…
She stretcheth out her hand to the poor;
Yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy.
Strength and honour are her clothing;
She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness.
She looketh well to the ways of her household…
Her children arise up, and call her blessed;
…a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.

Happy Mother’s Day!

(©Glowimages/Stock photo – models used for illustrative purposes)

The Michigan Legislature passed a resolution recognizing National Nurses Week –  May 6-12 – here in Michigan. It points out that the “146,488 nurses in Michigan comprise the largest group of health care professionals in the state.” And it calls on the residents of Michigan to honor our nurses and appreciate their efforts to improve the health of our state.

I’d especially like to honor the recognition by most nurses of the value of spirituality and spiritual care in nursing.

Here are some examples in which this is evident:

(1) A paper published in the American Nurses Association’s Online Journal of Issues in Nursing states that, “Nursing is an holistic discipline that nurses have demonstrated great enthusiasm for the techniques and modalities associated with the field of complementary and alternative care as these techniques assist nurses to address the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of care.” It includes a table of nursing interventions (Table 1 on page 5) suggesting that for spiritual distress nurses provide spiritual support to facilitate a sense of inner peace.

(2) A study conducted at the Harvard Medical School found that 87% of nurses surveyed in four Boston care centers that provide end of life care “thought that spiritual care should at least occasionally be provided.” Additionally, on average, 93% of the nurses endorsed the appropriateness of eight examples of spiritual care.

(3) Showing that this recognition is really worldwide, in 2010 the Royal College of Nursing in the U.K. conducted an online survey of over 4,000 nurses to identify the attitudes of its members towards spirituality and the provision of spiritual care. More than 95% of the nurses felt it was their job to identify the spiritual needs of patients. In addition, nearly 80% called for their training to include spirituality and spiritual care. One respondent in this survey said, “Spiritual care should not be added as an ‘add on’ to patient care but should be embedded in an integrated holistic healthcare approach.” Another respondent said, “I firmly believe that spiritual care is an integral element of health care.”

(4) And a great individual example for me of this recognition of spiritual care comes from a former Emergency Room nurse here in Michigan that I know who once shared with me that she and other nurses would often pray with patients – if the patients wanted them to, of course.

Florence Nightingale, often recognized as the founder of modern nursing, said, “If I could give you information of my life it would be to show how a woman of very ordinary ability has been led by God in strange and unaccustomed paths to do in His service what He has done in her. And if I could tell you all, you would see how God has done all, and I nothing. I have worked hard, very hard, that is all; and I have never refused God anything.”¹

So, a big heartfelt “thanks” to all our wonderful, caring nurses!

_____________________________

References

¹  The Collected Works of Florence Nightingale: Florence Nightingale on Women, Medicine, Midwifery, and Prostitution by Florence Nightingale, published by the Wilfrid Laurier University Press in Canada, Lynn McDonald, editor, Page 68.

Treating the whole person

In 2007 Malkia Newman was appointed to the board of the Oakland County Community Mental Health Authority and she now chairs this board. Speaking at last month’s Public Services Committee meeting, she shared her insights from being the only person ever to be treated by the program and, then, to become its board chair. “Having received the treatment, having received the education, because education and treatment go hand in hand – you can’t just throw medicine at a problem, you have to treat the whole person.”

And she is passionate about this. She said, “I came out of the darkness and I walk in the light.” “I have a life that I never had before.” She shared how, after 30 years of going undiagnosed with Bipolar Disorder, she is now able to be in a marriage and be active in the community.

Jeffrey Brown, Executive Director of the Oakland County Community Mental Health Authority, also spoke at this Public Services Committee meeting. He said, “Mental health… is a part of someone’s whole being. “It’s the health of thinking, the health of feeling, the health of interpreting and perceiving information…” It’s “being able to participate [in the world] as a full human being.”

The Bible (in KJV Mark chapter 5) relates that Jesus once healed an insane man who was then found “in his right mind”, and on another occasion, before restoring him to health, Jesus asked an invalid, “Wilt thou be made whole?” (KJV John 5:6). These give us a glimpse into how to improve mental health through a broader approach that takes into account spirituality and the patient’s wholeness as intrinsic aspects of their health.

Feeling connected

Having a connection with others allows for participating fully, with others, in the world.

In a Daily Mail article in the U.K. entitled, The power of prayer: Believing in God can help treat depression, Rachel Reilly writes of research conducted at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts, saying, “Researchers concluded that a belief in God is associated with improved treatment outcomes in psychiatric care.”

So, it’s not only feeling connected to other people but also to the divine that’s beneficial.

Professor John Swinton of the University of Aberdeen says: “…good dementia care has to do with enabling the persons to remain in relationship with God and with one another despite the ravages of the condition.”¹

Feeling loved

But another study² found that people who believe in an angry, vengeful god are more likely to suffer from four psychiatric symptoms: social anxiety, paranoia, obsession, and compulsion.

What are we to make of this? It appears that a connection with a higher power helps with mental health when it results in feeling loved, and this is hindered – even reversed – when one conceives of the divine as punitive. What helps is understanding that the divine is beneficent and loves, and then feeling a connection to this view of a higher power and being.

In his book entitled, Proof of Heaven, Eban Alexander, M.D., a neurosurgeon who spent fifteen years on the faculty at Harvard Medical School, writes about the healing effects of finding a loving connection both with family and with the divine.

Dr. Alexander was adopted at birth and he knew of that from childhood and he loved his adoptive parents. But as an adult, he longed to find his biological parents. After struggling unsuccessfully to connect with his birth mother, he said, “over the next few months an ocean of sadness opened up within me… And I watched in disbelief as my roles as doctor, father, and husband became ever more difficult to fulfill.”³ At this point, his ability to ”participate [in the world] as a full human being” was impaired, perhaps similar to that of Malkia Newman before treatment from Oakland County mental health services helped her.

When he finally met his biological mother, she told him of how she loved him so much and how she had tried so hard to find a way to keep him. Dr. Alexander writes, “Discovering that I had been loved, since the very beginning, began to heal me in the most profound way imaginable. I felt a wholeness I had never known before.⁴

And later, through a near death experience during seven days in a coma – which is the main focus of his book – Dr. Alexander found his connection with the divine and says that the message he received was:

• “You are loved and cherished.”
• “You have nothing to fear.”
• “There is nothing you can do wrong.”

And he says that if he had to boil this down to one sentence, it would be, “You are loved.”⁵

Dr. Alexander emphasizes that the characteristic that makes this love so powerful is that it is unconditional. He writes, “The unconditional love and acceptance that I experienced on my journey is the single most important discovery I have ever made, or will ever make…”⁶

He calls this both an emotional truth and a scientific truth.

Dr. Alexander found his mental capacities restored: language, memories, recognition and even his sense of humor. He put it succinctly, “I wasn’t sick, or brain-damaged. I was completely well.”⁷

And he offers this insight: “The (false) suspicion that we can somehow be separated from God is the root of every form of anxiety in the universe, and the cure for it…was the knowledge that nothing can tear us from God, ever.”⁸

When it comes to mental health, perhaps the apostle Paul connects the dots for us when he said, “God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”⁹

________________________

Photo: ©Glowimages/Stock photo
[Note: both Malkia Newman and Dr. Alexander make mention of a butterfly.]

Click this link to view the 4/23/13 Oakland County Public Services Committee meeting. The segment on mental health with Malkia Newman, Community Educator with Community Network Services (CNS) in Oakland County, and Jeffrey Brown, Executive Director of the Oakland County Community Mental Health Authority, starts at 31:20 in the video.

Click this link to hear Milkia Newman tell her story: Living Book: Malkia Newman, a Recovery Journey courtesy of the Canton Public Library. At the end of the video (starting at 7:27), Newman sings, “I believe I can fly”, including these lines: “But now I know the meaning of true love. I’m leaning on His everlasting arms.”

References
¹ John Swinton PhD (2007): Forgetting Whose We Are, Journal of Religion, Disability & Health, 11:1, 37-63.
² Journal of Religion and Health, April 2013, Beliefs About God and Mental Health Among American Adults; Nava R. Silton, Kevin U. Flannelly, Kathleen Galek, Christopher G. Ellison.
³ Proof of Heaven, A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife by Eben Alexander, M.D., © 2012, Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, New York, NY, page 56.
⁴ Ibid page 67.
⁵ Ibid page 71.
⁶ Ibid page 73.
⁷ Ibid page 123.
⁸ Ibid page 76.
⁹ KJV 2 Timothy 1:7.

(©Glowimages/Stock Photo)

Today is National Day of Prayer (see Presidential Proclamation — National Day of Prayer, 2013). Here’s a guest post written by Cynthia P. Barnett, media spokesperson and legislative contact for Christian Science in North Carolina, who shares her thoughts on the power of prayer.

It’s a little word, really. One that often gets overlooked in the drama of an exciting story as it’s told or recorded. The word is a soft one to say; it’s a meek word. But more than most, it’s a mighty word.

The word is PRAYER. I nearly missed it myself, buried at the very end of the newspaper account of “Danny,” the Boston Marathon bombers’ carjack victim. In Eric Moskowitz’ description of this harrowing experience, we follow the event from the Tsarnaev brothers first taking over the Mercedes at gun point, to Danny’s eventual escape to freedom. While the carjacker/bombers stopped for gas, Danny bolted from his Mercedes toward a nearby Mobil station across the street.

“I didn’t know if it was open or not,” said Danny. “In that moment I prayed.”

The station was indeed open, and he was able to call 911 on a portable phone given to him. He referred the officers to a Mercedes tracking satellite system, leading to the eventual capture of the bombers. Danny was safe.

We may never fully understand the power of prayer to save, redeem, and heal. Many may overlook or even pooh-pooh this small word, although it is evidence of trust in a higher, more spiritual means of deliverance. Some may even dismiss spirituality; they may be caught up in materialism or secular perspectives. The very idea of God or Infinite Good can be discomfiting to such as these. They are unused to praying when in trouble.

But many, like me, have been saved, redeemed, and healed when we turn to it. Danny can say he’s one of us.

Link to Cynthia Barnett’s blog

Bashor cites a Washington Post article by Tony Lobl entitled, World Alzheimer’s Day: The healing depths of togetherness. The article includes this guidance from Professor John Swinton of the University of Aberdeen: “…good dementia care has to do with enabling the persons to remain in relationship with God and with one another despite the ravages of the condition.”

If you can’t play the video below, you can view it by clicking here:
Health News Briefing: Trends in mental health treatments

(©Glowimages/Stock photo)

Russ Gerber takes up this question in a recent in-depth article in The Washington Times entitled, “First, health care excellence” - apparently inspired by a question asked at a recent talk sponsored by the Harvard Medical School. Gerber draws some interesting lessons from placebos and the Pony Express in his examination of the benefits of improving our ideals.

What is an ideal? Dictionaries, including Webster’s Dictionary, draw this picture of the word “ideal” for us:

• (noun) a standard of perfection, beauty, or excellence;
• (noun) a principle to be aimed at.

• (adjective) existing as a mental image;
• (adjective) relating to or constituting mental images, ideas, or conceptions.

What we expect and accept matters. Better ideals help us move from ordinary to excellence.

Gerber writes, “Having a higher thought model, an ideal of excellence in all aspects of health care, is the first step toward improving today’s health care system and our own health practices.”

To read Gerber’s article, click this link: First, health care excellence

(©Glowimages/stock photo. Models used for illustrative purposes)

Consider these thought-provoking questions about grief:

• Is grief a mental illness?
• Do drugs help or hinder the healing of grief?
• What brings comfort to the grief caused by loss and pain?

Anna Bowness-Park, of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, answers these questions in a tender, heart-warming article in which she shares how she found freedom from intense (or “raw”, as she puts it) grief after the passing of a beloved uncle. This article was first published in The Times Colonist on October 17, 2012, but its message seems especially timely in light of recent events.

I heartily recommend her article, still available on her Blog entitled, Health Connection: Should we have a medical prescription for grief?

(©Glowimages/StockPhoto)

My previous post was a guest post by friend and colleague Stormy Becker Falso in Georgia about her insights as a runner, having run her first marathon earlier this year. That guest piece was published shortly before the tragic events at the Boston Marathon. With the events of that day still pulling at our heartstrings, I thought you might enjoy seeing how this runner prays.

Falso’s latest article in the Marietta Patch: A Runner Prays.

Looking for Potential
By Stormy Becker Falso

(©GlowImages/StockPhoto)

I heard the rhythmic footfalls quickly approaching from behind. I was running my fastest, but I could hear them overtaking me. A runner, tall and lithe, effortlessly passed me. I watched as he disappeared into the distance. As I continued my steady gait, I thought about his efficient movement and grace.

Instead of feeling impatient with my own plodding pace, I spent time thinking about how this runner’s example of effortless speed, revealed possibilities for my own improvement. I see the same possibilities when I read about people who have been healed of illness through prayer. I find these reports of healing not only in religious and spiritual literature but also in popular non-fiction. For example, have you read the incredible story of Louis Zamperini in “Unbroken”? He left PTSD and raging alcoholism behind virtually overnight as a result of a spiritual experience.

Prayer is a practice that has been in use for centuries. It would not have continued if those involved in the practice didn’t feel they derived some benefit from it. Almost half of Americans feel there is a place for prayer in addressing their health problems.

Some people have experienced what could be called miraculous outcomes. Many of those instances have been carefully documented and verified.

The National Institutes of Health have found that 43 percent of Americans pray for their own health and 24 percent have asked for the prayers of others. Instead of straggling outliers, prayer and spiritual practices are making their way into mainstream health institutions. Research projects investigating prayer and it’s health effects have doubled since 2000.

Astrophysicist Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson says, “We don’t know what’s driving 96% of the universe.”  Being open to possibilities has brought many things into our everyday life. For centuries, people observed birds flying and never considered the possibility that a vehicle could be constructed that would carry people thousands of miles through the sky. It took observation and perseverance to discover the principle that makes air travel an accepted and relied upon mode of travel.  New discoveries are continually being made. Let’s keep the door open on prayer and it’s possibilities in daily life and health.