People with strong spiritual beliefs appear to recover from the death of a close friend or relative more quickly and completely than do nonbelievers. Spiritual beliefs -- regardless of religious practice -- appear to assist recovery from bereavement.
Spiritual beliefs appear to play a role in how people grieve and therefore should be taken into account in their overall care.
The researchers investigated the effect of spiritual beliefs on the outcome of bereavement in a prospective study of 129 relatives and close friends of patients with a terminal illness.
Overall, 43% of the study group said they had strong religious beliefs, 41% said they had low religious beliefs and the remaining 16% did not report any religious beliefs.
Those with strong spiritual beliefs steadily recovered from their bereavement and reported progressively less grief at subsequent follow-ups. Those with low spiritual beliefs reported little change in their bereavement until after the 9-month follow-up, at which time they experienced rapid recovery.
The nonbelievers, however, reported a brief improvement in their bereavement between the 1-month and the 9-month follow-ups, but subsequently experienced a renewed intensity of their grief that was still evident by the 14-month assessment.
British Medical Journal June 29, 2002;324:1551-1554 Full Text Article
Since religion appears to promote health, perhaps physicians should consider attending to their patients' spiritual beliefs.
Over 94% of the American public believes in a God or a "higher power," and most claim that religion is "fairly" or "very" important in their lives. However, American physicians tend to be less likely than their patients to believe in God -- only 64% compared to 91%, one survey found.
Previous reviews examining the effects of religious commitment on healthcare outcomes, 75% showed a positive benefit, 17% had mixed or no effect, and 7% showed a negative effect.
It really seems like medical malpractice not to incorporate a spiritual dimension into the practice of medicine. However, I am not implying that doctors proselytize to patients about their own spiritual beliefs.
I have found that journaling for ten minutes every day is very helpful, especially if one either burns the paper afterwards or does not save the file. Knowing that no one will ever see what is written allows one to express themselves more freely. The trick is to not stop typing or writing for the full ten minutes - just write continuously. It is a very powerful form of prayer and particularly helpful for improving health or recovering from traumas.
If you are interested in the strong connection between spiritual health and physical health, you can browse through the many articles listed on our Prayer/Faith/Religion index page. You may also want to check out the web site of the The National Institute for Healthcare Research, a privately funded, nonprofit organization, which is dedicated to advancing the understanding of the connection between spirituality and health.
I have also found EFT to be a useful adjunct to the grieving process. Earlier this week I treated a patient whose mother recently died. She was understandably distraught and all she could remember was entering the room where her mom was dying. Her mother had difficulty breathing and was gasping for breath, which shocked and stunned my patient. She couldn't get the image from her mind. She would continuously dwell on it and, on a scale of 1 to 10 for disrupting her life, it was a 10.
I lead her through a round of EFT which lasted about two minutes. The image was lifted and she was able to go on with her life again.
There are a number of clinicians who use EFT. You can find a list at Gary Craig's website.
Alternatively, if you are interested in learning EFT yourself, read my free EFT manual.
If you are a health care practitioner and are interested in attending one of the top energy training events of 2002, you will be certain to want to come to Chicago in September for Dr. Larry Nims's BSFF course.
Related Articles:
Spirituality Linked to Better Health in Arthritis Writing (Journaling) About Stress Helps Asthma, Arthritis Spirituality Important for Health Spirituality Cuts Mortality Risk Physicians' Protocol For Using Antibiotics in Rheumatic Disease Religion and Depression
Spirituality Linked to Better Health in Arthritis
Writing (Journaling) About Stress Helps Asthma, Arthritis
Spirituality Important for Health
Spirituality Cuts Mortality Risk
Physicians' Protocol For Using Antibiotics in Rheumatic Disease
Religion and Depression