Sunday 15 October 2017

Spirituality is friendly to Wellbeing

Spirituality is friendly to Wellbeing

Dr KK Aggarwal

What you believe in may impact health and longevity. Spirituality and religion have been shown to have a positive association with well-being and better health outcomes.

Spirituality and the practice of religion have been associated with a slower progression of Alzheimer’s disease. Positive thinking results in almost 30% decrease in pain perception. People who regularly attend organized religious activities may live longer than those who do not participate. Regular participation in such activities reduces mortality rate by about 12% a year. Satsang is one way of acquiring spiritual well–being. Many scientific studies have shown that when mediation or chanting is done in groups it has more benefits than when done individually.

Spirituality can influence function of the immune system, which can be measured, like an increase in white blood cells.
Patients who undergo cardiac rehabilitation feel more confident and perceive greater improvements in their physical abilities if they keep strong faith. Increased levels of spirituality and religious faith may help substance abusers kick their habit.

Spirituality stimulates the relaxation response. It shifts one from sympathetic to parasympathetic mode, which is the relaxed state. It is healing and allows one to make better and correct, consciousness-based choices. People who are very religious or deeply spiritual have lower cortisol responses. Cortisol is a hormone released in the body in response to stress. When the body is relaxed, the heart rate, blood pressure and breathing rate all go down, which decrease the body’s stress response. This is also why most of our temples are located in distant places. The silence of the spiritual atmosphere reduces the internal noise and helps us onward in our inner journey.

The Mantra to acquire spiritual health is to think positive and differently. It is very difficult to remove negative thoughts but it is very easy to cultivate positive thoughts. Persistent negative thoughts creates sympathetic over activity and leads to lifestyle disorders like blood pressure, acidity, depression, diabetes and heart blockages.

Spirituality is what brings you peace and safety. It can be achieved through God or Goddess, nature, a beautiful sunset, a meditation, Pranayama, religious meeting, chanting, mind body relaxation, etc. Spirituality is something that can help all the way from promoting wellness to helping with recovery.

(Disclaimer: The views expressed in this write up are entirely my own).

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