Do you struggle with mental health problems? Are you frustrated by a seeming inability to get on top of them? Have you tried counseling and medications and feel like nothing works? Perhaps it is time to think outside the box. The four main elements that make up a person’s quality of life are their physical health, relationships, purpose and spirituality. I would like to focus on the spirituality aspect as it relates to mental health.
A person’s spirituality is not their religious beliefs. It is what is at a person’s core about why they believe we are here, and why they believe they, in particular, are here. Another important component to spirituality is believing that our existence is significant on some level. This is what motivates a person to be effective and moral. This is a simple matter for some and a very complex matter for others.
Some people have never questioned what they believe about why we are here. People are often born into a community that holds spiritual beliefs and those being raised within the community adopt those beliefs for life. Others take the personal journey of discovering what they believe about why we are here very seriously and may try a number of different beliefs on for size.
The importance of spirituality to everyone – not just religious people – is this: it affects how you think about the meaning of your own life. You have probably seen the social media debate about whether or not religion is responsible for morality. Many people have taken offense to that claim, but the truth is that spirituality is responsible for morality, because spirituality informs all of us that our actions have consequences, and the actions we choose affect us and those around us for better or worse.
Those who embrace an uplifting form of spirituality in their lives, and have taken the care to develop their personal spirituality into something substantial, are far more likely to have good mental health because they believe in the meaning that their life carries. They also believe that their own spiritual state is bettered by healthy lifestyle choices and by their own attitude.
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