Abstract
As clinicians, the more we focus on, practice and talk about wellness, the more likely we are to engage in healthy activities. In other words, wellness begets wellness. However, busy clinicians trying to meet the needs of their clients and balance work and home life can lose sight of their own health needs and prioritize themselves last. Fortunately, an emphasis on clinician self-care and wellness is a growing movement and absolutely essential to help healers stay well. In the Clinician Wellness Column, experts offer practical advice for optimizing health and provide helpful suggestions for incorporating more wellness in day-to-day living.
Tip
Spiritual well-being is the ability to experience and integrate meaning and purpose in life through connectedness with self, others, or a higher power. One way that spiritual well-being can help us live a balanced life is through the dimension of spiritual coping—the faith-related attitudes used to deal with a crisis or to modulate the resulting emotional distress. Numerous studies on general populations show a direct and statistically significant relationship between spirituality and religiosity and physical and mental health, quality of life, and longevity. 1 However, the greatest reason for the clinician to develop his/her spiritual health is that he or she needs to be well to take care of others. This is the same logic as the guidance given on airplanes: put on your own oxygen mask before helping children and disabled people.
Practice
No clinician who witnesses suffering is untouched by it. Everyone engaged in health care needs to practice self-care and seek the support of others when appropriate. 2 For clinicians, spiritual well-being can be a resource to cope with professional stress, with the potential to prevent burnout and improve quality of life, while also having a possible protective effect against maladaptive behavior and medical malpractice. 3
Spiritual needs are distinct from emotional and social needs, despite their interrelationship. Spiritual needs have to do with a person's need for meaning, purpose, transcendence, and connectedness. Spiritual support involves giving professional attention to these subjective worlds, concerning the relationship of the sacred with life events. Support for spiritual needs aims to pay attention to feelings and beliefs related to life. Neglecting spiritual needs may cause spiritual struggle (anger, regret, guilt, and stigma), which will adversely affect health by worsening stress. Spiritual struggling experienced by clinicians may be related to not mourning losses, unrealistic expectations, unasked questions, unexplained suffering, loss of meaning and purpose, or questioning their own belief system.
Spiritual practices
Spiritual resources for well-being may include both religious and secular practices. Religious practices may include gaining strength from prayer, sacred rituals, and religious symbols; reading and/or reflecting on religious scriptures or other inspirational reading; feeling a connection with a faith community; and receiving spiritual counseling or direction. However, some people consider themselves spiritual and not religious and to optimize a meaningful and healthy life, clinicians may explore the following practices: Investing in self-care, personal reflection, and lifestyle choices. Feeling connected to something bigger, awaking to unconditional love. Being open to inspiration from insights and their inner voice. Getting support from philosophical and humanistic worldviews. Spending more time with nature, art, and contemplative practices. Identifying what is significant to you and making room for it. Cultivating optimism, hope, gratitude, and a good mood. Seeking out the awesomeness in everyday tiny miracles. Practicing social actions with solidarity and compassion. Practicing meditation such as transcendental or mindfulness modalities.
Benefit
Through psycho-neuro-immune-endocrine pathways, spiritual well-being can buffer stress and promote better health parameters. Koenig 4 argues that staying spiritually healthy will enhance physical parameters and resistance to infection. This conclusion is corroborated by Levin, 5 who also values faith cultivation for its effects on physiology, especially on the immune system. Thus, the role of spiritual health reaches even greater importance in these times of the COVID-19 pandemic. The concept of spiritual health should be considered a fourth dimension of overall well-being, alongside the physical, mental, and social dimensions.▪