Spirituality and Stress

The stress management training I provide often incorporate work with gratitude, meditation, discussion of meaning, a model based on the serenity prayer, and other work that could be considered "spiritual." I do this because it is what works, so was was glad to find this is an article on spirituality and stress.

"As a cancer and hospice physician, I care for people at the end of their lives. The average survival time for patients we see in our hospital is about 22 days. Daily I see the importance of spirituality as individuals reach out for consolation and strength from outside of themselves. The name that they use for this higher power may be different. It may be God, Prophet, Lord or Allah — or it may be an unnamed force.

I've come to believe that the need for spirituality — belief in a higher power — must be inherent in humans, much like the need for water and oxygen. We may have different belief systems, but at the end of the day we all reach for something over and above ourselves. As many of you have commented, taking care of ourselves includes nurturing our spirituality."