Spirituality is about:
- Hope and strength: finding sources of hope and strength in the midst of situations that often appear quite hopeless.
- Trust: learning to trust when all of the things you had previously placed your faith in have been broken by your illness experience.
- Meaning and purpose: illness challenges the way in which we see ourselves and the world. It reminds us of our mortality and forces us to reflect on what life is all about. How can we find meaning and a reason to go on when our lives have been shattered by illness?
- Forgiveness: finding ways to forgive others or oneself is an important aspect of spirituality. Illness is often accompanied by deep self-reflection which can open old wounds; for example, broken relationships are remembered and grieved for. How can these wounds be healed? If a person has belief and faith, then it may be necessary to explore what it means for them to seek forgiveness, or to be able to forgive for allowing them to get into the situation they are in. Reconciliation often takes on great importance in the context of illness.
- Belief and faith: in self, others, and for some a belief in a deity or higher power is important to some people. A person’s belief or faith gives them a framework of ideas, stories, narratives, symbols and rituals that they use to make sense of their situation. A person’s illness experience will be deeply affected by what they believe about their faith, the world and the meaning of their illness. To miss this aspect of illness for people who have a belief or faith is to misunderstand the illness experience at a basic level.
- Confidence: spirituality focuses on the things that are most important to the person and to that which provides meaning and value. As such, the spiritual dimension of people’s lives is that aspect which gives them confidence and stability; confidence in the fact that they understand the way the world works and their place within it. Illness destroys confidence at this level and as such raises profound spiritual issues relating to people’s perception of the world and their confidence of their place within it.
- Values: illness raises issues of what is and what is not valuable. Spirituality relates to that which a person feels is most valuable in their lives and the specific means by which such values are recognized and actualised.
- Love and relationships: human beings are fundamentally relational. We live to love. This is an aspect of humanness that finds verification in sociology, psychology, medicine and theology. Illness may fracture relationships and isolate persons. Spirituality relates to this basic human impulse to relate and raises our consciousness to the centrality of love for care.
- Creativity and self expression: spirituality relates to creativity in that its focus on the hidden meaning filled dimension of people’s experience which often cannot be articulated through straightforward language. It is through the arts, painting, poetry and non-verbal modes of expression that people often find ways of expressing these hidden dimensions of human experience. Spirituality reminds us of the centrality of a creative and imaginative experience for our understanding of health and illness.
Looked at in this way, a focus on spirituality is a powerful reminder of the importance of considering all of the dimensions of human beings, and not being distracted by the seductive temptation towards a generalised approach to human beings. Spirituality encourages generalist care in the midst of a specialist culture.
Reference: Narayanasamy A (2001) Spiritual care: a practical guide for nurses and health care practitioners, London: Quay