Week 6 - Jade Garcia

Spiritual Realm and Science

We don't seem to connect science to spirituality but when you take a deep thought, you begin realize they are both parallel with one another. In western culture we rely a lot on the substance use such as pills to cure our illnesses or pain. Though, something to think about is the way spirituality can help you look at your health differently. Rather than relying on medication to feel better Parameshwaran Ramakrishnam writes in their article "You Are Here"that mindfulness meditation can actually lead to healing ourselves but also make us feel better. They write, "The chaplain’s spiritual care process of ‘listening presence’ is deep and empathetic listening to the

patient’s thoughts and feelings. This skill is secondary to chaplain’s ability to be mindfully aware of his/her

own ‘self’, thoughts and feelings; mindfulness of another individual’s mental processes is conceptual-zed

as ‘trans-personal mindfulness’ [4". (Ramakrishnam) They discuss the way that listening to your thoughts but also your feelings lets you be aware the your "self" in which normally it's something we try to avoid with substance use or medication. No one really thinks about the way that our thoughts can actually make us sick and ill. For example if you begin to overthink constantly or keep thoughts of your past can lead to depression or anxiety. An example from my life is that one time I kept overthinking that I wasn't going to pass my exam for one of my classes and the more I thought about it the more I realize it lead me to feeling bad about myself and it made me sad and feel stupid. It actually also led me to an anxiety attack. Though I think something Ramakrishnam article is trying to tell us is that getting in control of our thoughts and giving ourselves time to process our feelings and thoughts is better than keeping everything within us. I believe this is where spirituality comes in because I believe it teaches us how to connect more to ourselves and to those who are around us. Meditation for me has taught how to take control of my rambling thoughts but also finding peace as well. So before looking into taking medication ask yourself what are you actually trying to process within yourself. 

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