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Exploring The Frontiers of

Spirituality and Healing

Is the Paradigm Changing?

The Subject Tonight is Love

The subject tonight is Love And for tomorrow night as well,

As a matter of fact I know of no better topic

For us to discuss Until we all die!

-Hafiz (Daniel Ladinsky)

Intimacy, Relationality, and Healing

Love is the Heart of Healing

•  TLC reduces IL-6 and cortisol levels, while increasing HGH levels. This is part of how loving support induces and sustains the self healing mechanisms of the body.

Empathy  and  Healing  •  Over  700  pa5ents  with  common  colds  were  assigned  to  one  

of  3  groups1)  no  interac5on  with  a  prac55oner;  2)  a  “standard”  interac5on  that  focused  on  history  and  examina5on,  but  offered  liGle  touch  or  eye  contact;  or  3)  an  “enhanced  interac5on”  in  which  clinicians  promoted  “PEECE”:  posi5ve  prognosis,  empathy,  empowerment,  connec5on,  and  educa5on.  

•  Those  whose  CARE  score  was  high  had  reduced  severity  and  dura5on  of  colds.    

•  High  CARE  scores  were  also  associated  beGer  immune  responses  

Percep'on  of  empathy  in  the  therapeu'c  encounter:  Effects  on  the  common  cold.  David  Rakel  et  al,  Pa5ent  Educa5on  and  Counseling;  vol  85:  pp  390-­‐397;  2011  

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Spirituality and Health •  Koenig et al: Duke Center for Theology,

Spirituality and Health. Spirituality- or at least attendance at religious services- is a significant force in prevention, illness recovery, and quality of life. More than 70 peer reviewed studies over forty years.

•  Elizabeth McSherry: One chaplain’s visit, which gave post-surgical hospitalized patients the opportunity to explore issues of meaning, saved an average of $4,000 and reduced pain medication (66%), calls for nurses(66%) and length of stay significantly (2 days).

“I have come to believe that it is through the establishment of a unique doctor-friend-patient relationship that most of the healing occurs, whether helped along by surgery, acupuncture, or regular doses of approved medicines.”

-Joseph Martin, MD Former Dean of HMS

 The  Healing  Presence  

 

Compassion and Healing Showing a film of Mother Theresa resulted in increased sIGA. After an hour levels fell to baseline, but rose again when the subjects were asked to contemplate a time when they experienced compassion and kindness.

Love and Health •  Antagonist to stress •  Stimulates pleasure system (increases

endorphins, endogenous cannabinoids, endogenous morphine, dopamine, oxytocin, vasopressin, nitric oxide)

•  Decreases anxiety and depression •  Enhances motivation and positive choice •  Increases wellbeing •  Decreases physical symptoms

Modern  Mind  Science  Interpersonal  Neurobiology  

“The  mind  is  an  emergent,  self-­‐organizing  process  that  shapes  how  energy  and  informa5on  move  across  5me.  …  The  mind  is  not  separate  from  our  bodies  or  from  our  rela5onships-­‐it  both  arises  from  them  and  regulates  them.”  –Daniel  Siegel,  MD                    The  Mindsight  Ins5tute    From  Pocket  Guide  to  Interpersonal  Neurobiology:    Integra've  Handbook  of  the  Mind.  WW  Norton  and  Company,  2012  

   

Age Standardized Death Rates per 100,000 men ages 40-69

Marital Status Nonsmokers 20+ per day smokers

Married 796 1560

Single 1074 2567

Widowed 1396 2570

Divorced 1420 2695

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Negative Emotions and

Proinflammatory Cytokines

•  IL-6 overproduction results from both physical and emotional stress.

•  Depression and anxiety increase IL-6 production.

•  Inflammation is a commonality in heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, aging, some cancers and many chronic illnesses

Natural Killer Cells Moving On Jill Bolte-Taylor, Ph.D. www.TED.com

Exercise

•  Recall a time when you experienced healing

•  What feelings were associated with it? •  Discuss in dyads

 Spirituality  and  Healing  

“Posi5ve  Emo5ons,  Spirituality,  and  the  Prac5ce  of  Psychiatry”  Mens  Sana  Monograph    2008;  6:48-­‐62  

George  Vaillant,  M.D.      

   

“This  paper  proposes  that  eight  posi5ve  emo5ons:  awe,  love  (aGachment),  trust  (faith),  compassion,  gra5tude,  forgiveness,  joy  and  hope  cons5tute  what  we  mean  by  spirituality.  These  emo5ons  have  been  grossly  ignored  by  psychiatry….Spirituality  is  not  about  ideas,  sacred  texts  and  theology;  rather,  spirituality  is  all  about  emo5on  and  social  connec5on…  Our  whole  concept  of  psychotherapy  might  change  if  clinicians  set  about  enhancing  posi5ve  emo5ons  rather  than  focusing  only  on  nega5ve  emo5ons.”  

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Spirituality and Religion

“The spiritual is that realm of human experience which religion attempts to connect us to through dogma and practice. Sometimes it succeeds and sometimes it fails. Religion is a bridge to the spiritual- but the spiritual lies beyond religion. Unfortunately, in seeking the spiritual, we may become attached to the bridge rather than crossing over it.

-Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D.

Spirituality and Meaning

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting, the soul that rises with us, our life’s star, hath elsewhere its setting and cometh from afar, not in entire forgetfulness and not in utter nakedness, but trailing clouds of glory do we come. -Wordsworth

Present  to  Ourselves   Emo5onal  Regula5on  

Requirements  (Siegel)  1.  Monitoring  one’s  affec5ve  state  2.  Modifying  the  flow  of  energy  “in  a  way  that  

moves  the  system-­‐  body  and  rela5onships-­‐  toward  wellbeing.”  

 This  is  called  integra5on,  which  leads  to  health.  This  requires  a  fundamental  change  in  the  brain  

A  Basic  Defini5on  of  Mindfulness  

.    Mindfulness  medita5on  is  the  inten5on  to  stay  focused  on  the  moment-­‐to-­‐moment  flow  of  experience  in  an  open,  curious,  observant  state  that  bypasses  judgment.  It  is  a  “biological  process  that  promotes  health-­‐a  form  of  brain  hygiene-­‐not  a  religion.”  (Daniel  Siegel,  MD)      

Mindfulness  develops  the  func5on  of  mindsight,  the  capacity  to  witness  one’s  own  and  other’s  internal  state  of  being.  

An  Essen5al  Aspect  of  Mindfulness  

“Mindfulness  training  can  be  hypothesized  to  change  an  individual’s  rela5onship  to  his  or  her  emo5ons  so  that  they  are  not  viewed  as  fundamental  cons5tuents  of  self,  but  rather  as  more  flee5ng  phenomena  that  appear  to  the  self.”  –Richard  Davidson,  Ph.D.    Ibid,  previous  slide  

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The Guest House- Rumi This being human is a guest house Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all! Even if they are a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, still treat each guest honorably. He may be clearing you out for some new delight. The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.

Training Compassion

Longterm meditators: Tibetan Buddhist monks, versus controls studied with fMRI •Decreased stress •Increased empathy (rt brain structures) •Increased happiness setpoint (lft prefrontal)

Lutz et al Regulation of the Neural Circuitry of Emotion by

Compassion Meditation. PLoS One 3 (3): e1897, 2008

Compassion Meditation Forgiveness

Forgiveness and Health Unforgiving persons have increased: •anxiety •paranoia •narcissism and callousness toward others •psychosomatic symptoms •heart disease •incidence of physical illness •depression

Forgiveness Stats

•  94% of adults think that forgiveness is a good thing, but only 48% have tried it.

•  The older we get the higher we score in forgiveness of others.

•  Men prefer the terminology of letting go of grudges rather than forgiveness (Thoresen)

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Forgiveness is for the Forgiver

•  “Anger is like a hot coal you pick up to throw at somebody else, but it’s you who gets burned.” -The Buddha

•  “Hatred is a banquet until you realize that you are the main course.”-Herbert Benson MD

•  “Letting go of a grudge is a way to return to the peaceful center inside you.” -Frederic Luskin, Ph.D.; former director of the Stanford Forgiveness Project

Forgiveness After Abuse

Emotionally abused women after relationship ends often have PTSD and affective disorders. 20 women were assigned to either forgiveness training or an alternative training in anger validation, assertiveness and interpersonal skill building.

Results

Women in the forgiveness intervention had significantly greater improvement in depression, trait anxiety, PTSD symptoms, self-esteem, forgiveness, environmental mastery, and finding meaning in suffering.

Reed, GL et al Enright RD, J. Consult and Clin Psych, Oct

2006, 920-929.

When it’s over, I want to say: all my life I was a bride married to amazement. I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms… I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.

-Mary Oliver

When Death Comes