Spirituality is a topic that is frequently discussed, but it is frequently misinterpreted. Many individuals confuse spirituality and religion, and as a result, they bring their religious ideas and prejudices into debates about spirituality. Although spiritualism is emphasized in many religions, you can be “spiritual” without being religious or a member of an organized religion.
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What is spiritual religion?
Spirituality is a broad notion that refers to a belief in something other than oneself. It might include religious traditions centered on the belief in a higher power, but it can also include a holistic belief in an individual's connectedness to others and the rest of the universe.
What it means to be spiritual?
Spirituality is defined as the awareness of a feeling, sense, or belief that there is something more to being human than sensory experience, and that the greater total of which we are a part is cosmic or divine in nature.
Can you be spiritual religious?
By agreeing or disagreeing with religion's teachings and following spiritual principles, you can live your spiritual life and be religious. Religions and spirituality both offer a road to God-realization.
What are the 3 elements of spirituality?
The shamans, healers, sages, and wisdom keepers of all periods, all continents, and all peoples, in their ancient wisdom, declare that human spirituality is formed of three aspects: relationships, values, and life purpose. These three components are so strongly linked that it may be difficult to tell them apart. Take a minute to ponder on each facet of human spirituality to determine the state of your spiritual well-being if this is possible. This will be a three-part monthly series, starting with relationships.
Internal (your domestic policy)how you deal with yourself, how you nurture the relationship with yourself and your higher selfand external (your foreign policy)how you relate, support, and interact with those people (and all living entities) in your environmentare the two categories of relationships.
What criteria would you use to assess your internal relationship, and what steps could you take to improve it?
How would you assess your external relationships, shifting from the perspective of domestic policy to international policy?
Type 2 diabetes affects approximately 25.8 million people in the United States, or 8.3 percent of the population.
1 Non-Hispanic Blacks aged 20 and up account for 4.9 million (18.7%) of the total. 1 Complications of type 2 diabetes, such as cerebrovascular illness, renal failure, and amputations, are substantially more common among African Americans than in non-Hispanic Whites.1
With proper diabetic self-care, these problems can be decreased or avoided. Diabetes therapy relies heavily on self-care knowledge, skills, and activities. The intricacy of sustaining and managing daily self-care activities, such as exercise, food change, and medication adherence, makes diabetic self-care difficult. The American Association of Diabetes Educators2 lists seven diabetes self-care behaviors: being active (physical activity and exercise); eating healthy (diet composition and caloric content); taking medications; monitoring (e.g., blood glucose, weight, blood pressure); problem solving, particularly for blood glucose (high and low levels, sick days); reducing risks (to reduce diabetes complications; smoking cessation); and healthy coping (psychosocial adaptation). These behaviors have been recognized as measurable results of effective diabetes education and should be practiced at both the individual and population level to accomplish the targeted outcomes of diabetes complications prevention and physical and psychological well-being.
Spiritual and religious beliefs and activities can either help people cope with a chronic illness by providing support, confidence, and hope, or they might obstruct successful coping by causing them to ignore self-care activities in favor of prayer and/or meditation.
3 While there is evidence of a link between spirituality and hypertension self-management4, few research have looked at the impact of spirituality on diabetes self-management.
5 As a result, less is known about how spiritual beliefs and practices, as well as social support, influence diabetic self-care among African American adults. 6 Spirituality is an important source of emotional support; God is perceived as central in providing strength to deal with daily challenges; God is frequently called upon for help in controlling diabetes; and a strong belief in God, prayer, meditation, and support from church members were all sources of support in previous studies concerning spirituality, religion, and diabetes in African Americans. 3, 5, and 8 Religion and spirituality were linked to better glycemic control in Black women with type 2 diabetes in one study,9 while religion and spirituality were linked to a lower likelihood of lifelong smoking among African Americans in another. 10
Because of the foregoing findings and a gap in the literature, we decided to look into the possibilities of incorporating spiritual and religious views into diabetic self-management. Spiritual views encompass a connection to a higher being as well as an existential outlook on life, death, and the nature of reality. 11 Religious practices/rituals such as prayer or meditation, as well as interaction with religious community members, are examples of religious beliefs. While spiritual and religious views have a lot in common, the authors decided to look into both of them because they are commonly brought up when dealing with disease. It's also important to look into both of these concepts because some people consider themselves spiritual but don't necessarily believe in religion. While religious beliefs and practices are more easily measured, the authors intended to look at the larger context of people's belief systems, specifically their perspectives on life's meaning, disease, and existential concerns. 13 The Systems of Belief Inventory (SBI) was chosen to measure these constructs due to the need to examine both spiritual and religious beliefs and practices in the process of coping with an illness.
The researchers wanted to see if there was a link between (a) spiritual and religious beliefs and practices and social support, and (b) diabetic self-care activities in African Americans with type 2 diabetes. Because African Americans have numerous diabetes inequities, this is an essential topic (i.e., highest rates of diabetes, diabetes complications, and diabetes-related mortality rates). 14
Because little is known about how spiritual and religious beliefs and practices affect diabetes self-care in African American adults, this study looked at the relationship between spirituality, religion, and diabetes self-care activities in this population, such as diet, physical activity, blood glucose self-testing, and foot care behaviors. Because some evidence suggests a link between spirituality and religion and lifetime smoking in African Americans10, a negative link between spirituality and religion and smoking was hypothesized. It was expected, in particular, that those who scored higher on spiritual and religious beliefs and practices, as well as social support, would engage in more diabetes self-care activities and smoke less.
What's the difference between religious and spiritual?
Religion is a collection of organized ideas and behaviors that are usually shared by a community or group of people.
Spirituality: This is a more personal discipline that involves feeling at ease and having a sense of purpose. It also refers to the process of forming views about the meaning of life and one's connection to others in the absence of any predetermined spiritual principles.
Imagine a football game as a metaphor for the link between spirituality and religion. The rules, officials, other players, and field markings all serve as guides as you play the game, much like religion can help you uncover your spirituality.
Kicking a ball around a park, without needing to play on a field or follow all of the rules and regulations, can still provide fulfillment and fun while expressing the core of the game, comparable to spirituality in life.
You can identify as religious or spiritual in any combination, but being religious does not inherently make you spiritual, and vice versa.
What the Bible says about spirituality?
Biblical spirituality entails being born of God (John 1:1213; John 3:58; 1 John 4:7), being transformed by the grace of Jesus Christ (Rom 12:12), surrendered and obedient to the Spirit, living according to the Spirit (Rom 8:411), and being empowered by the Spirit to draw others to find life in the Spirit.