In honor of the spoken word; in honor of self-acceptance; in honor of the beauty in all of us… we share this video of Shane Koyczan performing his poem, “To This Day.” Koyczan explores how hurtful children and adults alike can be to one another while simultaneously asking the difficult question of how as a society we should teach children to understand and love who they discover themselves to be. His expression bursts forth, confirming that yes indeed he is a writer, as he realized at age 19 when he wrote the words, “I will love myself despite the ease with which I lean toward the opposite.”
What do all surfers (think waves and wetsuits) have in common? Peter Bregman found himself on the beach looking out at a bunch of surfers of various abilities fall off their boards into the water and stand up again. With clear insight, he shares how the mindset of a surfer may help us all avoid procrastination and, with practice, cultivate the courage, motivation, and skill needed to conquer some of life’s most difficult or dreaded tasks. His post offers helpful reflections on the fears and feelings that often prevent us from acting.
How can you integrate spirituality in health care settings? What are the core components of spiritually-informed clinical care? Colleen Sharka shares reflections on her participation in the Spirituality and Health Care Institute at Spiritual Directors International 2013. In a thoughtful interview, she shares three essential components of providing spiritually integrated care as well as wonderful insights from leaders in holistic healing.
Last month, Colleen Sharka, Still Harbor Spiritual Director, joined around 500 spiritual directors from around the world in St. Paul, Minnesota for the annual Spiritual Directors International 2013 Conference. In addition to participating as a conference attendee, Colleen spoke on a panel entitled “Compassionate Person-Centered Care: Strengthening Interdisciplinary Collaboration,” as part of the Spirituality and Health Care Institute preconference workshop. After some contemplative time, she was excited to share some of her reflections with us:
Q: What was the overarching theme of the Spirituality and Health Care Institute this year?
A: This workshop offered a space for health and spiritual care providers to come together and share ideas for how they can continue to work for interdisciplinary and spiritually integrated care. When clinicians and other care providers who are part of the circle of care for others are willing to communicate with each other, the impact is astounding. Not only are medical and therapeutic outcomes maximized, but there is also an increased likelihood for deep and lasting bio-psycho-social-emotional and spiritual transformation for the client/patient. Through small group discussions, the workshop emphasized that integrated care is not only critical for maximizing clinical outcomes for patients and clients by promoting health in mind, body and spirit, but it also decreases the isolation felt by clinicians.
Q: What were some of the key takeaways from your panel discussion on compassionate, person-centered care?
A: It was a very lively and intellectual conversation on the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration and spiritual accompaniment in integrated clinical care. My goal was to highlight the three essential components of providing spiritually integrated care:
All caregivers need to attend to their own spiritual practice and self-care.
The quality of the clinical relationship and, if applicable, the client’s relationship to a higher power are integral to the therapeutic process.
Community is key; integration of all sources of support, including other health and spiritual providers, drastically decreases the possibility of fragmented care that can lead to unintentional harm.
Dr. Henry Emmons, an integrative psychiatrist, pointed out that while much of clinical care involves depression, only 20% is true major depression and 80% is stress or situational. In his statement that “an erosion of resilience is taking place in three ways: 1) physical body, 2) unsettled mind and 3) illusion of separation,” he really emphasized the need for integrated care that addresses all of these layers, particularly for those on the margins of our society.
That said, the largest takeaway, in my opinion, was Dr. David Moen’s call for a social movement to shift the norms of care, not just for individuals, but also for the larger health care system. He challenged us all, as he moderated the panel and dialogue, to shift “…from command and control to engage and empower; from fear to trust; from shame to acceptance; from expertise to inquiry; from guardedness to vulnerability; from autonomy to collaboration; from hidden to transparent.”
Q: What quote, idea, or concept from conference do you find yourself still thinking about today?
A: Wow, that is tough as there are so many…
It would probably be best summarized by a quote from Pema Chodron: “What we do for ourselves concerning self-compassion transforms how we see the world.” This theme of compassion as a way of life and being was woven throughout all the presentations, including one of the keynote speeches by Joyce Rupp. She was quick to acknowledge that while it is never convenient, compassion is essential, requiring awareness and action founded in an attitude of oneness. Compassion requires self-compassion first and foremast, since our propensity for self-compassion translates into our compassion for others.
Next year’s conference will be held in Santa Fe, New Mexico. To stay updates on the event details, click here.
Colleen discusses what spirituality meanns to her:
“To take your seat in the zendo is to discover the packed marquee of fantasies playing on an endless loop in the backwoods multiplex of your imagination.” What happens when you sit for meditation? What is the most important thing you need for the spiritual path? Shozan Jack Haubner takes a shot at answering these two simply complex questions. He wonderfully demystifies what unfolds in his interior life during meditation and suggests how we all might better orient ourselves for spiritual exploration and discovery. With a good dose of humor and humility, he takes us on a journey with his reflections.
What is the relationship between your emotions and your spirituality? How can spirituality free you from the emotions that bind you? In a meandering reflection on these questions, Tariq Ramadan helps sort out how emotional states and spiritual states differ and how nowadays we often confuse the two. In conclusion, he helps us understand how spirituality is indeed transformative action (as opposed to passive reaction): “Spirituality consists in the added meaning that is inherent in even the simplest human actions. It may take the form of faith, thought, art or love, but it always involves a choice, and act of the free will...”
Is it courageous to cultivate our contemplative lives? Is it wise to share our insights with others and receive their revelations? This article highlights how the new interspirituality movement is becoming an ever more essential element in envisioning new structures, narratives, and forms. McEntee and Bucko posit, “Young people are no longer interested in living in a world that doesn't feel like their soul's home, and they are willing to question the way things have been done in the past. It is to this questioning, this questing, that we believe Interspirituality has so much to offer, and can speak to the younger generation in a way that nothing else can.” Read their post to find out more.
What makes you happy? Do you know? Years of research have revealed a likely answer. The key lessons learned from “one of the longest-running longitudinal studies of human development” in the world are put quite simply in the last sentence of this article, “The seventy-five years and twenty million dollars expended on the Grant Study points … to a straightforward five-word conclusion: ‘Happiness is love. Full stop.’” We hope this age old wisdom helps move us all in the direction of investing a bit more time and money in both teaching and practicing love.
If you like this topic, you may also be interested in reading, “The medium chill,” a post by David Roberts at grist.org, which muses on the topic of happiness and shares our notion that “we have lamentably little [in terms of infrastructure and institutions] for people who want to know how to foster more and better relationships…”
DOUBT IN FAITH Rocked by Doubt by Lulu Miller on RadioLab (Episode: Are you sure?)
How do doubt and faith interact in regards to the core beliefs you hold? How do you journey with the questions and insights into life that shake you and make you wonder if you’re right? Is there a role for doubt in your faith? RadioLab’s episode, “Are you sure?” tackles these questions head on. We share here the first story, “Rocked by Doubt”, in which a young man with doubt seeks proof of the God he once believed in with such conviction. If you choose to listen to the full episode, we warn you that the third story—“Reasonable Doubt”—does include some graphic content about sexual assault and violence.
What are ways of integrating contemplative experiences into meetings and conferences? This video from W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s 2012 “Michigan Communities in Action Annual Convening” is a wonderful example of the power of collective contemplative exploration. Regardless of the resources or scale you are working with, collective expression and engagement with poetry, art, silence, and other creative endeavors almost always reveal insight into our selves, our organizations, and our collective purpose. Watch the video and consider the ways you can think outside of the box in designing your next meeting or conference. (And, of course, feel free to contact us if you need some help.)
What do we all need spiritually following a crisis, trauma, or difficulty? Tending to the spiritual discomforts that emerge after experiencing a critical incident in our lives or communities is very important to cultivating resilience, and it is impossible to do without resources and support. You may have spiritual resources and support all around. You may be seeking them. Either way, read this latest document posted on our website to learn more about spiritual accompaniment for difficult times.
Signs throughout the city read, “We are One Boston.” Yet, there seems to be some resistance to living out the reality of what this slogan requires of us. The “Healing Our City” interfaith service apparently did not extend invitations to the secular, humanist, and atheist leaders of our city. To learn more about the event and the feedback from across the city, read Becky Garrison’s article. We urge you to consider—whatever your faith or moral tradition—how can we move our politics to more fully live out the notion of our interdependence?
Have you ever seen a salmon make its way up river? Courtney Pinkerton helps us understand why sometimes the most courageous acts of our lives don’t feel graceful or smooth. Using Mark Nepo’s salmon metaphor, she shares how perhaps we—like the salmon—can use the power of a current to propel us forward. This may mean we have to be vulnerable and orient ourselves to challenges in a way that feels precarious. But after all, to the casual observer a salmon jumping upstream is purely courageous even if, to the fish, it is experienced as a dangerous “lurching.”
Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 4:33PM in 
HEALING TOGETHER
