The Correlation of Spirituality with Mental Health
I liked Koi Fresco’s famous saying, “Balance is the key to everything. What we do, think, say, eat, feel, they all require awareness, and through awareness we can grow”[1]
Balance can best be achieved when life and faith are in perfect harmony. In the trajectory of human life from childhood to old age, we strive to find the drawstrings of balance to keep our lives stable and steady. The moment one loses this balance, the mind’s alignment with the body gets affected, and one gets pulled into depression, stress, anxiety, and other mental health illnesses. Regardless of any age, color, creed, caste, or religion, a healthy life needs to have a balance in all phases and spheres of life.
Balance is a core theme of a modern-day life that can best be attained through an alignment of faith in our lives. This balance can be in many forms: family, eating, working, relationships, spirituality, and materialism.
Life is a gift, and we all fancy spending it in an ideal way, but what bothers us the most is its antonym, that is, death. The fear of death encompasses life from its inception until we actually encounter it. So, while escaping death, we tend to fear any moment that might take away our liveliness. In this game of dodging, we continue to perceive hardships negatively. The best approach to seeing any challenging moment is not to be afraid but to deal with a healthy coping mechanism.
God Almighty proclaims in the Holy Qur’an, “Say, ‘The Death from which you flee will surely meet you. Then will you be returned unto Him Who knows the unseen and the seen, and He will inform you of what you had been doing.’”[2]
What this means is we need to grasp that we will embrace death one day or another, but all we need is an acceptance of hardships in our lives while seeking its true meaning. We all realize that life needs balance to sustain on an optimal level. However, as soon as we stumble upon a stressor that snatches our mental peace, we crash the balance tower from top to bottom. A mind gets pulled into a ditch of despair, hopelessness, and radical pessimism that further leads to victimhood. As defined by Fohring, “Weakness as a core characteristic of victims, the fluidity of the state of victimhood and the importance of effective coping versus suffering.”[3]
The downside of mental health impairment is that nothing is visible. There is no apparent bleeding, fracture, or breakage; instead, the body looks perfectly fine capable of performing daily routine tasks. No one around sees any visible scars to tend to; therefore, people suffering from depression, stress, or anxiety do not get sympathized by their friends or loved ones and continue to live in pain and suffering. Mostly, people do not even attempt to find any external resource of help because of the stigma attached to mental health concerns; in some cultures, it is even higher than the average.
Lack of awareness of mental health illnesses has been demoralizing and undermining the significance of mental health issues. We call people appearing different as “crazy”, “mental”, “deranged”, “insane”, and so on. We fail to recognize that a healthy state of mind is a blessing. We continue to make a culture around us where we focus on passing a sheer judgment instead of acknowledging that someone actually needs empathy, sympathy, or compassionate listening.
This lack of understanding has been debilitating the lives of those needing some help and support; they stay quiet for fear of judgment. Psychologist Kelly McGonigal directs our attention towards the significance of the social support system and the chemistry of a human connection in moments of stress. She states there is a vital aspect of human connection that people need to educate themselves about. The human brain releases a neuro-hormone called oxytocin that also has a direct cardiovascular link via specific receptors for stress present in the heart. Hence, when we verbalize or externalize our stressful thoughts or else listen to someone else’s, this stress hormone strengthens our hearts by regenerating some cardiovascular cells.[4]
People react to distress in a similar way. However, those who have their lives led by blind faith in God are unique among us. They are the ones who prove to be a source of comfort for themselves and reassurance for others around them; for they know that life is temporary, any hardship is a trial sent by their Lord. Their leap of faith makes them unbreakable even in a chaotic occurrence. Look around yourself, and if you find even a single person who provides you sheer support in a distraught moment, give yourself a pat on your back because you are blessed and fortunate to have that person around. A lack of support to a devastating end can push someone off the edge, and a person can likely commit suicide. A research study reported by the British Journal of Psychiatry showed that, “The 2008 economic recession was associated with an increase in suicide internationally.”[5]
Are we observing a similar pattern emerging in people’s lives in the current circumstances? The head of a California hospital’s trauma team, reported by the New York Post, says his area has seen more death from lockdown suicides than from the pandemic itself.[6] We are physically distanced from our loved ones, but we still have all means of connections to touch base with them. No one is alone around tons of social media applications where each one of us is able to connect with their loved ones once or multiple times during the day. Also, we have God everywhere listening and responding to our prayers, whether we are quarantined, outside, or in a hospital.
Due to Covid-19, today’s loss of balance in life is unprecedented. People are taking their lives due to pervasive unpredictability, immobility, and uncertainty. We are unable to change our past, nor can we ever control and predict our future. The only thing that we have in our control is our present. We must hold our present dear to our hearts and be grateful for the blessings that we have in our lives instead of ruminating for the things that are beyond our control. The world is suffering from frustration, anxiety, restlessness, and depression due to this pandemic, without a doubt, one major factor of this loss of peace in every form is man’s disconnection with God. The Holy Quran states, “…it is the remembrance of God that hearts find comfort;”[7]
Let’s forget the worldly pursuits and submit to the God Almighty to seek peace and serenity in our lives.
Thanks for Reading!
Bibliography
[1] Fresco, K. (2016). Live Life Happy. Retrieved from Boston Brain Science: https://livelifehappy.com/life-quotes/balance-is-the-key-to-everything-what-we-do/
[2] Holy Quran (62:9) Retrieved from: https://www.alislam.org/quran/62
[3] Fohring, S. (2018). What’s in a word? Victims on ‘victim’. International Review of Victimology, 24(2), 151–164.
[4] McGonigal, K. (2013, June). How to Make Stress Your Friend. Retrieved from TedTalk: https://www.ted.com/talks/kelly_mcgonigal_how_to_make_stress_your_friend?language=en#t-594581
[5] Ibrahim, S., Hunt, I., Rahman, M., Shaw, J., Appleby, L., & Kapur, N. (2019). Recession, recovery and suicide in mental health patients in England: Time trend analysis. The British Journal of Psychiatry : The Journal of Mental Science, 215(4), 1–7.
[6] (Brown, 2020) Brown, L. (2020, May 24). California doctor claims he’s seen more deaths by suicide than coronavirus. Oakland, California, USA. Retrieved from https://nypost.com/2020/05/24/california-city-has-seen-more-deaths-by-suicide-than-covid-19-doctor/
[7] Holy Quran, (13:29). Retrieved from: https://www.alislam.org/quran/13
