This handout focuses on ways you might enhance your spiritual health. For a general introduction to spirituality and religion and how they relate to health please refer to the handout, “An Introduction to Spirit and Soul.”

What is “spiritual health?”

Spiritual health means different things to different people. Here are some things people mention when asked to define it.

• Connecting with something or someone bigger than yourself. This might include:

• Living based on what matters and gives life meaning
• Seeking God or a Higher Power

• Being the best person you can be. Examples might include:  

• Helping and serving others; being part of a community
• Not giving up; meeting the challenges you face in life
• Healing past traumas
• Practicing forgiveness
• Practicing gratitude (counting your blessings)
• Finding meaning in suffering and bearing it with dignity¹

Which of these feel most important to you? Your answers may change over time as you check in with yourself every so often.

In most studies, religion and spirituality are linked to decreased illness and improved quality of life. For example, in some studies they are tied to decreased mental health problems, less substance abuse, and a healthier immune system, as well as less heart disease, lower blood pressure, fewer strokes, and less dementia and cancer.² It is good to know this, but it is up to each of us to decide how to bring religion and spirituality (or not) into our lives. There are many different ways to do this, and it may involve belonging to a religion, or it may not. It might mean focusing on service, or it may mean focusing on your own growth. It could be tied to a Higher Power, or it may not. Some people find spiritual health through 12-step programs. You decide.

What are spiritual “illnesses?”

There are many problems that are described as spiritual in nature. Working with the following illnesses can help to increase spiritual health: