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Dr. Jones: It isn't sadness. Although tears may embarrass my family, it makes me feel good and it's good for me.
This is Dr. Kirtly Jones from Obstetrics and Gynecology at Ï㽶ÊÓƵ of Utah Health Care. And today, we're talking about spirituality and health on The Scope.

Announcer: Medical news and research from Ï㽶ÊÓƵ Utah physicians and specialists you can use for a happier and healthier life. You're listening to The Scope.

Dr. Jones: The seven domains of health: physical, social, emotional, intellectual, environmental, financial; and one of the most important, spiritual.
As a culture, we talk about spirituality much less than we talk about sex. But there's increasing scientific evidence that having a deep spiritual life is good for your health.

Whatever your faith or spiritual practices, they're probably good for you. The National Institute of Health Care Research define spiritually as the feelings, thoughts, experiences, and behaviors that arise from the search for the sacred.

Now sacred is defined as a divine being, a higher power or ultimate reality as defined by the individual. So it's a very personal thing. They define seven domains of spirituality. This is bigger than domain business for which there's evidence of links to health.

So membership or affiliation with a specific religious or spiritual group, one. Two, religious are spiritual history, your upbringing, your culture, spiritual experiences at life changing times.

Three, religious or spiritual participation in group or activities. Do you go to church or do you go to synagogue?

Four, religious or spiritual private practices. Religious behaviors or activities like prayer or meditation or for me, listening to religious choral music.

Five, religious are spiritual support. So do you get support from the members of your religious or spiritual group?

Six, religious or spiritual coping. The extent to which religious or spiritual practices are used for coping in difficult times, and particularly this is important with respect to health.

Seven, the values that your religious or spiritual community brings that provide a framework for life's choices. It's easier if you have a framework of values to drive you than trying to make it up as you go along.

And eight, religious or spiritual commitments. How committed are you to those values that actually inform the practices? How do you behave? It's easier to not feel guilty about what you do all the time. And guilt is bad for you.

Nine, religious are spiritual guidance in reconciling relationships, forgiveness. We talk before how important forgiveness is in terms of your immune system and your sense of well-being. So how does your spiritual experience inform how you forgive? And lastly, what are your spiritual experiences, which your experiences with divine or sacred as reflected in emotions or sensations or for me, tearing up when I hear people sing religious music.

So people with the strong spiritual life are more likely to thrive in difficult situations. And some observational studies say people who have a regular spiritual practices live longer.

Now could be that religious commitment improves stress or helps people cope better or they have better social support. But there's also evidence that people with a strong spiritual religious life have less inflammation and a better immune system. So go figure.

People who are spiritual may utilize their beliefs in coping with illness pain or life stresses. And there's evidence that people with cancer, who found comfort from their religious and spiritual beliefs, had less pain.

For those who aren't religious or don't belong to any formal religion or church or synagogue, how did they get in touch with their spiritual side?

Well, I think most of us have had a spiritual experience, meaning you heard some music and it made you tear up, or you saw a sunset that was particularly gorgeous, or there was a time when listening or looking to your family where your heart felt full.

Pay attention to when those things happen and notice the context in when they happen. So for me, I know that nature, although I can't always predict which nature, is going to fill my heart in a way that I can feel but can't always express.

And because I know that religious chorale music reliable makes me feel full. These are things I can go to when I need to feel in touch with my inner light, the thing that lights my heart.

I know when I do that, that other things that are bothering me seem to slip away. When I feel part of something so much bigger than myself, so much bigger than my community, my state, my nation, and so much bigger than my planet, when I feel in touch with that, I can feel it in my heart.

Many ways have been noted in terms of phrases that let you know you're having a spiritual experience. My heart felt full or I just felt full of awe. A sense of awe may also be telling you that you're having a contact with something larger than yourself.

Be aware when you're feeling that way and go there. So we can pay attention to our spiritual life in many ways. Robert Shaw, one of the most famous chorale directors of all time said, "The arts provide a window through which we can glimpse divine."

However you choose to practice your spirituality through giving, through music, through meditating on a divine or through religious observation, I hope for all of us, and our friends some time with our inner light. And thanks for joining us on The Scope.

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