Spirituality is a journey of discovery. It can also be a journey of healing. There’s plenty of data that says being spiritually or religiously engaged can provide very real health benefits. Religious people tend to have more positive attitudes (whether justified or not) and good attitudes do correlate to good health outcomes. Deeply spiritual people can get all the same benefits that religious people do but without the dogma. The point is, something deep and profound happens to us when we manage to let go of ourselves and get out of our own heads.
Spiritual healing can be as varied as human experience. We moderns like to get away from it all — head out into Nature for a bit of solitude. Ironically, that’s a recent invention. Back in Jesus’s time, someone heading out into Nature wasn’t looking for solitude, they were looking for battle — spiritual battle against the wilderness (both real and conceptual).
First question: what exactly are we healing?
What hurts should dictate how we apply our spirituality to its cure. If the thing in pain is our own psyche, healing is essential; it’s hard to be happy and productive when your “soul” — whatever you perceive it to be — aches.
And what can we do to help our spirituality do its heavy lifting?
Or, if you’d prefer to watch…
NOTES & SOURCES
As more information about Nancy Coyne’s work with horse whisperer Cisco becomes available, we will update. I can say unequivocally (Alan speaking) that it’s impact is deep, profound and amaaaaaaazingly uplifting.