Joy is our companion in life when we seek to be authentic, selfless, and free in the Spirit.

Joy is the genuine smile we express, when we are pondering on how grateful we are for our life.

Joy is the state of mind we experience when things are not necessarily happening as we wish them to be but we still experience deep peace within.

Joy does not need to be shot by a camera or shared on social media. It can be experienced in solitude or in the sole presence of a beloved.

Joy is what a father or a mother experience when their daughter or son who they had a difficult relationship with, now chooses to embrace them.

Joy is the gaze of a friend who looks at you dearly.

Joy are the tears that trickle down your cheeks, tears that come from a place deep within, after feeling deeply appreciated by someone who you have given your all to.

Joy is the person who realises that they have hurt someone, but they still try their best to amend things, even in their weaknesses.

Joy is the cheerful smile of a child who remembers a considerate word you have said to them.

Joy is the person who feels seen and accepted for who they truly are.

Joy is discovering a truth about yourself that you have long been searching for.

Joy is being each other’s messengers of His light.

Joy is finding a new true friend whom you can share your joys and struggles with.

Joy is understanding that even your suffering can have a purpose.

Finally, true joy is discovering that God is real and present in the life you live. It is knowing that God can use even your vulnerabilities to show His (and your) glory!

These blessings of joy do not cost money, but they cost everything.

To experience them deeply, one must offer all they are and all their life for a greater purpose. We must give our all to love purely and in simplicity.

In giving our all for love, we receive all that really matters. We receive God – love itself!

As Raïssa Maritain wrote in one of her diary entries: “joy is being able to call him Father with a great tenderness, to feel him so kind and so close to us”.

Written by Carla Borg

Read More:

What is the Good News of the Catholic Faith?

Spiritual Gifts That Ordinary People Can Give to Our Non-Ideal World

Why Are We Alive? Why Does the Human Race Exist?

The post What Is True Joy? – An Advent Reflection appeared first on Universe of Faith.

The post Brilliant Message by Fernando Pessoa not Pope Francis appeared first on Universe of Faith.

 #Happiness 1: Adequate Means To Go By

“Studies carried out on life satisfaction and well-being clearly indicate that a person who does not have adequate means to live a decent life, will experience lower levels satisfaction in life. Sometimes we hear romantic statements like “some people don’t have anything and are still happy or “be happy with what you have . These create a false perception of reality. If you are going through poverty your happiness will suffer. Material deprivation or poverty has a substantial effect on one’s happiness and satisfaction in life. Poverty is serious suffering. I have witnessed people who cannot make ends meet, who live in constant anxiety. Persons with low income who at the end of the month look helplessly at empty cupboards as they run out of money. I have witnessed persons who resort to emergency shelters with humiliation.

On the other hand, having lots of money does not necessarily make you happy. On the contrary, if the acquisition of wealth is your basic drive in life you run the risk of living a very dissatisfied life, always chasing the next acquisition. Running after material gain, is running after something which you cannot reach. Pleasure is experienced on the acquisition only to be replaced by a void and another chase. In a way it is like running after happiness and never finding it.

So basically, not having enough money to make ends meet and the feeling that you never have enough money, can both lead to unhappiness.

#Happiness 2: Meaningful Relationships

On their deathbed many people recount how at the end of the day, rather than their material acquisition or career advancement, what really counted was the quality of relationships they held with others. It is about the meaningful relationships they built, how much they succeeded to share their life with people, how much they helped those around them improve their life. People who invested in relationships look back on their life, with greater satisfaction and might feel more peaceful facing death.

What about quality in relationships? The more secure you are as a person, the healthier the relationships. Security is simply defined as , a sense of trust in self and others: trusting that you can depend on yourself and trusting that that you can depend on others. Persons who are very emotionally dependant struggle with autonomy, are not self-reliant and fear aloneness. They run the risk of staying in a relationship even if it is toxic, for fear of ending alone. On the other hand there are those who withdraw from the world because they do not trust others but only themselves. These struggle to share with others, always expecting that others will hurt them, always disappointed with others’ rejection. We need a balance of self-reliance and social support because to be able to cope and thrive there will be times when one has to stand on his/her feet alone and other times where one needs to reach out for support. This balance will help the person not despair when alone and also be able to welcome and accept the available support.

#Happiness 3: A Simple Lifestyle

There is that well-known Brazilian story of the fisherman and the entrepreneur, where the fisherman was happily enjoying his simple life which the businessman didn’t quite understand. Material things can alienate us both from ourselves and from the people around us. Materialism and consumerism decrease not increase happiness. The world we live, especially the media and the commercial world, work on this idea that if you consume this product, buy this brand or have this car, people will love you and respect you more. It is a sort of trap. If you get caught, it can rob you of happiness.

Residents at San Blas therapeutic communities and the Prison Inmates Programme describe with great joy the discovery of happiness in life’s simple things. They start to re-experience the rewarding feelings of going for a swim in the weekend after a week’s hard work, a genuine encounter, the joy of tasting chocolate on the rare occasion of receiving this treat, or even a good cry. John*, a resident at our drug rehabilitation programme described to me.. “with time I have started to experience ‘crumbs of happiness’… I still feel anxious most of the time and it is difficult for me to be happy but I have started to experience these crumbs more often .

#Happiness 4: Appreciation and Acceptance

Being able to see what is positive in one’s life and appreciating this, while embracing and accepting the fact that life cannot always be a bed of roses, has alot to do with happiness. John, the person in recovery who spoke to me about ‘crumbs of happiness’ (little moments of happiness amid several struggles) confessed that these moments help him keep going on.

When you are going through dissatisfaction or a challenging period it is particularly important to keep an eye out for good things that come your way or good things that you seek out. John described to me his appreciation for small joys in daily life, and how these helped him hang on to his recovery. He reflected on what was contributing to his feelings of fulfillment and also tried to invest in what was behind these happy moments. John described the joys of seeking out the support of his keyworker, appreciating a genuine encounter, learning to accept his difficulties rather than continuously fighting unpleasant emotions, accepting that there are times of sadness and accepting that this is part of human living. Being able to see, embrace and enjoy what is positive while also accepting that life cannot always be easy and befriending the unpleasant feelings, has a lot to do with experiencing happiness and living with difficulty peacefully.

#Happiness 5: Altruism

Acts of kindness and show of support to others is another aspect which makes people happy. Across the board, volunteers and staff at Caritas speak about the deep satisfaction of contributing to others’ lives. What one gives is received many times over in fulfillment and meaningful living. This is not to say that people who engage in pro-social behaviour and help others, do it for their own selfish intent to feel happy, however the very act of helping has this aftereffect. A person who engages in helping needs to make sure that the satisfaction of personal needs do not take over the needs of the persons receiving help. When this happens it may lead to more harm than good. This happens when for example a helper has a need to be needed and fosters the dependence of the helpee onto the helper. However if the priorities are right, helping others is a life-giving act and gives meaning and fulfilment to ones own life.

#Happiness 6: A Good Laugh

A beautician once told me that we need to laugh five times a day to keep our face muscles toned. This might well be true but surely laughter is the best medicine. Laughter releases endorphins, a pain killing, relaxing hormone. Laughter adds value to life, helps us take life with a pinch of salt, not take ourselves too seriously, ease our anxieties, helps us connect, lightens our life and makes it more fun. While I can be very serious about life I also don’t need to take life too seriously. This is paradoxical but life is all paradoxical.

#Happiness 7: A Spiritual Life: A Meaning for Living and Transcendence

What is the meaning of life? What is the meaning of my life? What is my place in the world? How do I make sense of death? Existential questions that remain unanswered add anxiety and at times despair in one’s life. We are meaning making beings. We ask questions and seek out answers. A meaning for living is like the wind in the sails of a sailing boat. We draw the energy and drive to live life in its fullness.

In my own personal journey I have found meaning in enjoying this human life while I have it, and contributing to making the world a better place to live in, I find meaning in nurturing my wife and children, I find meaning in helping others see the beauty that lies within them. I find meaning in feeling connected with others, with creation, with God. Spirituality is the part of human living that has to do with meaning in one’s life and with the experience of transcendence i.e. connecting with what is beyond you. It took me ages to come to understand the meaning of the word transcendence. I could come to understand it when I slowly started to experience a deep spiritual connection with others, with creation and God.

Is this an essential list to happiness?

This list  is from personal experience, the experience of 14 years of practice as a counselling psychologist, and from research.  For some, the search of happiness is straightforward, for others bumpy and for some others it might feel outright impossible. My own personal process of searching for happiness brought me to this list. It is important that we are in the process of searching. As John said, sometimes we come along ‘crumbs of happiness’ but as we become more expert in how and where to search we can come by more and more happiness and potentially also live in happiness.”

*Name has been changed.

Photo of Anthony Gatt by Christina Gatt
Photo of Emojis by Mark Schembri

Published: December 2018

Read more from Dr Anthony Gatt:
“I Hit Rock Bottom” – Getting The Basics Right To Get Up

Watch:

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This prayer poem describes the fear of abandonment and the relief found in the person of Jesus Christ. It was written during difficult times of Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, a condition experienced by many survivors of child abuse.

In your punctured, swollen head
In your scourge-torn flesh
In the gaping holes of your hands and feet
but above all
In your lacerated side

I lay my fear of abandonment

The fear, fear, fear
Chasing me
in the foggy darkness
I run
sightless onward
breathless
I run
worshipping what I should love

I lay the void eating away at my soul
The hunger
For what will never be
The grief
The loss
The drip drip dripping of the silently bleeding heart

I lay the sadistic inner critic
ever going on and on and on
ever going on
The struggling, fragile self-esteem
The crumbling reflection in the mirror

I lay the flashbacks
The nightmares
The red-hot darts in my head
intrusive
obsessive
relentless

I lay the fatigue
the hopelessness
The strangling feeling of being trapped
forever

I lay the shame
The inadequacy
the wish to fade in the background and not be seen

I lay the crucified, Stockholmed love
which has no place here
but is nonetheless
the secret, tormented, yearning…

You see my love, my being is as tortured as yours.
I lay it all within your disfigured, beautiful body lying silently in the cold darkness
I lay myself now
I lay to rest near your silenced, broken heart
I will wait for the dawn.

Read more from Nuntia:
– A Slow, Genuine, Spiritual Conversion Experience
– “I Faced My Fear Of Being Unloved” – Facing The Fear Of Rejection
– Id, Ego and Superego Compared To The Three Characters In The Prodigal Son

The post Prayer for Fear of Abandonment appeared first on Universe of Faith.

Rock bottom meaning & examples

The phrase rock bottom can be used when one is feeling heavily weighed down by a very tough or tragic moment in one’s life. When you’ve hit rock bottom, emotionally the situation feels so bad that it can’t get worse, you are at your lowest level.  Examples of rock bottom include circumstances like feeling you can’t survive the loss of a loved one through death, separation or a breakup; being unemployed or finding it hard to make ends meet and feeling like you can’t see a way out; being overwhelmed with drug dependence and a long list of consequences (overdose; rejected by family; chased by authorities; penniless; financially, physically, and emotionally bankrupt). It’s when life hits hard.

Also, facing your worst nightmare can be experienced as a rock bottom such as ending up in a prison cell; being diagnosed with a physical or mental health condition; an unsuccessful suicide attempt; being expelled from one’s own family and ending up homeless, failing at a plan (a university course or a business) that you just could not fail at; forced migration; a bad accident; ending up in a domestic violence shelter or living in fear of threats of loan sharks. These situations can all lead to the experience of rock bottom.

“hidden in the desperation of the situation lies an opportunity for change”

Rock bottom is a harsh moment in one’s life and very hard to face. Rock bottom is experienced as a state where one feels overwhelmed by the situation, thinking and feeling it can’t get any worse and feeling like something drastic has just happened. However, inspite of the tragic human situation, many a time, hidden in the desperation of the situation lies an opportunity for change, a turning point and the potential to transform the very tragedy in a life-changing event. While some remain stuck in a situation that spirals down with tragic endings, many others who experienced the ravages of drug addiction or other types of serious difficulties, express how getting out of rock bottom is possible: “my life has changed after I hit rock bottom, from there I started to pick up the pieces and started to slowly move upwards, getting out of rock bottom.”

Signs you’ve hit rock bottom

Hitting rock bottom is associated with a range of unpleasant feelings that can range from grief and depressive feelings, helplessness and hopelessness to fear and anger. These feelings are usually associated with thoughts that his phase will last forever or that there is no way out.

6 basic important steps to get out of rock bottom

The road to get out of rock bottom can be a long one but rock bottom in itself has a transformational potential.

1. Ask for help

Many people, even in tragic situations, try to cope on their own. There is a tendency for one to try and make it on their own before reaching out for help.

Yet reaching out for some form of help is a crucial step to get out of rock bottom. Not remaining alone is highly beneficial to get up again. As the saying goes “a problem shared is a problem halved”. Feeling that you are not alone in carrying your burden, and knowing that there is someone accompanying you, can be the start to getting out of rock bottom.

Help can mainly take two forms:

1. Basic human helping like sharing one’s feelings with a trustworthy family member and/or friend. We are social beings, we need this basic social support. As a caution bracket I would say that your family or friend will not necessarily give you good advice. People tend to speak from their own experience, and what has worked for that person will not necessarily work for you too. One has to be careful when s/he starts taking this type of advice. Many a time the best help from a friend of family is mostly attentive listening.
2. Professional help. You might also need to get some professional help like from a psychologist, psychiatrist, psychotherapist, counsellor, social worker etc. Professional help is delivered by a trained person. Many a time a professional helper at an early stage in the helping process will explore what social support you can reach out to in your crisis. A professional helper will listen attentively and help you explore and understand the situation you are confronted with. A psychologist will help you understand yourself and the situation and become aware of how thoughts, feelings and behaviours can contribute to make the situation better or worse. A professional helper is also cautious about giving advice, and usually the client and the professional try to arrive at a solution together weighing out the pros and cons of a course of action.

Asking for help involves a certain amount of humility. You have to be humble to accept that you need help to get back up again. It is admitting that you cannot cope with your own resources. Some keep postponing and postponing this until they arrive at a crisis stage when you end up saying to yourself: “I can’t keep going on like this”.

Both professional help and basic human support have a role to play to help you get out of rock bottom.

2. Think straight: from “This should not have happened” to “I prefer that this didn’t happen to me”

What you think about your own situation, how you interpret your situation, will affect how you feel. If during your rock bottom moment you say to yourself, “I am so unlucky, I can’t be happy anymore, I won’t find love again, my life has stopped here, I will never feel good again, I will never come out of this, my life can’t go on, this was not supposed to happen to me,” these words will not help and will contribute to feeling more helpless and hopeless.

What you say to yourself in these moments is crucial. In rock bottom circumstances it is difficult not to feel the sadness, the anger, the pain. What we are talking about here is how much you let these feelings control you. That is where you can do something about it.

I do not want to minimise the pain that the person can experience but there are degrees of sadness which you can feel. One can learn to regulate feelings to feel less overwhelmed by unpleasant emotions. How I interpret the situation and not thinking in terms of black and white is very important.

Albert Ellis, a psychologist founder of Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy explains how musts and shoulds are unhelpful and persons can get overhelmed when they turn preferences into musts. Frequently I ask clients to reflect about their thinking: Where is it written that this shouldn’t happen to you? How is it that this cannot happen to you? I encourage clients to accept their own limitations, the limitations of others and that of human predicaments “I prefer to not have had to go through this experience instead of ‘this must not be happening to me’. Such interpretation of events helps one face their situation and get out of rock bottom rather than fight against it.

3. Body Care: “The more we care for our body, the more we care for our mind”

We live in a body. What is physically going on within us matters and helps or hinders our well-being. Therefore the more we care for our body, the more we care for our mind. When it comes to caring for the body, exercise is crucial. I am aware that in times of rock bottom exercise for some people can be the last thing which they feel inclined to do. However, the effort is rewarding. This is considered to be free medicine.

Healthy eating, is another crucial important factor. Substances like omega 3 and omega 6 are especially known to help the sustainability of a healthy mind. Some people turn to binge eating, alcohol or drugs as these are substances which give immediate relief for emotional pain, but in the long run these methods are harmful and backfire.

4. Behaviour Support: Engage in activities which support you

Supportive behaviour is another aspect which helps you get out of rock bottom. This can mean going to the countryside, going for a swim, meditating or engaging in a hobby – anything from taking care of a pet, your home, your car, your garden, collecting stamps, etc. These behaviours can help you by distracting your usual thoughts. Focusing on something else will help you in not entertaining unhelpful thoughts.

Contact with nature tends to have a therapeutic effect. I have a multitude of experiences where I heard persons speak of the relaxing feeling of being in touch with nature. It is as if it helps us to ground ourselves. I recall a person in drug rehabilitation expressing how going for a swim after years of being totally withdrawn into his drug using world, worked marvels of his feeling of wellbeing. He spoke about the joys of life’s simplicities.

5. Spirituality: Sustain the connections outside yourself

There are two aspects which I see crucial in the area of spirituality:

Firstly is the connection that a person experiences with that, which is beyond him/her. This can be the relationship with God, a higher power or creation. I am not only talking about the realm of Christianity but also extending to other people of different religions or other forms of faith. Those who experience such a connection, experience an extra resource in their life. It is a well-known fact those who hold some form of faith cope better in life. Those who live knowing that there is a benevolent God who loves them never feel completely alone, even in their worst moments of life, even if everyone left or rejected them. This connection gives a sense of security and care which can be helpful to get out of rock bottom situations.

Secondly is knowing what gives meaning to your life. Making sense of what happens. Having a purpose is important. The most important and burdensome questions which we all face are – What am I doing here on earth? and How do I make sense of death? In the end we will lose everything. So, if you have a reply to these questions, you can turn to the answer in difficult moments. These questions sometimes do come in the wrong moment, in rock bottom situations, when your securities are shaken. Questions like Why did this happen to me? Why did the tsunami come here and not on the other side? If you don’t find an answer you can keep going down or get stuck. On the other hand making friends with life’s toughest reality – death, may help one to live his/her life fully, making the best of what one has while one has it, and on the other hand being prepared for when adversity strikes.

6. Give yourself time

Getting out of rock bottom won’t happen overnight.When drug addicts complete their programme, some expect that now everything will fall back in place, but the challenges will continue. Resilience is important as is hope. In fact in counselling hope may equate to up to 25% of positive outcomes of counselling interventions. Giving time and being patient are necessary in these moments, to be able to get out of rock bottom.

Photos of Anthony Gatt by Christina Gatt

Read more:
– Healing for Adult Children of Separated or Divorced Couples 
– What Makes Most People Happy
– CARITAS Malta
– CARITAS International
– A Prayer To Give Yourself Time

Watch:

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When men lived and hunted in packs, actual physical death would result to an individual who was cut off from the rest of the pack. The limbic system (that part of the brain which regulates emotions) in modern man still unconsciously carries the fear of such a death.

The fear of losing our loved ones or those around us

As children we fear losing our parents, we fear being unloved. We unconsciously fear they might die or abandon us. We try our best to earn their approval and love. As we grow older, this need for approval and love extends to our peers and society in general. We work hard for it. We must have material goods, status, the right kind of lifestyle so that we are respected. We become fanatical about an ideology, a political party, a sports team or our religion. This makes us feel that we are a part of something. We fit in. We are safe. Deep within us we feel that if we don’t attain this we will die because we will be cut off from the pack. This gnawing fear also causes man to search for a means by which he can dull the fear. Hence the addictions, compulsions and all distractions with which our modern society is rife.

Jesus’ cut off from his social pack

We carry an existential death inside us throughout our lives. Jesus was cut off from the pack. He was crucified by his own people. Jesus physically entered man’s darkest, subconscious fear and he transformed it. Not only he transformed it through the resurrection but also being the God of life, being light itself, he introduced light and life in a place where there only used to be darkness and death.

Listening to our fears

We need to stop running away from the fear of rejection, this dark place. We need to stop trying to appease the fear. When we actually enter this place and stay with the fear of being rejected, the fear not being good enough, the fear of being a disappointment to our parents, our spouse, our children, the fear of being unloved and unworthy of love, the fear of being alone.in this place of desolation we can meet he who entered this place without needing to, he who entered this place for our sake. He went in it out of pure love for us so he could bring in light and life into our desolation. This place has been redeemed. So we no longer need to operate from its darkness. We do not need to spend our lives breathlessly running after the love and approval of others. We do not need to run away from the fear and the pain.

This is freedom. This is eternal life.

Read more from Nuntia:
– Prayer: The Fear Of Abandonment
– A Slow, Genuine, Spiritual Conversion Experience
– Id, Ego and Superego Compared To The Three Characters In The Prodigal Son

The post "I Faced my Fear of Being Unloved" – Facing the Fear of Rejection appeared first on Universe of Faith.

1. The situation of mental health in the world

“The problems connected with mental disturbance that now afflicts one-fifth of humanity and is a real social-health care emergency.”

2. To workers and volunteers in the mental health sector

“I commend pastoral workers and voluntary associations and organisations to support in practical ways and through concrete initiatives, those families who have mentally ill people dependent upon them. I hope that the culture of acceptance and sharing will grow and spread to them, thanks also to suitable laws and health-care programmes which provide sufficient resources for their practical application….”

3. To policy makers in the mental health sector

“I therefore encourage the efforts of those who strive to ensure that all mentally ill people are given access to necessary forms of care and treatment. Unfortunately, in many parts of the world, services for these sick people are lacking, inadequate or in a state of decay.”

4. Mental health in the developing world

“It should then be noted that prolonged armed conflicts in various regions of the world, the succession of terrible natural catastrophes and the spread of terrorism, in addition to causing a shocking number of deaths, has triggered psychological traumas that are sometimes difficult to cure in many survivors.”

5. Mental health in highly-developed countries

“In the economically highly-developed countries, experts then recognize that at the origin of new forms of mental disease we may also find the negative impact of the crisis of moral values. This increases the feeling of loneliness, undermining and even breaking up traditional forms of social cohesion, starting with the family institution, and marginalizing the sick, particularly the mentally ill who are all too often considered as a burden on the family and community.”

6. Improving the social context to support the mentally ill and their families

“The social context does not always accept the mentally ill with their limitations, and this is another reason difficulties are encountered in securing the human and financial resources that are needed. One perceives the need to better integrate the two approaches: appropriate therapy and new sensitivity towards disturbance, so as to enable workers in the sector to deal more effectively with these sick people and their families, who would be unable on their own to care adequately for their relatives in difficulty. ”

7. To persons experiencing mental disturbance

“Dear brothers and sisters, tried by illness, I would like to invite you to offer your condition of suffering, together with Christ, to the Father, certain that every trial accepted with resignation is meritorious and draws divine goodness upon the whole of humanity.”

Pope Benedict 16th, World Day of The Sick, 2005

Read more:
– My Psychosis Recovery – Love, Medicine and Faith
– “I’ve Hit Rock Bottom” – Getting the Basics Right to Get out of Rock Bottom

The post Top Pope Benedict Mental Health Quotes appeared first on Universe of Faith.

Lord grant me serenity
And in your wisdom peace
To render unto world, good
What wrong it gave me cease

Lord in your unending patience
Make fit what I do bad
To enter through to Heaven
Heart happy and mind glad

Lord, I have to thank you
For all that you bestow
For all the twists untwisted
For laughter, pain; your Face’s glow.

Read more:
– Feeling Insecure – Love As The Greatest Security
– How to Get Over a Mistake

The post Short Prayer for Wellbeing appeared first on Universe of Faith.

On the role of spirituality in mental health Dr Michael Galea explains that both research and experience show that taking into consideration one’s spirituality is crucial to offer a holistic treatment contribute to the wellbeing of a person experiencing mental health issues.

Research has established a consistent relationship between important life events and one’s tendency toward transcendence. Adjustment to negative events in one’s life often results in seeking spiritual consolation and meaning. For example childhood trauma is related to increased religious behaviours such as frequency of prayer and self-reported spiritual experience.

Spirituality as a deeper awareness of our true self

But what exactly is spirituality? Research opts at differentiating it from religion, considering it more the human’s inclination towards the Absolute, be it God, Allah or whoever else it may be. Spirituality has been described both positively, as a deeper awareness of our true self in both Eastern and Western traditions, and sometimes negatively, as a distraction and alienation that may hinder life’s development . History and experience constantly confirm that a very high preoccupation with religious concerns, extreme fundamentalism, legalism, and blind obedience could well degrade spirituality into a harmful experience. Freud defined organized religion as an illusion. He viewed religion basically as a means of avoiding anxiety. In line with this, in the past, spirituality was sometimes seen as the antithesis of physical and mental well-being. Nowadays, both are understood as key to one’s well-being.

There seems to be three patterns along which spirituality is found acting and is somewhat defined:

i. Spirituality as a coping mechanism against negative events

These negative events include hopelessness and depression, stress, addictions, loss and death indicated that spiritual variables may also be important mediators or moderators of change. Prayer and spirituality was found to correlate to more positive feelings, greater psychological well-being, better ability to handle stress and less hypertension. They were also found to enhance one’s ability to think clearer and more positively.

ii. Spirituality as a provider of social support

Connectedness, such as community gatherings and involvements, provided an important buffer against isolation, hopelessness, and loneliness. It may also serve as a creative tool for self-enhancement.

iii. Spirituality as a provider of wellness and meaning in life

Victor Frankl, a psychiatrist and holocaust survivor, spoke about how the search for the sacred could bring about meaning. This meaning may be interpreted as a greater sense of wellbeing. This explains why the American psychologist Abraham Maslow spoke of the importance of having a framework of values for a healthy life.

Holistic treatment includes spirituality

Increasingly, both human experience and empirically based evidence strongly suggest that wellbeing is to be holistic in scope in order to be truly valid, with long term effects, and to make a meaningful difference in one’s quality of life. In other words, I cannot treat and perhaps cure a person’s physical or mental condition or disorder while ignoring one’s spiritual outlook on oneself in the long run, and how that condition or disorder has impacted one’s understanding of self and world around.

For more related issues, you can subscribe to Dr Michael’s YouTube channel – Psychology Minute With Michael Galea

Read more on the role of spirituality in mental health:

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Soon after my 17th birthday, I experienced a psychotic episode. I became mentally ill. I grew tired of living life. My body weight increased. Demotivation and apathy were an everyday reality. Just making it through the day became a tough endeavour.

But in a few months, through therapy and medication, I recovered quite smoothly and my life was sailing quite plainly once again: I had a summer job which could become my prospective career job; I also had a boyfriend who gave his all for me, but who I kept unaware of the psychotic episode I had experienced earlier; I had a slender figure once again; I enjoyed a good relationship with the Father and was also following a University course which I used to take seriously.

“I had lost my job, my boyfriend, my physical health, my faith and, yes, my mind.”

The first episode was an intense experience but it did not affect me as severely as when I relapsed into my second psychotic episode, four years later. A bit before my 21st birthday, life, again, took its toll on me. Continuous ruminating and obsessing, made me too tired to even carry out the basic tasks of the day. Having been suicidal, I was confined to my house, totally dependent on others to go out.  In the blink of an eye, everything came tumbling down. I saw the very pillars of my life collapsing in front of me. Now I had lost my job, my boyfriend, my physical health, my faith and, yes, my mind.

It became a hassle for me to get out of bed.  All I wanted was to just sleep and eat. Nothing more, nothing less. I was living in a body I detested, which was growing bigger every day. And I had no energy or motivation to take control of my life and change my circumstances, by trying to lose weight, carry out at least easy tasks, or even do things I used to love doing.  I was living my life through the people who bothered to help me in taking control of my life once again. Whereas before I used to enjoy shopping, mixing and matching clothes, now shopping became an arduous task. My younger sister used to take me shopping for new clothes because I no longer fit in the ones I had. Even washing daily seemed stressful and extra during this time. My mother had to become my source of discipline and self-control.

“I had lost a lot, but not everything”

I felt like I had lost everything: my sources of fulfillment, the love I wanted and any source of hope for a better future. But one thing that I could not really understand at the moment was that I had not lost everything. My family supported me greatly every single day, each member of the family in his/her own way. My true friends stood by me through thick and thin. God was with me all the way: silently but strongly. True, I had lost a lot, but not everything.

I had always thought that one’s health is what mattered most in life. But at the point where I had lost both my physical and mental health, I found something else which was more crucial: love and support from my family and friends. When my flame was blown off, my parents, my sisters, my brother, rekindled that flame for me. When I felt worthless, my friends reminded me who I was for them throughout the past years and how they always saw me.

“Little did I know that through this experience, I was going to emerge a better person”

When I started to focus on what I had left and made a conscious effort to make the best out of what I do have, my life started taking a different twist, I started recovering. I started exercising and gradually lost more than 20 kilograms of weight. When my passion started growing slowly, my aim was to become once again the person I was before. Little did I know that through this psychosis recovery, I was going to emerge a better person than I was previously.

“Today, after my psychosis recovery, I adjust my sails according to the wind”

Today, after my psychosis recovery, I take life one day at a time and do not waste precious energy to try to change the things I have no control over. In the past I used to spend a lot of time questioning existential realities. These questions led me nowhere other than in a deep well which echoed the same questions back again. If the weather is cloudy, if things do not turn out the way I planned, if I do not get chosen for an exciting opportunity, there is little (if anything) I can do. The only thing I have control over is my attitude towards these circumstances. Paolo Coelho, a prolific writer says: ‘sometimes the wrong train took me to the right destination.’ I do find myself realising I did something wrong, I do find myself in a situation I don’t like, but I know I can adjust my sails according to the wind.

“My idea of God, the way I look at people, how I see myself and my attitude, is not the same anymore”

When I experienced these two psychotic episodes, I saw my life collapse: all of who I was, all that I owned, all that I loved, all that I had control over and aspired for, melted down right in front of me. But today I see these two episodes as life-changing and life-giving experiences. My psychosis recovery has set me free by showing me what really matters. Things which used to anger me in the past, things which used to intimidate me, no longer take the best of me. My priorities have changed, my time and self-management have taken a twist; my idea of God, the way I look at people, how I see myself and my attitude towards life in general, is not the same and will never be the same as it was before.

 *Name has been changed.

Read more:
– “I’ve Hit Rock Bottom” – Getting the Basics Right to Get out of Rock Bottom
– Top Pope Benedict Mental Health Quotes

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