Spirituality and Mental Health

In a couple of recent posts I spoke of someone who’s thoughts were an encouragement to me in getting back to reading spiritual classics, reading as well as being an encouragement of overcoming my doubts and starting back with my blog. I will be sharing thoughts on one of his books he has written, The Integrated Self: A Holistic Approach to Spirituality and Mental Health Practice. He was one professor, Dr. Lou Kavar, at Capella University who was an encouragement to me when I was working on my PhD dissertation. He is retired from teaching but still active as a spiritual life coach and blogger. The book is considered geared to spiritual guides, pastors, counselors, psychologists and others in the mental health field. Yet after reading it I think anyone who wants to grow in their knowledge of life balance and tapping into their spirituality would gain worth from reading and reflecting on his thoughts shared in the book. In the book he points out the difference between spirituality and religion and how they relate to our personal lives. I appreciate how he discusses the variety of religious traditions and how even those who tend towards agnosticism can tap into their own spirituality. Spirituality is a helpful connector to our human purpose and meaning in life that is vital for a well rounded life. The book is full of case studies of people’s spiritual lives and I appreciate how he is transparent in sharing his own spiritual journey as well. I mentioned he was a professor so there is a rich research component to his writing here to back up his concepts on the benefits of spirituality to the human experience. I want to share just a couple items that stood out to me that are helpful. The first is found on page 34 where he shares of building existential congruence in understanding out deepest self. He has a diagram that spoke to me in looking at four areas of life: Compassion for self and others, external limitations, personal abilities and understanding of one’s deepest self. It was insightful for myself in taking some reflection on my life in those areas. In our busy lives we need to take time to reflect on understanding ourselves better. Then the other item on page 54 is his idea of developing a spiritual history. He mentions there are differing ways of doing this. He suggests doing a time line of significant events in our lives on a sheet of paper and then on another sheet do a time line of significant spiritual events that have been part of our lives. What is interesting with this idea a person can them explore timeline connections between life events and spiritual experiences. There is much more to the book, those are just two that stood out to me and ones I especially enjoyed. Of course the great things about books --n100 people can read the same book and receive 100 different insights. This book is a short one so it is a nice weekend read. Dr Kavar also is a blogger and you can find his blog posts at blog.loukavar.com it is called Emerging spirituality weekly. At his blog site you can connect to his Youtube videos. I encourage you to check his blog as you will be encouraged. Reflection: Take some time to do a timeline of significant events in your life and then do a timeline of spiritual experiences. See if there are any unique insights you gain.