Spiritual Mind Treatment is a scientific form of affirmative prayer that is based on the teachings of the Science of Mind.
In simple words, it shifts your mind in a manner that your life starts manifesting in the way you desire.
Understanding Spirituality
It can be defined as the search for the belief or meaning in a greater existence beyond the humankind.
It’s often linked to religion but the practice of spirituality goes beyond it.
It connects people with something larger like the universe itself.
You and your therapist might hesitate to include religion or spirituality in therapy due to differences in beliefs and the fear of controversy.
However, research has shown that including your spiritual beliefs assists the process of healing.
Most of us use the terms ‘religion’ and ‘spirituality’ interchangeably.
You need to understand that spirituality is broader than any religion you practice as it takes into account philosophic and cognitive areas of thought.
Additionally, it also takes into account the behavioural and emotional aspects.
Spirituality can be understood as an attempt to understand your nature or the meaning of your existence and its also linked to internal happiness and awareness.
Many belief and cultural systems hold that spirit is the essence of an individual’s existence.
In such cases, spirituality can be described as your connection to your self and others.
You’ll find people who describe themselves as spiritual without abiding by the principles of any particular religion.
While others will say religion is the manifestation of your spirituality.
This manifestation may include a performance of traditional rituals with different degrees of involvement and commitment depending on your faith.
For some people, volunteer work, meditation, yoga or dancing are outlets to express their spirituality.
Understanding Spiritual Wellness
It’s no surprise that our health and spirituality are connected.
Physical wellness is concerned with our health and spiritual wellness is concerned with our spirit.
As mentioned earlier, spiritual wellness depends on the perspective and beliefs of an individual.
While some may link it to their religion, others might link it to other elements such as the natural world or relationships with other people.
Perhaps, you might even nurture spiritual wellness by living a satisfying and fulfilling life in accordance with your personal values.
No matter how we define spiritual wellness, it includes a connection between a person and something greater than himself.
It could be anything — your beliefs, values, meaning and purpose of life or a higher power.
Total wellness includes spiritual, physical, mental and emotional health.
All four aspects need to be in complete harmony for you to be truly fit.
Your health will be affected even if one area starts lacking.
For instance, if you develop a severe health condition where you don’t feel optimistic about any improvements, you’ll start losing enthusiasm.
And if this health condition worsens to an extent where you can no longer do your daily activities/hobbies or work, you’ll start questioning the meaning of life.
All of these feelings over a prolonged period of time will lead to anxiety or depression.
Here are a few things that spiritually healthy people do:
- They’re optimistic and hopeful even during difficult times
- Find solace through religious practices or meditation
- Feel in harmony and peace with themselves, their life and the world
- Forgive themselves and others easily
- Know their self-worth
- Know their values and live their life accordingly
- Have empathy and compassion for others.
Here are a few things that spiritually unhealthy people do:
- Feel like they don’t belong anywhere
- They struggle to find peace
- Struggle to forgive themselves and others
- Harshly and constantly judge themselves and others
- Feel uncaring and unconcerned about life
- Feel unsettled and anxious
- Struggle to find the meaning of life and find ‘emptiness’.
Religion vs. Spirituality
Generally, people believe religion and spirituality are identical concepts.
They’re similar in some aspects but not the same.
To begin with, spirituality is something that just is while religion is something you practice.
All religious systems include regular activities like prating, going to the church, etc. depending on the religion you believe in.
You show your belief in the higher power through such acts of reverence and faith.
If you do these things, you might consider yourself to be very religious but it can be argued that people who’re not going to church may have a strong faith in the higher power as you.
On the other hand, your spirituality isn’t dependant on how religious you are.
You can understand spirituality as your inner energy.
Your inner energy is a part of who you are: your ethics, values, beliefs and everything else that gives your life meaning.
You might practise activities that help you clarify your feelings and thoughts such as meditation, yoga and journaling.
Generally, individuals that belong to a particular religion express their spirituality as the connection to their faith.
They feel supported by other people who follow the same religion and might even draw strength from their prayers and beliefs.
However, you don’t need to be religious in order to be spiritual.
It’s possible to feel connected to something greater and search for the meaning of life without practising any religious activities.
Spirituality and religion both are related to mental health.
A connection or a sense of belongingness helps promote resilience and decreases the risk of mental health concerns.
A review of several studies on spirituality and religion in 2013 showed that religion can have a negative impact on people’s mental health, in the form of negative beliefs or religious abuse, spirituality and religion often promote good mental health and positive coping techniques.
Since then, there’s been a significant increase in the number of counselors including the individual’s religious beliefs into their sessions.
Mental Health and Spirituality
It’s common to find people that have based their entire lives around the religion they follow.
They often include religious practices such as religious meditation and prayer into their self-care routine.
These beliefs can play a crucial role in your ability to cope with life’s challenges in the following ways:
- Provide moral and ethical guidelines for you to live by
- Offer comfort in the times of need
- Help you find the meaning and purpose of life
- Provide emotional and social support.
Studies have shown that people who have strong spiritual beliefs have a higher tolerance for uncertainty and low levels of stress and worry.
Participants who trusted in the higher power were more trusting and had lower levels of intolerance, stress and worry.
Another study showed that spiritual therapy is helpful for people struggling with substance abuse.
What is Spiritual Mind Treatment?
Spiritual Mind Treatment or SMT is a 5-step process of scientific and affirmative prayer.
This treatment is a method and a process that helps realign our thoughts with our truth.
It focuses on removing all thoughts of fear, self-doubt and negation and enables us to see the truth of the Spirit, the Higher power, God that’s within us.
This type of prayer allows you to turn within yourself and connect with the Presence that’s within you rather than praying to a deity to grant you something.
Once you make the connection with God within you, you can use your word to treat and affirm the good you wish to demonstrate.
In simpler words, during the process of Spiritual Mind Treatment, you come to the realisation there’s only one infinite presence in the universe that permeates everything.
Therefore, this presence being everywhere needs to be right within us as well.
With such an attitude, you can reach an acceptance of new possibilities where you can ‘see’, ‘speak’ and ‘feel’ the good that you desire as yours.
This treatment isn’t about convincing a deity to grant us something. Rather, it’s about us being aware of the presence of God within us.
5 Steps of Spiritual Mind Treatment
The method of this treatment consists of the following five steps:
Step 1: Recognition (God is)
You begin by understanding that there is only one pervading presence, one force that encompasses everything in existence, one energy out of which everything is made of.
Generally, people call this One Source, God (the name isn’t important, but recognising the truth is).
Therefore, you understand that God is the limitless and ultimate power and presence in the universe. God is all that there is.
Step 2: Unification (I am)
After having realised the awesome and magnificent power of God, that is present everywhere and within ourselves, we realise that this intelligence goes further than creating us.
It’s within us and is the substance that life’s made of.
Here, you become aware of who you truly are by uniting yourself with the presence i.e. God.
From this point onwards, you know that God and you are one and God acts in your life through and as you.
Step 3: Realization/Declaration (I accept; I affirm)
You name your desires with the feeling that as you’re doing this, its already becoming yours.
You move away from the feeling of ‘wanting’ to ‘having’ received it already.
The food you desire to experience begins to take form through God’s power.
You know your desire is complete and you accept it.
Step 4: Acceptance/Thanksgiving (I give thanks)
Here, you summon a feeling of gratitude.
Of course, God doesn’t need our gratitude to function but it’s more of the attitude of gratitude that’s necessary to open the consciousness that enables us to receive more good.
According to the Law of the Universe, we manifest our experiences on what we focus on.
Therefore, when you focus on the good you have, you attract and receive more good.
To sum up, you accept and thank fro this good right here and now.
Step 5: Release (I let go and let God)
After accomplishing all the previous steps, you need to trust.
You release it to the love and wisdom of the universe.
You release your treatment with assurance and faith that it’s done.
Doing so, you free yourself of concern and let go and let God go.
At the end of the treatment, you say “And so it is”.
This is important to do in order to release your treatment out of your hands with total conviction and faith that we know and believe that our desire is already done through God.
Spiritual Mind Treatment and Classes
Some of the most popular classes to enrol yourself or schedule a treatment are offered by the Center for Spiritual Living Bournemouth, Center for Spiritual Living Morristown and Science of Mind Archives.
Ways to Improve Spiritual Health
As seen earlier, research has shown that individuals who are more spiritual gave higher levels of emotional and mental wellness.
The reason is simple, it helps you cope with life’s challenges, health issues and stress.
You can connect with spirituality through meditation, yoga or religion.
However, it’s possible to nurture spirituality without a specific practice or belonging to a religion.
Here are 6 ways that will help you improve your spiritual health:
1. Volunteering
Spending time with your community will help increase your compassion and empathy towards others.
By included helping others as your personal value, you give your life a new meaning.
Becoming aware of peoples needs will help you form a greater connection with yourself and others.
2. Spending time outside
You can connect with your spiritual side by spending time with nature.
Stepping out helps you relax, calm and less stressed. You can include a little bit of exercise to improve wellness in all areas.
3. Expressing your thoughts
Bottling up your feelings will negatively impact your health in the longer run.
Express yourself via journaling, creative writing or even art.
Doing so will help you identify your positive and negative thoughts and emotions and keep you grounded.
Over time, you’ll start feeling more in tune with yourself.
4. Doing nothing
You can start being mindful by doing nothing.
Taking as little time as 5 minutes a day will help you connect with yourself.
During this time, just simply be.
Close your eyes and sit quietly to be able to listen to your thoughts.
If you find distressing thoughts, accept them with compassion.
5. Being more accepting and optimistic
Life is hard and even though you might feel that your life is the hardest, it’s not quite the case.
Learn to see hardships as new opportunities for you to grow.
Accept that you’ll face new challenges every day and you’ll not always be able to find the meaning of every negative event.
Put your energy towards moving forward and let go of all your negative feelings.
6. Travelling
Visiting new cities and countries helps you ‘reset’ your life.
Meeting new people, gaining new experiences and being aware of other cultures will open new doors in your mind.
You’ll be able to look at your life from a brand new perspective.
Understanding Spiritual Abuse
The world is full of people who use religious and spiritual beliefs to control and manipulate others.
This is what spiritual abuse is.
It can be hard to recognize especially if an individual believes they’re acting based on their beliefs.
But, its effects are long-lasting and severe.
It can be seen in religious organizations, families and romantic relationships.
The key sign of abuse is shame.
Individuals made to feel ashamed of their actions or beliefs that aren’t permitted by a family member or partner to practice their beliefs, or are being controlled or manipulated as a result of their spirituality are the ones experiencing abuse.
Another sign of abuse is single-minded thinking.
When parents, partners or religious leaders punish or shame individuals who question beliefs or doubt them, they’re often abused.
Here are a few examples of spiritual abuse:
- Parents discouraging their children to make their own choices about religion
- Forcing individuals to make choices that are against their personal religious or spiritual beliefs
- Insulting someone else’s spiritual practices
- Shaming someone by their spirituality
- Extorting money, services or goods by using an individual’s spiritual beliefs.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is a spiritual mind?
To have a spiritual mind, you need to set it on spiritual things that are filled with holy purposes and desires.
How do you practice affirmative prayers?
Affirmative prayer is a praying technique. It centers your mind on the positive outcome that you want rather than the current situation or negative circumstances. It operates by syncing your emotions with your thoughts with what you want via the process of creative visualisation. There are five elements of affirmative prayer and have mentioned the same in this article.
How can I have a spiritual mind?
You can have a spiritual mind by doing a range of things such as meditating, travelling, doing Yoga and thinking positively. You need to explore your spiritual core in order to have a spiritual mind.
How can I develop my spiritual mind?
In order to develop a spiritual mind, you need to first start exploring your spiritual core. Begin by start journaling, be truthful, listen to your instincts, practise patience and help others. You can also help others, learn to forgive others and yourself, eliminate envy and find something to believe in if you truly want to become a more spiritual person.
What does it mean to live a spiritual life?
Living a spiritual life means developing spiritually. Include a sense of connection to something bigger than yourself and then start a search for the meaning of your life.
Wrap Up
Spiritual wellness is just as important as physical wellness.
You can connect with your spirituality by religion, beliefs or values.
Spiritual Mind Treatment helps you connect with your true inner being and helps you live a more fulfilled life.
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Shristi is an avid reader, recipe developer and wellness enthusiast. She’s probably making a mess in her kitchen right now.