Book Reviews |
Reflections on Spirituality and Health
Reflections on Spirituality and Health. Stephen G. Wright. Published by Whurr Publishers, 2005. ISBN 1-86156-468-6. Price: £19.99. 231 pp. (paperback).
As this book explains: ‘If spirituality means anything, it is about a sense of connection—with ourselves, each other, work and home and that which is beyond the self’. Accordingly, given that we frequently encounter ‘dispirited’ persons in clinical practice our curiosity in it should be aroused.
In this book, the Reverend Professor Wright explores the origins and connections of health, wholeness, hale, healing, holism and holy, and outlines how human factors have become undervalued to the detriment of our emotional and spiritual welfare. New research findings from disciplines such as psychoneuroimmunology and affective neuroscience are explained in the context of what can be done to help enhance wellness. He reports a positive cultural change with greater respect for life, compassion and empathy for both self and others, and cites evidence that people who have a spiritual practice and a set of beliefs to live by, tend to be healthier and happier than those without.
The book has 24 chapters, prepared from articles Professor Wright has written on spirituality in his regular column for the Nursing Standard. They are based on his experiences as a nurse, counsellor and inter-faith minister. The articles were intended to provide information, support and challenge to health professionals wishing to explore the spiritual dimension of their work. Now, by bringing these articles together in one book he is, I think, successfully challenging us to examine the different dimensions of spirituality and its roles in health and well-being and to consider ways the approaches can be incorporated into clinical practice and personal philosophy. I submit that most if not all of us would agree with Professor Wright that: ‘everybody seeks meaning, purpose, direction and connection in life’.
Occupational health professionals could usefully respond to challenges this book poses by considering how our sense of environmental aesthetics and emotional response are influenced by the perceived ‘spirit of a place’ and how different aspects of spirituality influence emotional resilience and coping skills. I particularly liked the quote from Oscar Wilde: ‘We are all of us in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars’. Professor Wright had added: ‘I can't help feeling that patients might just get a better deal if a few more of us were stargazers’. I agree and recommend his book to anyone interested in the well-being of people at work.
Rating
(Buy, read and keep)
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us What's this?
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||