When we experience physical pain or discomfort we usually think that something is wrong in our bodies. Yet, physical discomfort can be stemming from many sources other than the physical body. But because the body is so much easier to relate to, our natural inclination goes towards the body as being the origin of the problem.
Is it our natural inclination though? Or is it centuries steeped in a conventional medical model which has taught us to dissect rather than to connect, to view the body as a machine rather than as an integrated part of a whole? 400 odd years after the birth of modern medicine, so many questions remain unanswered, and it is my belief that some things simply cannot be explained through the limited medical model that we currently have in place. Would you know if your spirit was hurting…?
(For more articles on health, wellbeing and yoga, check out my other posts here)
Institutions of health care
In 2002 the Bio-Psycho-Social model (BPSm), was internationally recommended to replace the conventional bio-medical model. And while the BPSm was a healthy (albeit late) step in the right direction in terms of acknowledging the interplay between biology, psychology and society/environment, something is still missing.
To begin with, the bio-medial model is very much still practically the norm in health care systems around the world. It takes a lot of time for new ideas and concepts to really filter into every day practice. At the end of the day, it is up to each institution and health practitioner to make new choices and update practices based on new recommendations and guidelines, and that process can take years in reality.
However, the concept of ‘spirit’ is very much still missing from the equation. If anything, the new health care model should be called the Bio-Psycho-Socio-Spiritual model. Because in the so-called ‘new’ model, BPSm (which isn’t new at all, it was created in 1977, and not officially implemented until 2002), the element of spirit is virtually non-existent. The problem is, that in conventional medical care, the subject of ‘spirit’ is a bit of a dirty word.
The thing that we don’t talk about
Personally I think it’s time we started talking about spirit and spirituality – without getting stuck on religion. Religion does not always come hand in hand with spirituality, and spirituality does not always come hand in hand with religion. Spirituality has no institution or holy books – it is one’s own personal sense of what is greater than one self, the meaning of life etc. As an example, connection to nature can form the basis of one’s sense of spirituality. Therefore for clarification, I am primarily referring to non-religious spirituality in this article.
The problem is, that in conventional medical care, the subject of ‘spirit’ is a bit of a dirty word
Why don’t we talk more openly about spirituality in relation to health? Part of the reason may be that the matter of spirit is kind of right up the alley with the subject of ‘consciousness’ in that it is elusive, unfathomable, difficult to measure and impossible to quantify. After the birth of modern medicine the ‘gold standard’ became to always favor solid evidence in the form of objective measures and quantitative research. Yet, it has become evident in recent decades that many things simply cannot be measured using objective quantitative tools. Unless mainstream science stops blatantly favoring quantitative research over qualitative, it will be difficult to make a case for including hard-to-quantify subjects into accepted health practice.
Changing the thinking that creates these systems, and the underlying unwillingness to address issues that tend not to yield firm black/white answers, is one of the biggest roadblocks when it comes to evolving our health and medical systems.
Changes within the system
Rather than questioning the limitations within the established health care model, the norm for many years has simply been avoidance of difficult subjects. Neurosurgeon-turned-spiritualist Dr. Eben Alexander, who miraculously came out of a coma with a story to tell, after a severe brain infection left him clinically brain-dead, humorously states that the only thing that established medical science knows for sure about consciousness, is that it has more to do with the head than the foot.
During his own ordeal of attempting to understand and explain how it was possible for him to have had vivid memories and experiences whilst in a deep coma with a non-functional neo-cortex, Dr. Alexander was forced to look outside the paradigm he himself had worked in and believed in all of his career. What he found was that much science had already been done on various subjects of consciousness and spirituality, yet the findings were nowhere to be found within the established system, and they were not easy to gain access to. Alexander’s latest book A Mindful Universe, is a marvelous exploration of possibility in the world of health and medicine.
Our body is an integrated system that inter-relate, inter-act and is inter-dependent.
The elephant in the room
As a physical therapist working in a conventional health care setting on a daily basis, it astounds me how much the dialogue around pain and illness is still mainly being approached from a physical perspective.
I see people every day, who I would argue, are suffering from a spiritual crisis. Yet very few health practitioners within the established system will bring up spirituality in the context of health.
As registered therapists we need to be able and allowed, to open up the discussion of spirituality (if indicated) without risking being struck off the register for lack of professionalism. While many don’t identify with being spiritual, many others do, but they have few places to bring their thoughts on these subjects, as there are few places within our healthcare system that people can discuss these matters openly and expecting a quality conversation.
The future lies in fundamentally acknowledging body mind and spirit as components of health, in order to make a shift around how we assess and approach health issues.
As long as we continue to divide our health practices into isolated specialties, we are neglecting our patients, and holistic health will continue to be a thing of the past, or something that is being practiced outside of the main system. The future lies in fundamentally acknowledging body mind and spirit as components of health, in order to make a shift around how we assess and approach health issues.
How to know exactly when the spirit is suffering? Of course no one can answer this for sure. And perhaps therein lies part of the problem. While modern science has brought many crucial elements to health care, it has shifted towards a strong tendency to ‘know for sure’. It doesn’t linger where it can’t find solid evidence, and as we have seen, the practice of avoidance of the too-hard is very much in play today. This is a big problem, because many important matters exist in a difficult-to-define grey zone, and I believe we will continue to fall very short if we do not dare to open up these questions.
The need for an expanded health care practice is here. People are hungry for holism and a meaningful approach. The steep increase in people seeking out ‘alternative’ health advice is an obvious indication of this. At what point do we decide that it is better to at least start to open ourselves to inviting discussions of spirituality into health, despite not having all the ‘hard evidence’? He who dares wins, and now is a time to dare.
Happy health everyone,
Kirsten Louise