Spirituality and the Change: Why one is good for the other.

Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life.
Buddha 

We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin 

Happiness can be a state of mind, a physical reaction or a true emotion that’s not only felt by one person, but’s shared with those around you.

Yesterday we talked about how laughter helps during the depressive times of our lives, specifically during menopause. When all the stressors and stresses of daily life, coupled with this massive hormone shift start to impede upon your mental health, seeing the total humor in a situation can be healing and uplifting.   Finding humor in any situation increases those endorphins that help with mood fluxes and stability. When your mood is lighter, you actually experience happiness.

Another part of finding happiness in everyday life when your body is at war with your psyche, is enveloping or strengthening your spiritual self. Numerous studies posit that faith helps when you are going through a tough time. It can be religious faith, where you belong to a community of people who worship the same way you do, or it can be personal faith, where you believe that a higher power than yourself, but not necessary an organized religion or specific deity, is helping guide you through life and its ups and down.

When your body begins this coupe d’etat against you, and you feel like everything you do, say and think is coming against you, many times the only thing that’s present and helping you cope is your sense of spirit and/or faith.

People of religious faith and community typically will center around a person going through tough times and show their support and sense of common kinship by talking, or helping out with chores, or even cooking a meal. Sometimes just knowing that someone near you cares, is more than enough to lift your spirits. Having a strong spiritual faith or belief appears to help us, as women, rally and push through tough times. That thought that there is someone near, someone who believes the same way I do, someone who acts the same way I do, who interacts with others in the same way, can be very comforting and reassuring during inclement times.

Even if you don’t belong to a community of organized worshippers, your individual beliefs and convictions can prove to be a powerful weapon in combatting the negative changes you are now going through. Simple prayer or daily meditation can calm negative feelings and thoughts about the visible changes your body is suffering through. Our society puts such stress and emphasis on youth and health. I see too many ads in magazines and on tv with women of a certain age hawking creams and vitamins to help them stay young and desirable. The implicit message in these ads is that only young and beautiful people are worthwhile. And, unfortunately for us, but very fortunately for these companies, we all buy into it.

If we ignore those voices and erroneous opinions, and concentrate on the kind of person we want and choose to be, well then, isn’t that faith in oneself?  Isn’t that believing in who you are, in what your value is to society and to the world? Isn’t that, simply put, your spiritual self?

You don’t need to run off to a convent or take a monastic vacation to Tibet in order to learn to use your spiritual self. You can navigate through the day-to-day trials of this time in your life by taking time out and just being; just breathing slowly in and out a few times; just sitting on your porch/deck/stoop with a cup of warm brew and reveling in the silence and calm around you. I am a huge believer in being quiet and camping out in your own mind at times. Just being.

To me, my faith is an extension of me, of my mindset, and of my soul. Even when I am not in church, I pray; I meditate; I commune with the silence around me. And because I calm my mind and remember who I am and whose I am – a child of God – I am able to embrace my spiritual side and allow it to guide me through rough waters and hot flashes.