What IS Spirituality? by Mark Sichel, LCSW Many people are perplexed about the term "spirituality" and have trouble understanding just what the term means and how it's important in recovery and psychological health. This question particularly baffles people in the early years of recovery. For many of us, spirituality conjures up images of new age jibberish. For others it brings up early memories of alleged spirituality from families as equally committed to cocktail hour as they are to church or synagogue attendance. When I look at the word "spiritual" on my handy word processing program's thesaurus, I'm given the following synonyms for the word spiritual: Ethereal Airy Holy Religious These words lead right to the back alleys of despair and cynicism. I personally think of "ethereal" and "airy" as having no substance, and "holy" and "religious" smack of established religious groups' hypocrisy. If I were to write a list of synonyms for the word "spiritual," they would include: Godly Kind Generous Appreciative Grateful A woman I know is struggling to overcome many symptoms of self-sabotage. She is a child of alcoholics who has worked very hard over the years to build a life for herself. She is currently struggling to write plays and music. She's very gifted, has received a great deal of acclaim from the public, but becomes very frightened when she's doing well and writing her best work. She asked me what I thought she could do to combat her demons of self-destruction and self-defeat. I suggested to my friend that she take a spiritual approach to her problem, especially because the psychological approach had become self-limiting for her. She looked at me like I was from Mars, and couldn't imagine what I meant by a spiritual approach. "Being the best you can be is the right thing to do. Whatever your beliefs about God and creation, you've been endowed with great gifts. It's simply incorrect to not use them and share them with the world. Allowing the demons of your family to stop you is basically ungenerous, unappreciate and unkind, to yourself and to the family of mankind." My friend took in what I had to say with amazement. She said that in all the years she worked with a therapist, the issue of spirituality had never emerged. She said she'd give this a try. My friend began using this approach, and basically has meditated on the spiritual correctness of pushing herself past her patterns of avoidance and self-deprivation. This is what I mean by a spiritual approach, and this is how I relate spirituality to mental health and recovery of all kinds. To find out about Spiritual Intelligence, read What is a Spiritual IQ?. To hear the story of a woman who considers herself very spiritual, but does not subscribe to the tenets of a particular religion, read Ill at Ease in the House of God.                    RECOMMENDED READING FROM THE PSYSTORE: Anatomy of the Spirit: The Seven Stages of Power and Healing by Caroline Myss, C. Norman Shealy Our Price: $11.20 "There are so many obstacles to keep us from fully living our lives. Carolin Myss helps us to evaluate exactly where we are heading, whether in a downward, negative path or a more straight forward peaceful path. Our emotions play a big part and will let us know something has gone awry. When we start feeling negative towards ourselves and others, we need to go inward and ask ourselves what's going on. Anatomy of the Spirit is a good tool to help us evaluate ourselves." -- Amazon.com User Review For a selection of books on this topic, visit the Psystore. ** All prices subject to change without notice