you are a spiritual being

two days ago i was talking to a friend, lyn, who has a PhD in spirituality. crazy right?! i didn't even  know such a doctorate existed. her main job currently is studying the relationship between physical health and spiritual belief. her research has taken her from city-to-city, speaking at medical conferences i.e. conferences for medical doctors. her research over the past 10 years has shown--overwhelmingly--that patients who have a solid spiritual belief system live longer, recover faster from illness and approach their sickness with greater hope than those patients who are non-religious. i will track down the actual scientific data in the coming days, so you can read it for yourself, but the fascinating thing for me is that more and more hospitals are integrating spirituality into their protocol for dealing with illness. doctor's are asking lyn, and other's like her, to teach them how to assign purpose to their patient's suffering. my friend lyn says that no matter what conference she speaks at, she is inundated with doctor's stories of miraculous healing(s), and head-scratching recoveries that these doctor's attribute to the patient's spirituality, which she defines as the ability to see meaning in struggle, hope for a life beyond this one, and faith that a higher power is in control of the present moment.