Meaning, purpose, and belonging (oh my)
Why we shouldn't shy away from talking about topics like faith and spiritual health
Cancelled. I looked up at the board, and realized that my flight, the one I had rushed to from my event, was not going to get me home. Doing what any seasoned traveler would do, I immediately hopped on my phone and booked another flight on another airline to get there. I was sitting on this new flight feeling pretty savvy, heck, I was even so relaxed I closed my eyes. When I opened them I noticed we weren’t in the air. In fact, we hadn’t even left the gate. The reason? Well, our left engine wouldn’t start. Back to square one.
This was my Tuesday. It’s not uncommon to experience things like this when you travel, but what was so wild about it was that every option led me back to the same place, getting stuck and unable to get home. Alas, I eventually did make it even if it wasn’t the day I planned on getting home!
My event, the aforementioned one I was traveling for, was for a statewide association in New Jersey. I was the opening keynote, brought my fire, a message that challenged and gave hope, and had a super engaged crowd the whole time, which brings me to today’s post.
After my talk, I opened it up for questions. I love this part. In my experience, you get anything from “mini Ted talks” to actual insightful questions. For me, these moments are engaging and allow for me to go deeper on the issues. I got some excellent questions, and then I got the “doozy.” If you are new to public speaking and not sure what this means, the “doozy” is a question that’s so amazingly good that it’s almost impossible to answer. Yes indeed, my friends, these questions separate the speakers who know their topic, deeply, from those who can just remember a few talking points.
By the way, so you can experience my pain in real time, as I write this, I get a text saying “Congratulations, you have received a seat assignment” only this flight which I got the seat on leaves three hours before I land.
Back to my topic.
During my “Q&A,” I got one of those excellent questions. You see, part of my talk, which lays out the context for why we need to reform mental health, is an overview of “deaths of despair,” a term coined by two economists who tracked data on mortality better than anyone, and had a story to tell after the 2008 recession that actually made sense.
The audience member, a professor from a local university, said, “Dr. Miller, you talked a lot about despair and then solutions, but there’s one word you didn’t mention, faith.” He went into detail on the role of spiritual health, and how it’s like this huge gorilla in the room that we don’t want to talk about. I looked at him, and said, “You are right, we don’t talk about this enough.” His point was that it’s hard to talk about meaning, purpose, and belonging, without talking about spirituality and faith at some level.
I thought this was a very interesting point, and having help run a national foundation that focused on the “mental, social, and spiritual health of the nation,” I was particularly attune to the issue. In fact, during my time there, we put out a report on measuring spiritual well-being, which included a great deal of detail on spiritual health. The goal of that report was to create a questionnaire that accurately assessed spiritual health across the areas of belonging, becoming, and beyond, and simultaneously gave participants an experience of spiritual well-being while taking it. It’s worth checking out, and you can find the full resource here.
What I found most interesting about this man’s question was how we often conflate religion, spirituality, and faith. In fact, as soon as the man asked his question it was pretty obvious that a lot of people immediately went to “church, synagogue, mosque” type of thinking. I tried to help separate out spirituality from religion, but the truth is a lot of people still start with this connection.
Of course, faith and religion are often intertwined concepts, yet they carry distinct meanings. While religion typically refers to organized systems of beliefs, rituals, and practices shared by a community, faith transcends institutional boundaries and encompasses more of the deeply personal beliefs or trust in something greater than oneself that we have. For some, religion provides structure and a framework for expressing faith, often through adherence to doctrines and participation in communal worship. On the other hand, faith is an individual's inner conviction, guiding principles, and spiritual connection, which may or may not align with organized religious institutions.
What often gets lost in these debates is that one can have faith without being affiliated with any specific religion, and conversely, one can practice religion without necessarily embodying true faith. Faith is the essence of spirituality, reflecting a person's journey of seeking meaning, purpose, and transcendence in life, irrespective of religious affiliations. It's important to recognize and appreciate the diversity of expressions of faith and spirituality, beyond the confines of traditional religious institutions, as they play a vital role in shaping individuals' sense of identity, belonging, and well-being.
Now let me pause right here and say that I am not the expert in this space. I have many colleagues and friends who could talk about this much better than I. And even at this point in this post, have likely already pointed out a couple of areas that I could have said something different. That being said, my point here is that this is an important component of our health and well-being but doesn't get enough stage time.
In moments of despair, faith can help some by offering solace, resilience, and hope. Rooted in a deep sense of purpose and meaning, faith provides individuals with strength they may need to get through whatever may be going on. Moreover, faith communities can also offer a network of support and empathy, fostering a sense of belonging and solidarity. It’s not the answer for everyone, but for some, it is a tool, like other tools, that can be used to help.
Being a systems and policy guy, I often talk about the importance of place. I lift up all the places we need to be doing more mental health that we’re not. Religious institutions are one of those places. But talking about faith? It’s not usually on my systems map. It seems like faith is one of those super personal things that we overgeneralize and place into a category without giving a lot of attention to it in our plan. Approaching “the whole of health” allows for faith and spirituality to be teased out as another value that we have in our life which gives us meaning and purpose and contributes to our health and well-being.
Taking care of our spiritual health may seem like a foreign concept to many of us. In fact, in a previous job where our team was tasked with this, it wasn’t immediate what spiritual health meant and what we could do about it. We spent years talking it out.
Back to New Jersey.
After my session, this gentleman came up and thanked me for my answer, and challenged me to think more about this issue. Perhaps some of you have done some thinking on this issue yourself? The issue of belonging is a real one, and finding those points of purpose and meaning that keep us grounded are critically important. In fact, the literature would describe these as “protective factors,” which basically just reinforces how needed they are in our life, and when they are not there, problems emerge.
And next time any of you want recommendations on where to eat, work, walk while stranded in Terminal A at Newark, I’m your guy.
Well done, and a very important post! Your statement that spirituality and faith are vital to our health and well-being is right on. Both subjects are challenging to broach, talk about and explore. But as a systems guy (and a mental health expert), you have a unique advantage in understanding that these concepts cannot be ‘reduced’ to a single thing. Faith and spirituality are more fully understood and applied in our life when we take a constructionist approach. And "seeing" these interrelated concepts in context makes these conversations, and resulting required actions, much easier. Important work you are doing!