Neglecting Spirituality Is Harmful To Your Health

Lori Moulton Booty
6 min readJul 6, 2022

How you can release, worry and improve your health by starting your own spirituality practice.

Woman sitting on a rock, looking out over the ocean.
Photo courtesy of Pexels for Canva

The Difference Between Spirituality and Religion

There is a difference between spirituality and religion. Religion is a set of rules and practices shared by a community or group of people. Spirituality is more of a personal practice created to find peace and purpose in life. Both are trusting in a Higher Power, and both are powerful, but we’ll be discussing spirituality in this article.

Spirituality and the Benefits to Your Health

Harold G. Koenig reviewed studies from 1872 to 2010. He found that spirituality/religion had significant health benefits. People that were more spiritual or religious had better physical health, lower risk of disease, and a better response to treatment.

Take, for example, the recent illness that many people around the globe have been dealing with. Some specialists believe that people who feared the illness became more stressed, and therefore suffered worse symptoms. Those, who reported a lower level of spiritual well-being, reported a lower level of perceived mental health.

These things may cause you to abandon spirituality, but ironically, faith in a Higher Power, can help you feel better.

  • Fear — from media exposure
  • Not taking responsibility for your own health, and instead relying on ‘experts’, doctors, and health gurus to decide the best option for you.
  • Not trusting/having faith in a Higher Power

I’m Not Dismissing the Medical Community, by Any Means

Don’t misunderstand, I believe the medical community is extremely important in our health, but often, there are differing opinions about treatment. I’ll share my own son’s health story as an example. He was having terrible headaches. One day, in his senior year, the school nurse called me to come get him because she didn’t feel like he should drive. She commented on how little she had seen him throughout his four years at the school, so she knew it must be really painful. I knew, too, because he…

Lori Moulton Booty

Certified Transformational Coach, Masters in School Counseling, Teacher, helping others heal from emotionally abusive relationships and build self-love..