Searching for a path to help individuals reestablish their peace of mind that does not include drugs and their possible side effects or addiction, some scientists have been looking beyond just a biological basis for health and have been examining the effects of spirituality on our thinking and our health.
Their studies, such as University of Minnesota’s Dr. Ellen Burcheid’s study on kindness, show that feelings such as forgiveness, gratitude and love can fortify the immune system, as well as other health benefits.
Of course, this isn’t a new discovery. David, the Biblical Psalmist, concluded that there was a divine power that was the actual source of his thinking (see Psalms 139: 17, 18). It’s worth asking whether we need to look not inside ourselves, but outside ourselves–to a higher power–in order to be well physically and mentally.
That was the case with me. One night when I felt overwhelmed by intense panic, I asked a friend to pray with me. She spoke to me of the writings of David – especially his Psalm 23. She asked me to really think of God as the “shepherd” of my mind always imparting calm, comfort and stability to each of us. I began to feel a peace come over me until I fell asleep. I caught a glimpse that this shepherding presence of God is always with me.
While I was grateful for the night’s sleep, I knew that there was more that I needed to learn, because I didn’t want to feel continually susceptible to panic and fear. The writings of health researcher Mary Baker Eddy helped me gain an even deeper view of God as not only a source of comfort, but also the supreme and sole source of thinking. Eddy wrote, “God expresses in man the infinite idea forever developing itself, broadening and rising higher and higher from a boundless basis” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 258).
I realized that God was expressing in me the equilibrium, balance and peace I needed. And that these unlimited qualities keep developing in everyone. I began to feel more confidence, joy and accomplishment. Within a week the terrible anxiety left. It hasn’t returned, but the lesson has remained with me to continue to look outside of myself, to the Divine, for stability, joy, and happiness.
