Fostering Our Spirituality

 

“Spiritual activities such as prayer,

contemplation, and meditation

can reduce stress, promote a healthier

lifestyle, and intensify

our sense of belonging.

Spirituality can also have a

positive effect on brain activity.”

Robert Sherfield

 

Building a spiritual connection can provide strength and hope during difficult times. It can serve as a reminder that good and beautiful things co-exist in a world that also includes violence and suffering. Getting in touch with divinity is the essence of one’s soul, an individual’s innermost nature, and represents the synergy in all things, animate and inanimate. Spirituality does not only represent tolerance and acceptance, it is the feeling of universal oneness and unity in diversity and includes an awareness of the connectedness of all that is. All of life has meaning and purpose and is accordingly blessed. Spirituality is defined as the animating force in life, symbolized by breath, wind, vigor, and courage and can be considered an active and passive process. It is usually personal between us and divinity and is a way in which we take care of ourselves, and gain a better under-standing of who we are.

When we engage ourselves spiritually, we can explore our gifts, strengths, and strive to seek peace, harmony and a deeper understanding of the universe, meaning our personal connection with our higher power. It is a way in which we take care of ourselves, and gain a better understanding of who we are (Berbaum, 2007).

            To address spiritual deficiencies, we can explore our cultural roots to enhance our spiritual connections. According to tribal ancestors, spirituality was of the utmost importance and needed to be nurtured starting at a young age. Children were taught to become aware of their dreams and learn how to examine the latent and manifest messages portrayed by their dreams. Vision quests, fasting and other forms of communicating with one’s higher power were strongly encouraged.

            A belief that is supported by those who practiced a traditional form of spirituality is that everyone is given gifts from the universe at birth to use as medicine for the mind, body, heart and spirit. These sacred gifts are: Respect, Humility, Compassion, Honesty, Truth, Wisdom, and Love.  Each gift comes with a teaching which offers direction and guidance in finding balance and purpose in life by:

      ·         Acceptance of who we are as individuals, and members of our families and communities.

·         Understanding our responsibilities.

·       Doing what we are supposed to do with the best of our abilities (Buckingham and Clifton, 2011). 

    Elders and other adult males and females imparted teachings to prepare youth for their path in life.  It was important to learn how to live in a gentle way with humbleness and respect accomplished through prayer, fasting, and listening to everything and being open for what our spirit guides are trying to teach us. The beliefs associated with the path of life included the following:

      ·         Honor Gitchi Manito (The Creator).

·         Honor elders.

·         Honor our elder brothers (all animals are considered to be elder brothers because they were here before humans, and they are relied upon for teachings, as well as for sustenance).

·         Honor women.

·         Keep promises and uphold pledges.

·         Show kindness to everyone.

·         Be peaceful in body and spirit.

·         Be courageous.

·         Be moderate in dreams, thoughts, words and deeds (Peacock and Wisuri, 2002).

 

            Spirituality is unique and personal and can be achieved in many ways, from belonging to a church, a walk in the woods, prayer, meditation, practicing yoga, to participating in a 12 Step program. Cognitive Dissonance is referred to as any idea, belief or practice that is contrary to our actual beliefs. There are so many contradictory messages portrayed in religious practices. We are told to fear God; but at the same time we are told fear demonstrates a lack of faith.

            If you find comfort in attending organized religious practices because of the support obtained from having a connection with the congregation and church leaders, by all means continue this practice. However, be careful not to fall into the guilt and shame traps. We need to build up a personal system in which we protect ourselves by gaining a good understanding of what our values are and we can take what we need from each church service and leave the rest. Attending religious services does not ensure that we are addressing our spiritual needs. We cannot replace our spirituality with religion. They are not one in the same.

Religion is generally associated with a body of people adhering to a particular set of beliefs, practices, rituals and theory, and religion provides guidance for moral behaviors and can be limiting in focus. Many religions demonstrate adherence for attendance and membership. Re-ligion is considered a belief in a higher power, the supernatural and is associated to an outside organization such as a church or synagogue. Spirituality is inborn and exclusive to all people, and represents a tendency to move towards knowledge, love, meaning, hope, transcendence, connectedness, and compassion. 

Beliefs have power to guide our actions and behaviors, either positive or negative. We need to examine what beliefs are working in our lives and leading us down the right path and what beliefs have been destructive. Our spiritual beliefs can guide us on how to view matters such as death to understanding the meaning of life, faith and trust, trust that important element in any healthy relation-ship. Our spiritual beliefs are usually the most avid gauge of our actions and behaviors. Our self-esteem is associated with our spiritual beliefs. When we act in a way that is in agreement with our beliefs, we feel elated, when we act against our beliefs it is detrimental to our well-being.

Spirituality and self-esteem are key ingredients concerning character development. They serve as a road map when interacting with others. People with ingrained spiritual beliefs carry themselves with deep sincerity of character.  When we have maintained a strong character base we behave the same way when we are alone as we do in the company of others. Character can be described as how we would act if all of a sudden there were no policies or consequences for our behaviors. We are free to treat anyone however we wanted without taking responsibility. I have viewed television shows and movies in which the police were busy or distracted from policing specific areas so there was looting. The individuals stealing others’ property did not have strong character. 

We all know people who are poor in character.  They are the people we can’t trust. These individuals make decisions based on how the outcomes will affect them and can be extremely self-serving. They don’t keep their pro-mises, do not tell the truth, they do horrible things to others to get ahead, and do not respect the needs and wants of others. A person of character accepts responsibility for his or her actions and does not place blame on others for their own wrongdoings. They do not take the credit due to others. A person of character treats everyone fairly (Sherfield, 2004).

The native people were treated poorly when Colum-bus thought he arrived in the West Indies. Did Columbus have strong character and in-grained spiritual beliefs? Did the caregivers at the Indian boarding schools have strong character with solid spiritual beliefs when they abused the children at these institutions?

Enhancing our spirituality can provide us inner strength and hope. Our spirituality is unique to each and every one of us and reminds us that we can co-exist in a world filled with good and suffering. A life force does exist that makes things grow, makes rain, rivers, mountain ranges, and the perfect banana. Childbirth is another representation of the miracle and mystery of life. We need to examine what is working in our lives and what is not concerning our beliefs and establish a deep-seated understanding of what our values are. We need to work diligently to prevent ourselves from doing things which go against our values. It is also important to explore and nurture our spirituality to enhance and/or maintain our self-esteem and build a strong character if our character is broken.

 

Remnants of a Shattered Past

 

Lost in the folds of deception

laced with faulty perceptions,

avoidance of responsibility,

no praise for amazing resiliency.

The use of substances to numb the pain,

slipping quietly into the rain.

Depression is only part of the solution.

Desperation not leading to resolution.

Facing the angst of despair,

caseworkers try to repair,

the damage done by the unaware.

 

Oppression forced one to pick a side,

while others were along for the ride.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Shame and

Malignant Trauma,

a large part of this unresolved drama.

 

Who’s willing to step up to the plate

for those who cannot afford to wait?

Historical trauma has taken its toll,

while Indian people were forced into

                        a subservient role.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oppression represents financial gain

for those avoiding distain.

Establishment of another poor working class,

many more ceilings made of glass.

The use of substances to numb the pain,

slipping quietly into the rain.

 

 

 

A 1970 Law Led to the Mass Sterilization of Native American Women. That History Still Matters.

 

https://time.com/5737080/native-american-sterilization-history/?fbclid=IwAR29sZRLpjTHpnnF14h1cU7G-0S4gSKHlncGCH6etCgY1gUFhJ75lRSmPaM

·       

·      HISTORY 

·      OPINION

·      A 1970 LAW LED TO THE MASS STERILIZATION OF NATIVE AMERICAN WOMEN. THAT HISTORY STILL MATTERS 

A Navajo woman walks towards her hogan on the Navajo Indian Reservation between Chinle and Ganado, Ariz., in August of 1970.

 

Bettmann/Getty Images

BY BRIANNA THEOBALD

 

UPDATED: NOVEMBER 28, 2019 11:47 AM ET | ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: NOVEMBER 27, 2019 11:00 AM EST

Marie Sanchez, chief tribal judge on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation, arrived in Geneva in 1977 with a clear message to deliver to the United Nations Convention on Indigenous Rights. American Indian women, she argued, were targets of the “modern form” of genocide—sterilization.

Over the six-year period that had followed the passage of the Family Planning Services and Population Research Act of 1970, physicians sterilized perhaps 25% of Native American women of childbearing age, and there is evidence suggesting that the numbers were actually even higher. Some of these procedures were performed under pressure or duress, or without the women’s knowledge or understanding. The law subsidized sterilizations for patients who received their health care through the Indian Health Service and for Medicaid patients, and black and Latina women were also targets of coercive sterilization in these years.

But while Sanchez and the Native women with whom she organized responded to the results of that 1970 law, they also recognized that the fight against involuntary sterilization was one of many intertwined injustices rooted—as was their resistance—in a much longer history of U.S. colonialism. And that history continues to this day.

When the federal government forced Native peoples onto reservations in the 19th century, the situation produced a cascade of public-health disasters. By 1900, the American Indian population had reached its nadir of less than a quarter million. Infants and children proved particularly vulnerable to illness and death. One government official estimated in 1916 that approximately three-fifths of Indian infants died before age 5. On many reservations, women responded by bearing more children despite their compromised health. The historian Frederick Hoxie has argued that “only the maintenance of extraordinarily high birth rates” saved one nation from “dropping into oblivion.”

As Native peoples confronted the hardships of reservation life, the federal government embarked on a campaign to assimilate—or Americanize—them. Rather than killing Indians through physical violence, as had been a hallmark of federal policies into the 1870s, politicians and reformers set out to kill off all markers of Indianness: language, clothing, and cultural and spiritual practices. In this context, the federal government criminalized Native healers and disparaged midwives and their birthing knowledge. Under pressure, ceremonial practices, including women’s coming-of-age ceremonies, were circumscribed, driven underground or ceased.

Treaties signed before 1871, and executive orders and other agreements thereafter, established federal responsibility for the provision of health care for tribal members. As the poor health conditions plaguing many reservations became more difficult for the federal government to ignore, the Office of Indian Affairs began constructing rudimentary hospitals, which employees encouraged Native women to use for childbirth. By the 1950s, when the Indian Health Service was created, the vast majority of Native women gave birth in hospitals—at rates that nearly reached national levels.

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In these same years, however, the federal government closed some reservation hospitals and threatened to close more, as politicians chipped away at federal services that benefited only Indians. Their ultimate objective, although never realized, was to absolve the federal government of any responsibility for Indian affairs. Some of the sterilization procedures that Marie Sanchez and others protested in the 1970s occurred in remaining reservation hospitals, while others took place in off-reservation hospitals the federal government had contracted to provide health services for tribal members.

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For her part, Sanchez did not lose momentum after her return from the United Nations. The following year, she was a founding member of the Women of All Red Nations, or WARN, an organization led by Native women, and she soon joined the advisory board of the National Women’s Health Network. By the end of the decade, advocacy by Native women and other women of color resulted in the adoption of federal regulations that offered women some protections from unwanted sterilization procedures. The new regulations required, for example, an extended waiting period—from 72 hours to 30 days—between consent and an operation.

But Native women’s reproductive autonomy was constrained in other ways. Since the late 1970s, the Hyde Amendment has prohibited federal funding for abortion services with few exceptions. The amendment hinders the ability of all low-income women to terminate a pregnancy and disproportionately affects women of color, but it discriminates against Native women specifically because they are entitled to receive health services from a federal agency.

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From the establishment of the first government hospitals, Native women—as nurses and other staff, as members of tribal health committees, and as activists—have struggled to ensure that these institutions met patients’ needs. But non-Native hospital staff’s openness to Native healing practices has varied over time and by institution, and reservation hospitals have been consistently underfunded. In recent years, some hospitals have reduced or eliminated obstetric services, forcing women to drive up to two hours to give birth. Drive time, as public health researchers emphasize, directly affects outcomes.

This history matters. It matters because it continues to affect Native maternal and infant health outcomes. It matters because today Native American women continue a rich legacy of advocating for the health and well-being of their communities. At a congressional briefing session on Native maternal and reproductive health earlier this year, Native experts advocated policy changes such as the repeal of the Hyde Amendment. They insisted that the Indian Health Service be held accountable for providing quality health care to tribal members. They called for greater resources for community and grassroots organizations that are already providing culturally oriented maternal and reproductive health care.

This history matters because knowledge of historical injustices can be a crucial ingredient in working toward a more just future.