Dr. Tammie’s Recommendation of the Month! The Awakened Brain: The New Science of Spirituality and our Quest for an Inspired Life By Lisa Miller, PhD
I spend a lot of time thinking about how we can all live a better life as women physicians – in a profession that has trained us to always feel we are not enough.
I want a life of true, vibrant whole-person Well-Being for all of us – meaningful friends and relationships, purposeful work but not too much of it, and good emotional, physical, mental and spiritual well-being. And yet, it’s become uncomfortable to even bring up the word “spirituality” in our medical world today. The importance of our own spiritual well-being as physicians is the key area that is completely overlooked in our healthcare wellness movement today – and it is sorely needed.
I first learned of Dr. Miller’s book The Awakened Brain: The New Science of Spirituality and our Quest for an Inspired Life during my solo trip to Canyon Ranch Woodside this past spring and enjoyed reading passages during my quiet time that weekend. And then I had the opportunity to meet and hear Dr. Miller speak at the Joy and Wholeness Summit in July.
One of the very first psychologists to study and publish the link between mental health and spirituality while at the NIH in the 1990s, Dr. Miller has now shown throughout her research career that having a spiritual core is 80% protective against substance dependence and use disorder, 60% protective against major depressive disorder, and confers a 50-80% decreased risk of suicidality. And as humans, 100% of us are born spiritual beings – regardless of whether we believe in a specific religion later in life.
Dr. Miller’s talk at the Summit was for me the most powerful talk that entire week. As physicians, we have a strong core identity as physicians and a shared calling to heal the sick. Our purpose, our inner calling and knowing, is deeply linked to our spirituality.
Our spiritual core is a muscle. It lies inherently deep within each of us, and it takes practice and intention to build its strength. Neglected, it atrophies. Tended to – it grows.
In our high stress, high pressure, fast paced work today as physicians, we feel we have little time for our own personal care needs, let alone connecting to our spiritual core throughout our days packed full of patients, meetings, charting, and a million other tasks. But even a brief few seconds connecting to our spiritual center – our intuition and deep purpose – is sacred in itself. Without acknowledging the spiritual being within each of us, we are ignoring one of the most powerful sources of healing possible – our own capacity to heal ourselves.
I am agonistic – I always have been, and a person of science – and I know I am also a deeply spiritual person. This powerful book helps us to realize the power of leaning into our spiritual growth as the secret to true whole-person well-being – and the key to what will sustain us over our long careers as physicians and healers.
I hope you enjoy this book as much as I have.
With all my love,
❤️Tammie
