The Benefits of Spiritual Support in Cancer Care

Nurturing your spiritual well-being during cancer care may help you cope better with the disease. In response to this need, many medical institutions now include spirituality and prayer as important components of patient care, and offer on-site chapels and pastoral care staff.

During cancer care, spiritual well-being may improve your quality of life in the following ways:

• Reduce stress, anxiety, depression and discomfort
• Promote a sense of belonging, connectedness to others
• Reduce a sense of isolation, loneliness
• Improve ability to cope with cancer treatments
• Help find meaning in life and strengthen the will to live
• Stimulate self-awareness and personal growth
• Promote a positive mental attitude and outlook
• Provide a clearer life purpose, sense of inner peace
• Promote feelings of hope and empowerment

As you undergo cancer treatment, you may draw upon spirituality for understanding, wisdom and strength. Overall, a strong spiritual foundation may help turn despair into hope, fear into courage, loneliness into connectedness, helplessness into power, and brokenness into wholeness.

Tips for Nurturing Your Spirituality During Cancer Care

• Appreciate life.  Try not to focus on understanding why cancer came into your life, but rather on how to deal with it now that it is here. Acceptance, and forgiveness, can improve your outlook, and help you appreciate life, love, and family in a new way.
  
  
• Engage in self-discovery.  Ask yourself questions to discover what values, relationships and experiences in life have helped define you as a person. This can help you understand your place and purpose in life. The following are questions you can consider:
  
  
  • What brings me comfort?
  • What brings me joy?
  • What are my important relationships?
  • How have I dealt with difficult times/losses in my life?
  • What experiences are most memorable to me?
  • What gives me hope?
  
  
• Love yourself.  Recognize the goodness in yourself. Look inward at who you are and what makes you special. Appreciating who you are, and loving that person, can lead to an improved self-esteem and deepened sense of purpose in life.
  
  
• Nurture relationships with others.  Focus on relationships with those who are important to you, such as family and friends. Share the burden of this difficult time, as well as the joys of life's blessings, with them. Connecting with other people can help you feel less alone.
  
  
• Set personal goals. Try to figure out what is important to you, and what is most meaningful in your life, and make it a priority. Take part in activities that bring you joy and fulfillment. Finding a sense of meaning and purpose in the world can lead to personal growth, empowerment, and inner peace.
  
  
• Focus your thoughts. Try prayer, meditation and relaxation techniques to focus your thoughts and feelings. It may help to write down your thoughts in a journal. Moments of quite reflection can help you calm your mind and connect with your inner spirit.
  
  
• Seek out spiritual resources. Read prayers, scriptures, essays, inspirational stories, and/or attend religious services. Think about how the messages tie in with your personal values and beliefs. This can help you evaluate different philosophies of life so you can better understand your own.
  
  
• Share your journey. Seek out a trusted adviser, friend, or religious leader with similar spiritual beliefs. Sometimes other people may have insights that you haven't been able to discover on your own. Sharing ideas and learning from each other can help you gain a sense of belonging.
  
  
• Find a place to practice your spirituality. You may choose a church, temple, mosque, or other place of worship. You may also choose a quiet room in your home, or a peaceful place outdoors. Finding a space where you can be reflective can help cultivate your spirituality.
  
  
• Be open to new experiences. If you aren’t aligned with one already, you may decide to explore an organized religion. You may also consider a variety of faith traditions. Finding a spiritual direction may help you define your personal values and beliefs, and promote personal growth.
  
  

NOTE: THIS INFORMATION IS NOT INTENDED NOR IMPLIED TO BE A SUBSTITUTE FOR CANCER TREATMENT. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF YOUR PHYSICIAN OR OTHER QUALIFIED HEALTH PROVIDER REGARDING DECISIONS ABOUT YOUR TREATMENT.

Spiritual Support at CTCA

Cancer can challenge you on many levels—physical, emotional and spiritual. At Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA), we use an integrative approach to treat the whole person, not just the disease. Here, you have access to cancer experts who provide comprehensive, personalized cancer treatment. Yet, we also understand that your care should involve more than treatments alone.

At CTCA, we recognize that faith often helps carry people through difficult times. We also understand that spirituality is a very personal decision. Our Pastoral Care Department will work within your belief system to help you explore ways that spirituality can play a part in your healing.

When you first arrive at a CTCA hospital, you will have the opportunity to meet with a member of our pastoral care team. In the initial meeting, our chaplains will complete an individual spiritual assessment to learn about your religious preference, beliefs, and spiritual practices. Based upon your preferences and identified needs, we will incorporate spiritual support into your overall cancer treatment plan.

Whether or not you decide to seek spiritual support is completely up to you. Some patients are not interested in spiritual support at first and later decide to pursue it. Some do not pursue it at all because it does not suit their treatment needs.

Throughout your care, our chaplains are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for visitation, prayer, patient rights issues and counseling. Some of the spiritual programs and services we offer to you and your family include:

• New patient group orientation session
• Individual and group prayer
• Counseling by a faith representative of your choice
• Weekly interfaith worship and communion services
• Patient and caregiver classes that focus on healing, faith and life
• Family consultations
• Grief and bereavement counseling and referral
• Crisis intervention

Once you leave the hospital, our chaplains will continue to maintain contact with you over the phone to provide prayer and/or counsel (upon your request). In addition, CTCA offers a spiritual outreach program and website, called Our Journey of Hope^SM. The program offers cancer patients and their family members a spiritually supportive community. The website includes weekly devotionals, monthly sermons, cancer survivor testimonials, prayer support, an opportunity to connect with other people battling cancer, and articles on the connection between faith and healing.

At CTCA, the pastoral care team is here to provide you with warmth, love and belonging. We will respect your beliefs and support you in your own spiritual direction. Our goal is to help nurture your spiritual well-being so that you may find peace, comfort and meaning at a time when you need it most.

I hope this information has helped you in some way. I will check in with you again next month. In the meantime, stay strong and hopeful.