Amid all of the catastrophes, calamities, wars, and disasters that we regularly hear about, it was heartening to see in Tuesday’s ArlingtonPatch an article about a group of teens from St. Paul Lutheran Church who are putting into practice what they’ve learned in the Bible.  Loving their neighbor as themselves.  How?  They’re making quilts for the needy.

Perhaps a small act in the scale of things, but I suspect an indication of similar or even larger efforts happening all around the world as we each become increasingly aware of our interconnectedness.

I think that we can all agree that the Internet is often a wonderful tool for finding the information we need.  But it’s also great for detecting new trends. 

And one of those trends that I’ve been observing is the beginnings of a shift to a more spiritual approach to life and how we perceive ourselves, each other, and the planet that we call home. 

It’s a change that appears to be on the verge of impacting all areas of our lives—mental, emotional, relationship, employment, educational, and even health itself.

Just the other day I read a CNNHealth blog by Elizabeth Cohen (“Blaming others can ruin your health”) about how new medical research is finding that holding on to negative emotions and thoughts can indeed have seriously adverse health consequences.

Dr. Charles Raison, clinical director of the Mind-Body Program at Emory University School of Medicine and CNNHealth’s mental health expert was quoted as saying:

The data that negative mental states cause heart problems is just stupendous… The data is just as established as smoking, and the size of the effect is the same.

Yes, you read that right!  A negative state of thought causing heart problems—on the same order as smoking.

Thought affecting our health. 

Going a step further: new research is also showing that spiritual thought can have health benefits. 

Here’s a good example from the same CNN article.

Kevin Benton, an African-American, who was racially bullied by fellow students while in college, began to feel bitterness towards them.  That bitterness eventually led to him being hospitalized with a heart condition that often leads to fatality among young people—a disease that causes thickening of the muscles of the heart. 

As he lay in his bed, unable to walk, immersed in resentment and bitterness, something remarkable happened.  Ms. Cohen writes:

Just then, a janitor walked by and grabbed Benton's hand, and prayed aloud to God to heal him. "As soon as she said, 'Amen,' I felt like someone had poured cold water on my head and made my heart shrink," he says.

Benton understood what he needed to do.  He forgave those bullies.  Three days later he walked out of the hospital well. 

Astounding?  Perhaps, but from what I’ve experienced not necessarily unexpected.

Loving our neighbor as ourselves.  A thought so simple.  A thought so spiritual.

A thought that blesses us all—our entire world family.