نشریه سلامت معنوی
پیاپی 3 (زمستان 1401)

Chronic stress can reduce cognitive functions including short-term memory. Regulating caloric intake reduces the effects of chronic stress. Fasting, which is an important feature of spiritual health, is one of the ways to control calorie intake.

Twenty volunteers (6 females and 14 males) were included in the study after the initial examination and ensuring that there was no mental or underlying illness. The passat test was taken two days before Ramadan. The variables are the variables of general mental health, reaction speed, constant attention, cognitive error, and mental fatigue. Saliva samples were taken to determine the level of cortisol and the weight of the volunteers was recorded. The same tests were performed two days after Ramadan.

Saliva concentration of all individuals at the beginning of Ramadan was lower than at the end (P<0.05). General mental health of individuals increased after Ramadan (P<0.05). Also, response time, continuous attention, cognitive error, and mental fatigue improved after Ramadan compared to before, which was statistically significant (P<0.05). The participants' weight had decreased by 1400±200 g at the end of Ramadan.

This study showed that despite the increase in cortisol concentration due to fasting, all cognitive indicators in fasting people had improved and, therefore, Islamic fasting as an important indicator of spiritual health can help improve cognitive health.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is influenced by diet, stress, and lifestyle and is spreading globally. Severe physical symptoms, anxiety, and depression in this disease have caused the ineffectiveness of medical treatments. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between spiritual health and spiritual intelligence with the quality of life of patients with IBD in Yazd.

This descriptive-analytical study was conducted on IBD patients in Yazd city. The inclusion criteria were being over 18 years old, willing to participate in the study, having a history of ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease for more than 6 months, and not having cognitive disorders. Patients with irritable bowel syndrome were not included in the study. The data was collected by convenience sampling and using four questionnaires including demographic, King's Spiritual Intelligence Self-Report Inventory, Polotzin and Ellison's spiritual health questionnaire, and quality of life questionnaire (SF-36). SPSS version 26 was used for data analysis.

A total of 336 patients (87.5% response rate) were entered into the study. The mean quality of life scores was significantly higher in affected women and patients over 50 years old (P<0.05). The mean score of spiritual intelligence was insignificantly higher in female patients and patients aged between 30 and 40 years. The spiritual health means score was significantly higher in female patients and patients aged over 50 years. Quality of life had a significant positive correlation with Spiritual health (r=0.39) and with spiritual intelligence (r=0.20) (P<0.001).

Female patients had higher quality of life, spiritual intelligence, and spiritual health. Quality of life had a significant positive correlation with Spiritual health and spiritual intelligence. It is recommended to conduct more studies on the impact of spirituality on the quality of life in other chronic diseases.

The purpose of the research was to explain emotion management as a powerful tool in education and therapeutic interventions from a scientific and Islamic point of view. In this research, concepts related to emotion such as definitions of emotion, dimensions of emotion, emotional intelligence, regulation, and management of emotion, the relationship between emotion management, and spirituality, emotion management "anger" from the perspective of the verses of the Holy Quran and traditions and strategies for emotion management from the perspective of Islam were discussed. Managing and regulating emotion is one of the skills that, if realized, will reduce harm, increase health, and especially improve spiritual health in a person.

This is a review study. The studied society was the theories, views, and researches conducted in the field of the subject, which were searched with the keywords: emotion, management, treatment, education, and intervention. The sources used were the Holy Quran, books in the field of Islamic sources, and scientific articles related to this topic. ScienceDirect, Scopus, SID, Iranmedex, Magiran, Medline, and Proquest databases were used in this research.

The solutions proposed in this article from an Islamic point of view were 6 factors, which include sublimation, changing position as a place factor, role-playing, patience as a time factor, emotional discharge in a safe space (Catharsis), and physiological change (Physiological change). Also, in this research, the necessity of emotional regulation and management was brought up in the two fields of education and therapy.

In this research, the topic of emotion management was analyzed from a scientific point of view and according to the religion of Islam and verses and traditions, as a result of which a 6-factor model of emotion regulation and management strategies was presented according to verses and traditions. Emotion management and regulation helps a person to evaluate how and when emotion occurs in situations and the amount of emotional projection is proportional to the amount of stimulus. Many unfortunate events, crimes, accidents, and physical and mental injuries are the result of problems in emotion management skills, and in fact, mastering emotion management tools will have the aspect of preventing harm in society. At the same time, the solutions of Islam are very scientific and practical and can be implemented in life situations.

As approved by the World Health Organization, spiritual health is one of the four dimensions of health (physical, mental, social, and spiritual). Many countries have noticed this health dimension and have introduced it in the fields of education, research, and healthcare services. However, this important dimension of health in our country has not been given serious and detailed attention so far. This is despite the fact that the dimension of spirituality, from the perspective of Islam, is the deepest dimension of human existence and can have the greatest and most profound effects on other dimensions of human existence. Based on this concern, it has been more than ten years since the Academy of Medical Sciences of the Islamic Republic of Iran established the "Islamic Spiritual Health Group" and has made prominent thinkers from the university and the seminary a member of the group, and it has done important and effective activities including conducting research and authoring books, writing scientific articles and textbooks, publishing journals, holding conferences, seminars and scientific workshops, scientific collaborations with other institutions, etc. This article aims to briefly explain Islamic spiritual health, introduce the activities of the Islamic Spiritual Health Group of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and most importantly, transfer the experiences of more than a decade of managing this field to the institutions, thinkers and those concerned in the field of spiritual health.

Spiritual health is a common field in human health from both a conventional point of view which is based on positivism and is introduced by the world health organization (WHO) and another point of view which is not limited to materialism and physical experience and is based on the Islamic view of the universe and also common sense and human wisdom.

In the present study, we are looking for the position of spiritual health in the health as a whole regarding all four dimensions of mankind's existence, i.e. physical (vegetable), emotional (animal), rational (angelical), and spiritual (divine) dimensions in the later view.

Although, Spiritual health can be equalized to health in all three non-physical existential dimensions i.e. emotional, rational, and divine dimensions, but, spiritual health, in a more precise view, is just limited to health in only the divine dimension of mankind. However, physical, psychological, social, and spiritual health, recognized by WHO, is only promoted when it is accompanied by a more complete recognition of existential dimensions, for meeting all needs of human beings, health.

Overall, it can be concluded that spiritual health is just limited to health in only the divine dimension of mankind.

Prioritization is an important process in the research management of countries, which is doubly important, especially when allocating limited financial and human resources. Failure to observe the values and ethics in decision-making causes great harm to the individual and society. Meanwhile, values based on divine culture can optimize the decision-making system and make it healthy and simple. The purpose of this study is to identify and determine research priorities in the field of spiritual health.

The method of the present study is a classical Delphi qualitative method according to its subject and purpose. The statistical population in the present study is experts in the field of spiritual health from researchers, university professors, seminary, and the views of thinkers in this field. From the statistical population, 40 people have been identified, whose proportions have been adjusted and the sampling method has been purpose-based. After collecting through the content analysis method, SPSS software was used to analyze the frequency percentage and MAXQUDA software was used to separate the indicators and explain the relationships between the experts' views.

Based on the results, 15 Required research methods, 15 theoretical bases in the study of spiritual health, 15 research gaps on the subject of spiritual health, and 12 major harms of lack of spiritual health in the individual, family, and social spheres by experts and elites in the field of Islamic spiritual health were raised.

The results of the interviews showed that research methods, despite their many advantages, also have disadvantages. Main theoretical foundations in the study of spiritual health include the field of philosophy and theology, psychology and education, sociology, law, and medicine, which are of great importance according to experts.

Spiritual health, as one of the most important aspects of human health, emphasizes the nature and truth of existence, a sense of acceptance, positive emotions, ethics, monotheistic faith, piety, prayer, worship, belief in resurrection, mutual relationship with God, others, and oneself. On the other hand, human beings are always on the path of discovery and meaning-seeking. In the meantime, traveling as one of the main examples of spirituality, which is emphasized a lot in Islamic verses and traditions, provides a platform for human movement, which humans use today to escape from everyday life. Therefore, this question is raised considering the importance of travel in Islam on the one hand and the necessity of realizing spiritual health on the other hand, what is the role of travel on spiritual health?.

In this research, the role of travel in tourist spiritual health has been performed in a qualitative manner, descriptive-analytical method, using library resources and interviews with experts.

 The results of the studies indicate that despite the limited studies in this field, travel plays an important role in ensuring human spiritual health. Traveling in its essential meaning, according to the emphasis of the religion of Islam, is a substantial factor in realizing the most important dimension of human health i.e spiritual health which can be analyzed by its components.

Emphasizing the axis of movement and communication, travel is considered an important factor in human interaction with the self, the environment, and other human beings, which results in longitudinal communication with the Creator of the universe and on the path to excellence.