Tag Archives: Christian Science

When the Doctor Calls, Do They Ask If You Pray?

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You can also read this post on my weekly syndicated blog, “Health Conscious” at MetroWest Daily News.

physician 2Patient-centered care is the buzzword in the healthcare industry.

More people today are online, asking questions, finding their own path to treatment and healthy outcomes. They’re also recognizing the value of treatment that considers them as more than just a bunch of moving parts, but recognizes their spiritual and emotional well-being as well.

Still, this trend may may not be catching on yet everywhere, specifically with the senior population and in clinical settings.

My friend Dara recently flew a few states away to be with her elderly father in the hospital after a minor operation. It quickly became apparent just how vital her presence was to advocate for his care. Continue reading →

Tea Breaks and Scientific Breakthroughs

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Shippey crop

 

Guest-blogger Kim Shippey has worked as a broadcast journalist in many countries. He is now a full-time writer and editor with the Christian Science Sentinel, a weekly print and online publication.

British physicist and theologian Sir John Polkinghorne wasTea Cup 2 awarded the Templeton Prize in 2002 for his “exceptional contributions to affirming life’s spiritual dimension.”

As a college major in mathematics, who spent several years drenched in scientific reasoning and analysis, my understanding of the connection between science and religion was strengthened by Sir John’s observations.

At the same time, my experience with spiritual healing in Christian Science was confirming that life’s spiritual dimension provides a sense of well-being and good health that far exceeds anything I learned during those “all-nighters” at college.

I especially liked Sir John’s seemingly lighthearted approach to boiling a tea kettle. You can look at it as a scientist, he said, appreciating how the heating element in the stove causes the water molecules to move more rapidly within the kettle, which in turn becomes sufficient to push the vapor pressure of the water higher than the atmospheric pressure, and the water boils. Or you can simply say that the kettle is boiling because someone wants a cup of tea! Continue reading →

Women’s History Month: Mary Baker Eddy as a Pioneer in Health Care

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March is Women’s History month. This year’s theme, according to the National Women’s History Project site: Women’s Education – Women’s Empowerment, recognizes the pioneering leadership of women and their impact on the diverse areas of education. The following blog honors an extraordinary 19th century woman who made significant contributions to spiritual and religious education as a teacher, writer, and leader.

Mary Baker Eddy circa 1882-1883 around the time she moved from Lynn, Massachusetts to Boston.

Mary Baker Eddy circa 1882-1883 around the time she moved from Lynn, Massachusetts to Boston.

Mary Baker Eddy was no ordinary woman. Behind her Victorian-era velvet and lace dress was a 21st century power suit.  At a time when women could not vote, rarely preached from a pulpit or took part in medical professions, Eddy’s work in the healthcare arena broke through the glass ceiling that had yet to become a metaphor. Her ideas as an author, pastor, teacher, and healer charted the path for current thought on consciousness and health today. And in more ways than one, they still lead the way.

After a series of disappointments, including the passing of her first husband and the eventual desertion of her second, Eddy was mid-life and suffering from her own chronic ill-health. This prompted her to investigate alternative healthcare methods, rather than resorting to the harsh treatments and side-effects of conventional 19th-century medicine. She tried diets, hydropathy, homeopathy and what are now known as placebo treatments–and she found some relief. But her most important conclusion from all of her investigations was that what a patient believes is directly related to the healing results they see.

Read the full blog on the National Women’s History site: http://www.nwhp.org/blog/?p=1419

For more information visit the Mary Baker Eddy Library website.

Kick Off Your Boots For Work-Life Balance

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© GLOW IMAGES

© GLOW IMAGES

You can also read this post on my syndicated blog, “Health Conscious” for the MetroWest Daily News.

She eased out of her cowboy boots, positioned her red purse and settled into the economy class aisle seat next to me, legs crossed and laptop perched on her knees. Classic sign of a writer. I complimented her on her boots and we agreed they were the perfect accessory for all things: jeans, dresses, air travel, being a mom. Easy on, easy off. And of course stylish.

She was a journalist, trying to finish a story on wolves before we landed in Boston.  Our conversation turned to the delicate balance of work and home life, as two women raising kids and nurturing full-time jobs.

Just that day she’d turned down a promotion because, as she put it, she had it good already: women managers who “got her.”  They understood her need for flexibility and knew her proven ability to always get the job done.

The night before she’d crafted something shy of one hundred Continue reading →

Seniors Turn Their Backs on the Clock

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February is National Senior Independence month. The following is a continuation of a previous blog I posted on baby boomers and includes excerpts from a conversation I had with Beverly Lunsford, a nurse of 40 years and current Director of the Center For Aging, Health and Humanities at George Washington University. (You can also read Baby Boomers Redefine Aging Part I and II in the March 4 edition of the Christian Science Sentinel weekly magazine.)

© GLOW IMAGES Model is used for illustrative purposes.

© GLOW IMAGES Model is used for illustrative purposes.

The common expectation of declining health in later years isn’t so set in stone.

By 2020, the population of Americans age 55 to 64 will have grown an unprecedented 73 percent since 2000. And as the population ages, people are proving that a trip around the sun doesn’t have to limit their ability to continue to enjoy life and add value to their community and the world.

A New England woman proved this in the early 20th century. Mary Baker Eddy broke the odds for women and seniors in her day when she founded the international newspaper, The Christian Science Monitor in 1908 at the age of 87. She demonstrated the wisdom of her own words: “Men and women of riper years and larger lessons ought to ripen into health and immortality, instead of lapsing into darkness or gloom.” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures)

These ideas are echoed in the comments of Ken Dychtwald, president and CEO of the consulting firm AgeWave, who moderated the Aging in America Conference last April. In a Huff Post article Dychtwald said: “Today a new model of life is emerging. . . We are thinking of people as beginners again and again.”

Beverly Lunsford shares this premise. A nurse of 40 years and current Director of the Continue reading →

A Fireside Chat About Your True Self

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Today’s guest blog is written by Kim Shippey, an avid reader and devoted husband, father, and grandfather. He is a full-time writer and editor with the Christian Science Sentinel, a weekly print and online publication.

Apart from my daily prayer practice, which includes studying the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, no book I’ve read in recent weeks has given me a stronger sense of spiritual and physical well-being–of identity, belonging, direction, and purpose–than Richard Rohr’s Immortal Diamond: The Search for Our True Self (Jossey-Bass, 2013)

Spending time with this founding director of the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is a bit like–forgive me!– being invited by a new friend to settle in front of a Rohring fire and share stories. Continue reading →

Part II: A Baby Boomer Redefines Aging

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 ”Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-make you so that your whole attitude of mind is changed” (Romans 12: 2).

Honor at the start of the half marathon in England.

That is certainly what Honor Hill from Dallas, Texas is doing. She’s a practitioner of Christian Science and for many years gave public lectures on a spiritual view of aging. She’s still working, alongside her relatively new pursuit of training and participating in marathons. We recently chatted over the phone about her thoughts on the topic.

“In my lectures I often said, ‘We know that old is the opposite of young. But old is also the opposite of new.’ I would then challenge the audience to think about what they did to grow new every day. Because to experience something new every day is to embrace life.”

Honor says our limitations are truly mental in nature and that we’ve come a long way since Continue reading →

Put a “Be” before Healthy

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So often the emphasis is on the “doing” not the “being” when it comes to caring for one’s health. People do all sorts of things, from taking daily medications to undergoing treatments and procedures to find out if they are healthy or not. Yet despite all these efforts, health can still be illusive.

All this emphasis on the doing is adding up to a high-cost health care system in the U.S. According to a recent New York Times article, “When it comes to medical care, many patients and doctors believe more is better. But an epidemic of overtreatment — too many scans, too many blood tests, too many procedures — is costing the nation’s health care system at least $210 billion a year, according to the Institute of Medicine, and taking a human toll in pain, emotional suffering, severe complications and even death.”

I know a woman who juggles a busy family life and active career, while staying physically fit and involved in her community. She recently went through several routine cancer screenings that resulted in a very stressful few weeks. She had a hard time sleeping and Continue reading →

Life Lessons from Near Death Experiences

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The following guest blog is written by my friend Steve Graham. Much of his career as an editor has been centered on spiritual reporting. He writes from his home in Natick, MA.

For a long time, I’ve been interested in so-called near death experiences (NDEs). I’ve read Dr. Raymond Moody’s well-known book “Life After Life,” which reports the results of over 100 case studies on people who were revived after having been pronounced clinically dead.

The amazing consistency in what those people have told about their experiences–including a recognition of disembodiment, of

traveling through some sort of interim passage, of perceiving increasingly bright light, of emerging into a realm of unspeakable beauty, of meeting loved family and friends who had already died–has seemed to me quite remarkable.

The way in which these NDEs corroborate the existence of an omnipotent and eternal Supreme Being has only served to increase my faith that the teachings of the Bible and so many other sacred texts, and specifically my own Christian Science faith, are not contradicted but validated, not at odds but speaking in unison. Continue reading →

Veteran’s Day and the Mental Health of Soldiers

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News & Culture: Today is Veteran’s Day in the United States. Not to be confused with Memorial Day, when servicemen and women who lost their lives to war are honored, Veteran’s Day celebrates all the women and men who have served our country’s military.

Many of these men and women return home forever changed, dealing with health issues such as PTSD, chronic pain, and loss of limbs. There’s a startling statistic I came across recently: in the last year more veterans have lost their lives due to non-combat wounds than any other factor.

One of the leading causes of death? Suicide.

But there’s been a gradual awakening. With traditional approaches not working, such as Continue reading →