"Health is a complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." This definition of health was adopted by WHO, with its first World Health Assembly meeting held on April 7, 1948. The World Health Day is being celebrated on 7th of April each year since 1950. The aim to celebrate this day internationally appeared to create awareness among people of different nationalities, cultures, regions, and religions about health and making government and other organizations sensitive on the issues and importance of health. Though in most developing and some developed countries the problems and importance of health still cannot get sufficient attention of governments, communities, and people because of many reasons.
The present WHO definition of health has many critics, but still, it has widely accepted and standard definition of human health. The modern concept of health evolved with the development of human civilization. We can say the holistic idea of health is not new. We can see it in different forms in old traditional systems of medicine in different parts of the world from ancient times. With the rapid development of modern scientific medicine in last few centuries, the approach to health became more elitist and disease-centric. Therefore, it is criticized for an absence of a human approach in its dealing with our health, but at the same time the modern medicine provides new dimensions for our understanding of human health and open new doors for further explorations.
The whole concept of health is a dynamic human thought process about its health. It depends on various factors; those are individual, social, cultural, religious, beliefs, economic factors. It reflects in the present holistic definition of health. We can see the concept of health as a highly evolved human thought which is a result of our collective human thought processes. It makes the health and its issues global. The demands of equality in its availability and accessibility across the different section of communities in different nations across the globe are the results of the collective human thought process behind this concept. People consider adding 'Spiritual Health' as the fourth dimension to the other three aspects in the modern definition of health.
'Spirituality' and 'Spiritual Thought Processes' are considered synonymous with 'Religiosity' and 'Religious Thought Processes' which is fallacious. If we see the timeline of the evolution of human thought processes, we will find that the spiritual thought processes are highly evolved thought processes, and it is found only in human beings, while other thought processes have their origin in our ancestors in the animal kingdom and now we have evolved forms of those. The humanity and human values and all related thoughts are the products of spiritual thought processes in the human brain. Our spiritual thought processes and resulting thoughts of spirituality have the peculiar characteristics of controlling and correcting the negativities of other thought processes including religious, scientific, cultural and philosophic thought processes.
Therefore, the concept of human health is a spiritual thought, so it is the product of spirituality and spiritual thought processes. 'Spiritual Health' helps in maintaining our different thought processes on the positive side, by correcting and controlling negative thoughts in our religious, scientific, cultural and philosophic thought processes. The spiritual thought processes work as thought healers. It helps in creating the thoughts of humanity and human values. Spiritual Health helps in maintaining our physical, mental and social health by creating the positive shift in our biochemistry and physiology. It helps in decreasing negative thoughts of hatred, conflicts, violence, and anxieties in communities, societies, and groups so it can assist in creating and maintaining positive social and mental health.
Dr. Mahesh Bhatt.
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