Spiritual wellbeing
This pillar is about spiritual fulfillment: finding our inner meaning and purpose, understanding our moral values and what we hold most important. It is about feeling grounded by something greater than us like nature, religion or philosophy.
Spiritual fulfillment will look differently for us all. For some this may be explored through religion and faith, but for others this can be found through something else like meditation.
It is important to take time to reflect on what matters to you most and where you want life to take you. Perhaps it is drawing out a 5 year plan, starting with where you want to get to and working back from there.
Our spiritual wellbeing is related to our sense of morality. This means if our moral and/or ethical code is challenged it can greatly impact our spiritual wellbeing, leading to moral distress and potentially moral injury.
Moral injury is the intense emotional, psychological and spiritual distress that can be experienced following an action or inaction that transgresses our internal moral or ethical beliefs. You can access the Vetlife resource on Moral Injury here. To watch a short video produced by King’s College London for a useful overview, click here.
Though not itself a diagnosable mental health condition, it can have long-lasting negative effects on mental health, eliciting feelings of shame, worthlessness, guilt, disgust and anger. It can lead to the development of psychological disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, suicidal thoughts and behaviour.
For us in the veterinary community, moral injury can arise from:
- Direct involvement, where animal welfare is compromised e.g. through a forced decision by ourselves (such as financial constraints, limited resources, staffing or time).
- Indirect involvement, for example witnessing benign neglect (unintentional neglect such as over-feeding or delaying euthanasia).
- Through feelings of betrayal by colleagues conducting practices we do not agree with, e.g. tail docking.
- Create a psychologically safe/ prepared environment through frank and open discussions led by senior colleagues
- Maintain adequate staffing levels and resources.
- Help ourselves and colleagues recognise moral injury and offer both professional and peer support to manage it.
Moral distress and moral injury can happen to any of us and may negatively affect our sense of spiritual identity. It is therefore important to psychologically prepare ourselves by nurturing our spiritual wellbeing pillar regularly. Here are some ideas of how we may try to do this:
- Meditation (Please see the Mental Wellbeing Pillar for more information on this).
- Self-reflection: what truly matters to me?
- Journaling (writing it down/ list your top values).
- Guided self-reflection with a certified health coach.
- Membership of a religion or spiritual group to find shared meaning and purpose.
- Learn about other viewpoints to expand your understanding and to challenge your thoughts and beliefs in a controlled manner.
- Spend time in nature (Please see the Environmental Wellbeing Pillar for more information on this).
Useful resources:
- The Vetlife resource for Burnout, Moral Injury and Compassion Fatigue, click here.
- For a useful overview of moral injury and how it can be tackled in practice click here.
- To watch a short video produced by King’s College London for a useful overview of Moral Injury, click here.
- This is a recent publication that explores moral injury in the UK veterinary profession.
