Even someone who doesn’t consider themself particularly spiritual could find something to learn from John McDougall’s presentation for the Cohen Clinic’s Winter Wellness Series: Spirituality and Wellness: Staying Connected to What Matters. He offered participants a helpful roadmap for understanding how spiritual fitness may intersect with mental health as well as some practical advice.

John McDougall has been a US Army Chaplain for the past 15 years and has been in Alaska since 2019.  Since living in the Last Frontier, he has been on a journey to better understand the connections between spirituality, faith and nature.

The Crisis of Disconnection

Why focus on spirituality now? McDougall identifies three converging losses in contemporary life: the loss of community (both faith-based and familial), the loss of purpose and meaning, and the loss of identity. He says we find ourselves digitally connected yet spiritually disconnected, a phenomenon that therapists increasingly encounter in their practices.

Defining Spirituality

What exactly is spirituality? From polytheism to paganism, from Buddhism to what McDougall calls “the nones” (those who identify as spiritual but not religious), spirituality manifests in countless forms. Within the Department of Defense, different military branches have offered various perspectives from the Air Force’s view of spirituality as “the means to find ultimate meaning and purpose in life” to the Marines’ concept of “spiritual fitness: inner strength from higher purpose or meaning.”

For McDougall, spirituality is fundamentally about connectedness. As he frames it, the crucial questions are these: “to what or to whom are you connecting? how/how often do you connect to it?” When someone says they’re spiritual, McDougall asks, what do they actually do to nurture that connection?

Religion vs Spirituality

McDougall uses a metaphor to distinguish between religion and spirituality while acknowledging their overlap. Religion, he suggests, is like examining individual trees concerned with doctrine, practices, and ethics. It engages the head. Spirituality, by contrast, is like experiencing the forest itself focused on meaning, connection, and values. It engages the heart.

These aren’t mutually exclusive territories. Religious spirituality offers a set of beliefs, practices, and a faith community. Secular spirituality might involve mindfulness, journaling, yoga or connection with nature. As McDougall notes, there are overlapping circles where worship, joy, peace, and community intersect regardless of the path taken.

The Healing Power of Nature

For those living in Alaska and similar regions, nature-based spirituality holds particular resonance. As McDougall observes, “especially where we live, it is so real.” But why does nature exert such a powerful effect on our wellbeing?

Nature evokes awe and humility. “When I’m in the mountains, I feel small, but so do my problems,” McDougall explains. “Those things that seemed so big at home feel smaller.” Nature offers us a sense of permanence amid change, a physical and emotional grounding, and an invitation to be mindful and still in the present moment.

Spiritual Fitness

McDougall draws a parallel between physical and spiritual fitness. Just as we might choose our own workout program or join one that’s worked for others, we can approach spirituality through an established religion or forge our own path. Both require variety and consistency. Both demand we ask ourselves: Who do we want to become?

The concept of “spiritual fitness” reframes wellbeing in actionable terms. Just as we wouldn’t expect to maintain physical health without regular exercise, we can’t expect to maintain spiritual health without intentional practice.

Recognizing Spiritual Depletion

How do we know when our spiritual well is running dry? McDougall uses the analogy of a well: “you keep drawing water, and then there is nothing left.” The symptoms manifest as irritability, frustration, anger, fear, cynicism, isolation, blame, and hatred.  Also a symptom of low-spirituality is a conspicuous absence of what Christianity calls “the fruit of the spirit”: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

For therapists, recognizing these symptoms as potentially spiritual in nature opens new avenues for intervention. A client’s persistent cynicism or isolation might not solely be a cognitive distortion to challenge but a signal of spiritual disconnection to address.

Treatment Strategies: Practical Spirituality

McDougall’s approach to treating spiritual depletion is pleasingly practical.

1. Reconnect with strategies that worked in the past. Return to faith practices, outdoor activities, or mindfulness exercises that once brought meaning. McDougall emphasizes engaging all the senses and revisiting locations that hold personal significance.

2. Experiment. Try poetry, hiking, prayer groups, or new forms of connection.

3. Amplify what’s already working by increasing frequency or duration even setting phone reminders to engage in spiritual practices.

McDougall highlights practices used around the world to addressing spiritual depletion, including Japan’s Shinrin-Yoku (forest bathing), the German concept of Waldeinsamkeit (the quiet joy of being alone in nature), and the Danish practice of Hygge.  He also advocates for strategic disconnection from media, connection to community, engagement with music and literature, immersion in nature, and connection through touch whether human, pet, or even equine-assisted therapy.

Wellness is Multidimensional

McDougall’s framework reminds us that wellness is multidimensional. Just as we wouldn’t treat someone’s physical health crisis without considering their mental state, we cannot fully address mental health without acknowledging the spiritual dimension.

Start with some simple questions:

• What are you connecting to?
• How do you nurture that connection?
• When the well runs dry, what will you do to replenish it?

It may result in profound insights. In answering these questions, we may find not just the path to healing, but the way to a more integrated and meaningful life.

Watch John’s presentation on Youtube!