Blog Post #3 Spirituality and Occupations

Occupation and Spirituality

As discussed in class last week, spirituality can play a large role in the meaning we find in our occupations, and our occupations can also play a large role in spirituality. Spiritual experiences don't have to be limited to being within an organized religious institution, but rather can be activities or environments in which we find a deep sense of meaning (Wengerd, 2022). Some examples of occupations which could be spiritual include gardening, spending time in nature, talking with a loved one, or even household chores. For me personally, I sometimes find a spiritual connection my own meaningful occupations. One occupation I take a lot of pride in is being a "dog mom" to my border collie girl named Artie, and interacting with her provides somewhat of a spiritual experience as I have the opportunity to take care of her needs and feel gratitude for the joy she brings into my life. I would say that I am overall a spiritual person, so I think this perspective helps me to see occupations I participate in as having a spiritual element in the form of gratitude, joy, or sense of connection to a higher being. My new occupation of making macrame doesn't yet have a spiritual implication for me, but perhaps as I learn the skill better I will be able to find spiritual aspects to the process of creating a new art piece. I do think there is a lot of connection for me between feelings of spirituality and meaning behind artistic creation, so I'm excited to see if this ends up being the case with my new occupation.

OTPF 4 Inclusion of Spirituality

I believe it is highly important that the OTPF 4 document has a section regarding spirituality. From looking at the document, AOTA has defined spirituality as a deep sense of meaning which is found through engaging in occupations which a person finds to be meaningful as it relates to their values and beliefs (American Occupational Therapy Association [AOTA], 2020). As a holistic practice, I think it is appropriate that occupational therapy would integrate spirituality into the treatment of the person as a whole. I was able to find spirituality listed within Table 9 in the OTPF 4, where it also describes that this section is the "client's (person's, group's, or population's) perceptions, motivations, and related meaning that influence or are influenced by engagement in occupations" (AOTA, 2020, p. 51). I think this section provides a good fit for the use of spirituality, as a client's motivation can be determined by the meaning and spiritual perception they might have of an activity. For example, a client might be highly motivated to go fly fishing as they view being in nature as a spiritual occupation, so as an occupational therapist we may be able to tailor our interventions to this shared goal.

Macrame Update

I'm excited to share that I think I finally have the hang of the "diagonal double half hitch" knot technique which is used for most of this macrame project. You can see in lines 1-6 that it is looking pretty rough, but in the last line (the one furthest away from the wooden dowel), I think I have finally gotten the pattern down to be able to make one solid knot across. I hope to be done with this project in the next couple of weeks and am excited to start my next project.

References

American Occupational Therapy Association [AOTA]. (2020). Occupational therapy practice framework: Domain and process (4th ed.). American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 74(Suppl. 2), 51. https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2020.74S2001

Wengerd, D. S. (2022, March 1). Bringing home: Incorporating spirituality in occupational therapy practice. OT practice. https://www.aota.org/publications/ot-practice/ot-practice-issues/2022/spirituality-in-ot-practice