Richard Chalon Aiken, MD, PhD, is a physician, a psychiatrist, and spiritual advisor.
He has a Doctor of Philosophy from Princeton University and a medical doctorate from the University of Utah. He did his residency and fellowship training at Washington University in St. Louis and currently practices psychiatry in Springfield, Missouri, where he is the Medical Director of Lakeland Behavioral Health System. He also is affiliated with Missouri State University’s Taylor Health and Wellness Center. Dr. Aiken has served as psychiatrist for the Christian-based internationally recognized Smalley Relationship Center. Professor Aiken has taught and researched at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule in Zürich, Switzerland, and the Kunglia Techniska Hφgskolen in Stockholm, Sweden. He has lectured widely in Europe and the United States and written numerous articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals. He has been a guest at a number of podcasts and nationally syndicated radio. |
Spirituality and Emotional wellness
In my experience in psychiatry, a branch of medicine employing psychological - not religious - principles, it’s as if we sit the patient on a two-legged mind-body stool – one leg being the mental aspect and the other leg the physical. Typically a third leg, pertaining to the spiritual, is not considered, yet that element stabilizes and completes the platform upon which all else rests.
In a medical context, if the body is broken, for example a skeletal part, it is secured by continuous traction; if brain neurotransmitters are imbalanced, medication is administered for twenty-four hour replenishment. But what about support for the spiritual state? Occasional prayer or participation in a formal religious setting certainly can be helpful, but for real spiritual progress and the attendant psychological health, we must live our spirituality throughout the day. The psychological and spiritual “traction” is provided by “mindfulness” – rather like an extended-release form of a wisdom elixir.
In a medical context, if the body is broken, for example a skeletal part, it is secured by continuous traction; if brain neurotransmitters are imbalanced, medication is administered for twenty-four hour replenishment. But what about support for the spiritual state? Occasional prayer or participation in a formal religious setting certainly can be helpful, but for real spiritual progress and the attendant psychological health, we must live our spirituality throughout the day. The psychological and spiritual “traction” is provided by “mindfulness” – rather like an extended-release form of a wisdom elixir.
Mood for Life
Dr. Aiken's organization “Mood for Life” strives to provide information on the positive effect that healthy lifestyle can have on one’s cognitive and emotional wellness. His newest book Neurodietetics summarizes the emerging evidence for whole-food varied-plant diets for optimizing neuropsychological wellness throughout the life span.