People need spiritual support to live and maintain a healthy mental state. It explains why we created religion, to make a purpose for ourselves, and a spiritual pillar to rely on. Spiritual support is basically comfort. We comfort or encourage each other to spiritually support one another and so we rely on each other for spiritual support in the forms of romantic relationships, friendships, and familial bonds. These bonds make us feel good, and so we strive to maintain them. But being excluded from certain emotional bonds can cause us to be hurt as the poem “Parting” demonstrates:

“If only she could love. To me, unkind was pity, and hurting, gratitude…”

-Luis G. Dato

The poet shows the pain of not having one’s feelings reciprocated. This exemplifies that the rejection of a romantic relationship can cause us emotional damage. 

In the Japanese animated film, “Spirited Away”, the protagonist of the story was swept into a magical realm with underlying dangers. Chihiro, the young female protagonist, was swept into such a situation that would have naturally seemed hopeless. However, because of her love for her parents who were essentially imprisoned, she overcame difficulties and managed to escape with them. Her strong emotional bond with her parents led her to go through hurdles in order to bring them out with her.

This example shows how people are willing to go through difficulties for the ones they love showing how much they cherish such relationships, further exemplifying how we need such spiritual and emotional support to live. It is unknown whether Chihiro would have been willing to go through such difficulties without her family in mind, and without the strong bond between them.

People do not only gain spiritual support from just humans. We can also obtain such emotional support from animals. It has been shown from studies that pets like cats can improve the mood of their owners and contribute to their overall morale. People with such pets have better psychological health than those without one. We don’t need someone to communicate with exactly, just someone or something to be with that will comfort us and make us feel relaxed. You can call these kinds of spiritual support sources pillars. A kind of pillar that holds up our mental state, and keeps us at a healthy level. Maintaining strong and healthy relationships can help you stay sane and experience a relatively happy life.