SPIRITUALITY BOOSTS MENTAL HEALTH

Despite differences in rituals and beliefs among the world's major religions, spirituality often enhances individuals' health, according to  researchers. 

The researchers believe that health care providers could take advantage of this correlation between health - particularly mental health - and spirituality by tailoring treatments and rehabilitation programs to accommodate an individual's spiritual inclinations. 

In many ways, the results of the study support the idea that spirituality functions as a personality trait.

With increased spirituality people reduce their sense of self and feel a greater sense of oneness and connectedness with the rest of the universe. What was interesting was that frequency of participation in religious activities or the perceived degree of congregational support was not found to be significant in the relationships between personality, spirituality, religion and health. 

The  study used the results of three surveys to determine if correlations existed among participants' self-reported mental and physical health, personality factors, and spirituality in Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, Catholics and Protestants. 

Across all five faiths, a greater degree of spirituality was related to better mental health, specifically lower levels of neuroticism and greater extraversion. Forgiveness was the only spiritual trait predictive of mental health after personality variables were considered. 

Our prior research shows that the mental health of people recovering from different medical conditions, such as cancer, stroke, spinal cord injury and traumatic brain injury, appears to be related significantly to positive spiritual beliefs and especially congregational support and spiritual interventions. 

Spiritual beliefs may be a coping device to help individuals deal emotionally with stress. 

It is believed that spirituality may help people's mental health by reducing their self-centeredness and developing their sense of belonging to a larger whole. 

The researchers feel that, spiritual interventions such as religious-based counselling  meditation, and forgiveness protocols may enhance spiritually-based beliefs, practices, and coping strategies in positive ways.