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Meditation as a Path to Spirituality, Health and Happiness
While Eastern religions espouse meditation as a path to enlightenment and self-awareness, those in the West are increasingly turning to this spiritual exercise as a means to improving the quality of their lives. Those adhering to a meditation routine speak of the calm they experience through meditation, as well as the health benefits that they enjoy. Still others note that meditation goes well beyond mere mental and physical health and claim that meditation possesses a spiritual element that makes them closer to God, nature or simply themselves.
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The Relationship between Well-Being and Your Spiritual Health
Emotional health is as important as being physically fit and having a sound mind. Our emotional, physical, and mental health are connected with each other that each one affects the health of the other. However, there is another factor that can contribute to a healthy well-being: Spiritual health.Being spiritual is not just being religious. It is being in touch with the spirit within you. It is finding meaning, hope, comfort, and inner peace in your life. Most people find spirituality through religion. Others find it through music, art or, a connection with nature. Still, others find it in their values and principles.Spiritual activities such as prayer and meditation foster positive beliefs and comfort which bring healing and a sense of well-being. It may not necessarily cure the illness, but it can help you feel better, prevent some health problems, and help you cope with illness or death.Whenever life becomes a bore or seems meaningless, or when emotional hurts and pains become overwhelming, we tend to be confused or anxious. We feel dead in our spirits. But those who are spiritually nourished are strongly anchored in their faith and hope. For Christians, boredom is a word that can never be used to describe a person who walks in the love of God. Firm believers have no room for anxiety and depression in their lives. The Christian faith surrenders all their worries and cares to a God who is almighty.
Spirituality Linked to Mental Health
A new study finds that women who had stopped being religiously active were more than three times more likely to have suffered generalized anxiety and alcohol abuse/dependence than women who reported always having been active.
“One’s lifetime pattern of religious service attendance can be related to psychiatric illness,” says Temple University’s Joanna Maselko, Sc.D., an assistant professor of public health and co-author of the study, which appears in the January issue of Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology. Conversely, men who stopped being religiously active were less likely to suffer major depression when compared to men who had always been religiously active.