What Role Does Spirituality Play In Coping?

That’s the thing about death: it sneaks up and robs a person of their life, taking away all of their happiness. People indulge themselves in the idea of fearing death rather than facing it. Death is an unknown territory where no survivors have ever came back to share their experience. The US Army Private, Roy Scranton’s article “Learning How to Die in the Anthropocene” shines hope where he explains how fear can be conquered if the idea of dying is accepted. It is fear that paralyzes people from moving toward the idea of death. If people started to embrace the present, they will understand the inevitability of death and start discrediting fear.

We react to the death concerns through the acquisition and maintenance of self-esteem. Empirical evidences have established the association between self-esteem and cultural worldview. It showed that individuals with strong culture worldviews have higher self-esteem (Solomon, Greenberg, & Pyszczynski, 1991). On the other hand, the research suggested that self-esteem is able to serve a death-denying function. If someone is being asked to think about their own death, it would increase their need for the protection affords by the cultural worldview and the self-worth derived from it (Harmon-Jones, Greenberg, Pyszczynski, Solomon, & McGregor, 1997).

Christian counseling is all about integrating psychology, theology and spirituality into counselor and clients lives. Psychology, Theology and Spirituality in Christian Counseling gives insight into how these three perspectives can be used to help individuals identify certain aspects of their lives that might be enhanced when the counselor includes spirituality into their counseling sessions. We also see how important it is for the counselor to be in touch with their own spirituality so that

It is only human and natural to feel hopelessness and despair as one gets closer to the grave. Religion is an important part of coping with this desperateness. Incorporating a deeper understanding and practicing religion helps with understanding life and death. Spirituality may be one of the most important components mental, spiritual and social health as one crawls towards end of life (Dose, (2007). A study by Dose, (2007) looked at experiences of spirituality in older adults at the end of their life, especially those receiving hospice care. Participants were asked about their “spiritual journey”. The study concluded that spirituality is important to most of the participants of the study and shaped their views in terms of correctness and moving on. A view of life in terms of religion and spirituality was important to them as they neared the end (Dose, 2007). They also found that spirituality helped with coping with their pain and reduced the stress of being

Treatment outcome predictors of African American culture are that one may attend church services weekly to praise and worship. While attending services one will depend on his or her belief in God and worship in faith with a commitment to themselves and God. Spirituality is a strategy one will use to cope with events or experiences within his or her life that is stressful. These strategies are considered external, support from religious beliefs such as prayer, reading the bible, and the reflections of one’s belief. Spirituality is also seen as an integral to health and a sense of one having the feeling of wholeness or well being (Britt, 2004).

“The People Paradox” by Janis L. Dickinson, explains that thinking about mortality creates mental issues. Thankfully, the human brain suppresses thoughts of death allowing individuals to carry on comfortably. Furthermore, Dickinson proposed that human beings are predisposed to suppress thoughts of death to manage anxiety about the inevitability of mortality. Additionally, Dickinson suggests we repress thoughts of death by pushing them out of consciousness and creating a mythical, culturally and socially informed reality that increases an individual's self esteem. Dickenson elaborates by stating that individuals reduce anxiety about mortality by projecting power and importance onto an idealized other or god.

The text expresses a similar concept known as mortality salience, where a person’s decision is influenced by as awareness of their own mortality. Cave presented one study of two groups of people who were either agnostic or undecided in their religious beliefs. The group told to think about being dead were twice as likely to later state a belief in God. Both Cave and our text points out that reminding people of their mortality effects their decisions and

At the most basic level of subconscious thought, every living animal possesses a desire to stay alive. Usually, this instinct lays dormant, although in dire situations, we can be led to do unexpected things. In addition to this subconscious drive, there is a socially constructed motivation for fearing death. Thanks to the pervasive nature of religion throughout history, much of humanity has, at some point or another, feared the prospect of eternal damnation and torture during one’s life after death. Although not every religion has a negative aspect of the afterlife, or even any semblance of an afterlife at all, those religions which do contain some such construct receive much more attention in this regard. Throughout history, many

The benefits that religion and spirituality provide in recovery and psychotherapeutic support are exponential (Bradshaw et. al). It is one of the reasons the correlation between religious mindset and mental health continues to draw scholarly attention. Another confounding variable is that there is little cultural separation between spiritual guidance and psychotherapy. Most Catholic Priest’s come equipped with undergraduate and seminary work, the minimum requirement to perform basic counseling in most states. Gettis, a psychiatrist and scholar, postulates that both priest and psychotherapists are mutual “socially-sanctioned healers” drawn together by the belief that they possess healing power (Gettis 188).

Using George Everly (Everly & Mitchell, ppg. 182) as a basis for this assignment in understanding that disasters can send shock waves through a community and jeopardize the psychological foundation of victims affected. Most commonly observed is that when crisis and disasters occur, religious or spiritual leaders may be required to restore order and faith. Spaces of worship may become the gathering arenas of spiritual or religious significance. Pastoral crisis intervention is the natural affinity that victims seek in times of despair. Considering that faith-based resources have historically been omitted from “formalized” crisis intervention response, but have been considered more as a “counseling service” provided by local chaplaincy in providing guidance and reassurance to victims.

In order to further explore this notion, the authors want to examine the effects of implementing effectual daily prayer on mental health in adults as compared to adults who do not effectually pray after

Many of us know at least one person that has been or is going through mental illness. The health care specialists try to resolve the illness prescribing medication. However, medication does not help finding the cause of the issue. In the logistics business we called “the root cause” of the issue that is the first step before moving forward to find the solution. In the article Young D. mention that “people with mental illness lost meaning in life” (Young D. 2015). It is also mentioned by Peter Barnes- Pastoral Care Chaplain in the video Spirituality in Mental Health Care. This is the first stage of the spiritual recovery, is helping people finding meaning in life. Spiritual satisfaction helps finding identity and it is part of finding the meaning

Spiritual wellbeing is an integral part of mental, emotional and physical health. It is considered to be a primary coping resource on the journey of recovering and healing. Spiritual wellbeing can also be associated with religion but does not have to be. It is considered to be a journey to find importance in life and the role you will play among them with the overarching purpose to find meaning to life.

Joint aches, weight gains, slower metabolisms, and memory lapses are some general manifestations of old age. The physical body wears out, but that does not mean the living ends as well. In any stages of life, many literatures support the evidence on how spirituality has become the pillar of strength to many people, especially the older adults. As defined in Shukla (2015), spirituality is the core of a person’s being that lends meaning and purpose to living. In older adults, the role of spirituality has become more important as they face life’s physical challenges. In fact, Shukla (2015) added that older adults with strong spiritual beliefs have the greater sense of well-being than those without spirituality. To

Throughout my entire life I have never really given much thought to the subject of death. To be more accurate: throughout my entire life I have never allowed myself to give much thought to the subject of death. Both of my parents are very easy going, optimistic individuals so death was not a subject that was ever really touched on. The only times that I really remember discussing it was in church (and I rarely ever paid attention to this). Despite this lack of contemplation, I have always known that I am very anxious about death, so when I filled out the attitudes towards death and Leming 's fear of death survey’s I was not in the least surprised to find that my answers coincided with high death anxiety. Death anxiety is defined in the textbook as emotional distress and insecurity when faced with reminders of mortality (Kastenbaum, 2012). This is an extremely accurate description of the way I react to death. As stated in the attitudes towards death survey, I don’t like to talk about my own death, nor do I like it when my loved ones try to talk to me about their death. When the subject of dying arises I am automatically overwhelmed with feelings of panic and try to change the conversation. It has been shown that women in general have a higher death anxiety (Kastenbaum, 2012) and I am also a very anxious person in general so these probably contribute to it, however, from taking this course I have learned that the biggest contributor is my thoughts about the meaning of death.