Spirituality Is Good For Mental Health

Believing is good for your mental health, regardless of what it is you believe in. That’s the verdict of researchers at the University of Missouri, who conducted three surveys about mental and physical health, personality factors, and spirituality in Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, Catholics, and Protestants.A U Missouri news release reports that 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. Wait, there’s more. Earlier research by the same team showed 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. Study coauthor and professor Dan Cohen suggests that “Spiritual beliefs may be a coping device to help individuals deal emotionally with stress.” Read more from the University of Missouri. Read the study here.