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Spirituality and stress relief: Make the connection
Taking the path less traveled by exploring your spirituality can lead to a clearer life purpose, better personal relationships and enhanced stress management skills.
By Mayo Clinic staffCertain tools to reduce stress are very tangible: exercising more, eating healthy foods and talking with friends. But there is another tool for helping you manage difficult times that can be just as beneficial, albeit harder to pin down — embracing your spirituality.
What is spirituality?
Spirituality has many definitions, but at its core spirituality helps to give our lives context. It's not necessarily connected to a specific belief system or even religious worship. Instead, it arises from your connection with yourself and with others, the development of your personal value system, and your search for meaning in life. For many, this takes the form of religious observance, prayer, meditation or a belief in a higher power. For others, it can be found in nature, music, art or a secular community. Spirituality is different for everyone.
How can spirituality help you?
Spirituality has many benefits. It can help you:
- Focus on personal goals. Cultivating your spirituality may help uncover what's most meaningful in your life. By clarifying what's most important, you can focus less on the unimportant things and eliminate stress.
- Connect to the world. The more you feel you have a purpose in the world, the less solitary you feel — even when you're alone. This can lead to a valuable inner peace during difficult times.
- Release control. When you feel part of a greater whole, you realize that you aren't responsible for everything that happens in life. You can share the burden of tough times as well as the joys of life's blessings with those around you.
- Expand your support network. Whether you find spirituality in a church, mosque or synagogue, in your family, or in walks with a friend through nature, this sharing of spiritual expression can help build relationships.
- Lead a healthier life. People who consider themselves spiritual may be better able to cope with stress and heal from illness or addiction faster.
How can you define your spirituality?
The best way to uncover your spirituality is to engage in self-discovery. Here are some questions to ask yourself to discover what experiences and values define you:
- What are your important relationships?
- Where have you found comfort?
- What gives you hope?
- What brings you joy?
- What are your three most memorable experiences?
- If you have survived losses in your life, how have you done so?
- What do you believe will happen to you when your physical life ends, and how do you feel about that?
- Describe a time when you felt comfortable and all was right with the world.
- Describe a time when your life was filled with a sense of meaning or you were filled with a sense of awe.
The answers to such questions help you identify the most important people and experiences in your life. With this information, you can focus your search for spirituality on the relationships and activities in life that have helped define you as a person and those that continue to inspire your personal growth.
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