I believe that spirituality and religion have positive impacts on the overall well-being of humans. They provide a coping mechanism for stress, depression, and pain that we encounter emotionally. I think the benefits of spirituality and religion are not limited to physical health but also enhance individuals’ mental condition. Spirituality and religion have an association with the subjective well-being of people.
Developing spirituality and religiousness builds internal strength. I find Fowler’s model an effective tool for attaining inner peace, which leads to a better physical and psychological status. To assess the role of spirituality or religiousness in real life, we need to consider Fowler’s model. I think that the development niche explains the physical and social settings affecting the development of children (Super & Harkness, 1986).
I find Sternberg’s triangular theory of love more relevant to one’s life as it allows the development of attributes essential for living a good life. The three main components of the theory, intimacy, commitment, and passion, play a positive role in improving our psychological state. The interaction of these three components leads to pure love; however, the reality is different. In real life, no relationship possesses all components; still, I believe that people holding love for others exhibit better psychological well-being. I agree with Sternberg on the concept of maintaining balance in love relations, as a strong addiction to love results in anxiety, stress, and mental instability (Sternberg & Grajek, 1984). The concept of Sternberg reflects the relevance of love with positivism and a better life. I believe that people exhibiting love and creating balance can attain maximum well-being. Contrary to the people holding no love, it lacks positivism and psychological well-being.
One of the factors that I used to examine the practicality involves religiousness. Through connecting myself to religion, I attained physical and psychological well-being. Under the influence of Flower’s model, I managed to adopt the idea of faith. Developing faith and keeping myself engaged in religious activities such as prayer allowed me to overcome the tensions and negative feelings. I experienced synthetic convention, as identified in Fowler’s model when I developed a strong fascination with churches. During my teenage, I used to visit churches on weekends. The practice raised many questions and made me upset. At reaching adolescence, I developed an individuative reflective ability, as explained by Fowler, that allowed me to search for questions related to religion, the world, and people. At that point, I realized that I had grown into a skeptical individual by breaking the previous stage. My skepticism allowed me to reach the stage of conjunctive faith that, according to Fowler, reveals the paradoxical nature of the world. I realized at that point the importance of the community and its association with peace (Parker, 2009).
The component of religion allowed me to understand the actual meaning that was to consider facts beyond one’s existence. The actual meaning of religion and spirituality is to connect oneself with people and society. I believe the idea of religion can also be conferred as helping people and engaging oneself in the service of others. I was only able to overcome my stress and worries when I involved myself in social services. Helping others builds emotions of satisfaction, peace, and positivity, thus providing the remedy against negative feelings. A religion that is limited to self results in emotional disturbance and experiences in forms of stress, extremely upsetting state, and instability. I believe that religion, which connects us to others, generates positive outcomes such as peace, happiness, and satisfaction. A developmental niche of an individual undergoes different stages until he explores the real meaning of religion and spirituality.
References
Parker, S. (2009). Faith development theory as a context for supervision of spiritual and religious issues. Counselor Education & Supervision, 49, 39-53.
Super, C. M., & Harkness, S. (1986). The Developmental Niche: A Conceptualization at the Interface of Child and Culture. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 9, 4, 545-569.
Sternberg, R. J., & Grajek, S. (1984). The nature of love. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 47, 312–329.
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