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 it also enhances the mental condition of individuals. Spirituality and religion have the association with subjective well being of people. Developing spirituality and religiousness builds internal strength. I find Fowler’s model an effective tool for attaining inner peace thus leading 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 development of attributes essential for living a good life. The three main components of the theory; intimacy, commitment and passion play the positive role in improving our psychological state. Interaction of these three components leads to a pure love however the reality is different. In real life, no relationship possess 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 the strong addiction for love results in anxiety, stress and mental instability (Sternberg & Grajek, 1984). The concept of Sternberg reflects the relevance of love with positivism and the better life. I believe that people exhibiting love and creating balance can attain maximum wellbeing. Contrary to the people holding no love, lacks positivism and psychological wellbeing.
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 strong fascination towards 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 individuative reflective ability as explained by Fowler that allowed me to search for the questions related to the religion, world and the people. At the point, I realized that I have grown to a sceptical individual by breaking the previous stage. My scepticism 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 the people and society. I believe the idea of religion can also be conferred as helping people and engaging oneself in 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 the negative feelings. A religion that is limited to self-results in emotional disturbance and experienced in forms of stress, extremely upsetting state and instability. I believe that religion that connects us to others generate 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.
