Psychologists know that spirituality can be a key tool to mitigate stress. Healthy individuals often incorporate spirituality into their lives. What is spirituality? Spirituality can be may things, but it’s a practice that helps you to keep your overall life in perspective. It has a lot to do with how you make sense of the world, your life and your purpose on the planet. Spirituality for some is based in a religious belief; for others, it may have more to do with nature or being a part of a community or humanity. Sometimes it involves a belief in something greater than ourselves, such as a higher being or the universe.

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Spirituality helps us keep perspective on our problems in part because it puts life into perspective. The universe is huge, and we can’t control very much of it. We can’t control weather or climate and we can’t control commodity prices. Keeping this is mind helps us to let go to a certain extent. We can control some of what’s right in front of us, but there’s a lot we can’t control. And what we can’t control we have to accept, or we experience stress.

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Spirituality can help us reduce stress in different ways:

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• It can provide us with a source of hope.

• It can provide us a sense of purpose. For example, following our values can bring meaning to our lives. If we perceive our purpose as following certain values, then the results of what we accomplish financially, for example, may become less important to us.

• It can help us connect to others. Seeing that we part of a whole community of beings may help us realize that we are far from alone with our problems.

• Connecting with a higher power (e.g., God) or nature can help us to release our stress and have faith in something greater than ourselves.

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Growing your spirituality. Even if you haven’t practiced spirituality, you can grow spirituality in your life, and you will find it can make a positive difference. Not sure how? Call us. One of our counselors can serve as a neutral person to bounce ideas off and to help you find this source of greater meaning that can make a difference in your life.