Personal Well-being
In keeping with a general increase in interest in spirituality and complementary and alternative treatments, prayer has garnered attention among some behavioral scientists. Masters and Spielmans have conducted a meta-analysis of the effects of distant intercessory prayer, but detected no discernible effects.
Spirituality has played a central role in self-help movements such as Alcoholics Anonymous: "...if an alcoholic failed to perfect and enlarge his spiritual life through work and self-sacrifice for others, he could not survive the certain trials and low spots ahead...."
Philosophers across many traditions, from Stoicism to Buddhism, have suggested that a spiritual practice is essential for personal well being. Such practices do not necessarily include a belief in supernatural beings. Contemporary authors, too, suggest that spirituality develops inner peace and forms a foundation for happiness. Meditation and similar practices may help any practitioner cultivate his or her inner life and character.
Read more about this topic: Spirituality
Famous quotes containing the words personal, well-being:
“I’m afraid, sir, that I gave up my belief in goblins, witches, personal devils and werewolves at the age of six.”
—John Colton (1886–1946)
“Swann was one of those men who, having long lived in the illusions of love, saw the well-being that they gave to many women heighten their happiness without evoking in these women any gratitude, any tenderness toward them; but in their child these men believe they feel an affection which, embodied in their very name, will make them outlast their death. When there was to no longer be a Charles Swann, there would still be a Mademoiselle Swann ... who would continue to love her departed father.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)