Fun Fact: Spirituality can curb anxiety and offer inner peace.
About: Personal faith can represent an important coping strategy when facing a severe stressful moment. The COVID-19 pandemic created a mental health crisis in US where symptoms of anxiety and depression have roughly quadrupled as compared to before the pandemic. (statistica.com 2/15/2022) What can we do to help curb anxiety? The answer is spirituality. Spirituality is known to protect against anxiety. In a study of Brazilian healthcare workers, higher spirituality, faith, and peace protected against anxiety during the pandemic. 1 Spirituality increases hope and decreases fear through self-efficacy and the belief that we can make a difference. To promote spirituality, we can implement strategies such as reading scripture, praying, and meditating. We can watch sermons or religious videos that promotes self-efficacy and hope. I personally enjoy listening to encouraging audiobooks that provide positive thinking modalities. Writing down your spiritual goals will bring you one step closer to lifelong peace and happiness.
Conclusion: Spirituality is unique to each one of us but is universal in fighting anxiety and depression that has become so prevalent in our society.
Take-Home: Reference article for more information on this study below.
1. Tolentino JC, Gjorup ALT, Mello CR, Assis SGd, Marques AC, FilhoA´ dC, et al. (2022) Spirituality as a protective factor for chronic and acute anxiety in Brazilian healthcare workers during the COVID-19 outbreak. PLOS ONE 17(5): e0267556. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0267556)
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