Study Suggests That Spirituality Is Key To Kids’ Happiness | Collective-Evolution

1/16/14 8:58 AMStudy Suggests That Spirituality Is Key To Kids’ Happiness | Collective-Evolution

Page 1 of 8http://www.collective-evolution.com/2014/01/13/study-suggests-that-spirituality-is-key-to-kids-happiness/

Study Suggests That Spirituality IsKey To Kids’ Happiness

A professor of psychology at theUniversity of British Columbia, Okanagan, and hiscolleagues Ben Coleman and Judi Wallace haveconducted a study which suggests that spirituality iskey to children’s happiness.(1) Over the past fewyears, scientists have been able to measure the affectof positive emotions and feelings of joy within ourbiology, so it is key to find out what best producesthese feelings within us.

Just to be clear, they define spirituality as internalcharacteristics, an inner belief system that a personrelies on for strength and comfort. Understandinghappiness has been subjected to large amounts ofresearch for a number of years. This particular onesuggests that the processes that influence happinessare not guided by external factors, but internalcharacteristics and qualities.

http://cdn3.collective-evolution.com/assets/uploads/2014/01/117233951-neurons.jpg

http://www.bccf.ca/sites/default/files/Spirituality%20and%20Happiness%20in%20Children.pdf



320 children aged 8-12 were assessed to examine therelationship between spirituality and happiness, fromboth public and private schools. You can read the fullabstract and study for methods used here. The studyconcluded that children’s spirituality, not theirreligious practices (e.g., attending church, praying,and meditating), was strongly linked to theirhappiness. The results parallel studies of adulthappiness and suggest strategies to enhancehappiness in children.

The authors found that the children who said theywere more spiritual were happier. In particular, thepersonal (i.e. meaning and value in one’s own life)and communal (i.e. quality and depth of inter-personal relationships) aspects of spirituality werestrong predictors of children’s happiness. Spiritualityexplained up to 27 percent of the differences inhappiness levels among children.

Researchers have identified many ways in whichspirituality enhances and promotes subjective well-being. One of these ways of enhancing well-being is toincrease personal meaning in one’s life. Spirituality




may produce a sense of meaning that is worth livingor dying for.

“If spirituality enhances happiness byincreasing personal meaning, this may suggeststrategies to enhance happiness. For example,strategies aimed at enhancing personalmeaning in children’s lives may promotehappiness. Future studies could have childrenengage in activities that might promotepersonal meaning. For example, childrenmight volunteer to help others or record theircontributions to the community in a journal.Then changes in happiness and personalmeaning before and after these activitiescould be compared. If personal meaning iscritical to happiness, one might see that theseactivities particularly enhances happiness forthose children who showed increases inpersonal meaning” (1)

Again, spirituality is not just another ‘thing’ to latchon to, in the context of this article it refers to an innerbelief system that a person relies on for strength and



comfort.

If we look at the planet today, from the day we areborn we are bombarded with marketing, advertising,television and more; our wants and desires areliterally programmed into us. We constantly seekexternal factors for self satisfaction and happiness(i.e., money), but after we acquire these externalcharacteristics we instantly move on to something elseoutside of us in order to feel happy or fulfilled. This isa result of the mass conditioning we are exposed tothroughout our lives. Have you ever wondered why amajority of people on the planet want and desire thesame thing? They want money, cars, clothes and a bighouse. What happens when nobody wants thesethings anymore? What happens when nobody trulyhas a desire to acquire materialistic gains? Whathappens to an individual when they come to theunderstanding that nothing external can bring us joy?It’s a process of great transformation, awakening andrealization. It’s a path towards true fulfillment. Itforces one to look within themselves for a feeling theycould once only receive temporarily, from ‘things’



outside of themselves. It also forces one to create anew experience, one that can provide a betterexperience, one that resonates more with our internalbeing.

As we grow up, we pay no attention to our inner voice,neglecting it and pushing it to the side. We seem toalways be following instructions. This internal voice isthe key to joy, it’s your intuition, your belief systems,your heart. Many of us haven’t even had the time todevelop or listen to it, many of us don’t even knowhow because we are told what to believe, how to liveour lives and what makes us happy. We are not giventhe opportunity to examine and explore these thingson our own, through our own inner guidance.

Constantly looking for happiness and fulfillmentoutside of ourselves, or having a certain externalcriteria for achieving a state of happiness keeps us in acycle of depression, and sadness because these thingscan never provide us with real feelings of fulfillmentand joy. We are always feeling that something islacking, and that we need to acquire something tomake it better. Sure, they may provide something



temporary, but in order to vibe in the energeticfrequency of joy more often you will have to find itwithin yourself, something many of us continue to do,and something that is not easy.

I do not believe that one needs to be, or even can bein a constant joyful state. There is also a neutral stateof peace which can be perceived as a state of sadnessby some. This is our natural state, an observer state.

Because we’ve been programmed and conditioned toseek fulfillment outside of ourselves for most of ourlives, this process is extremely difficult and hard. Awhile ago now, I realized that nothing external on theplanet could really make me ‘happy,’ that I wouldhave to find joy in just being, existing, and having theopportunity to experience this life on this planet atthis time. When nothing truly outside of yourself canprovide you with joy, you will be hurled towards selfdiscovery, but only when truly nothing outside ofyourself does the trick anymore. It can be a dark placeat first, but if you find yourself going through thisprocess remember that nothing is wrong with you,and you are on the correct path. It’s perfectly normal



to not be able to find joy from anything in the externalworld, it doesn’t mean you are depressed or not‘normal.’ Pretty soon you will learn to find joy fromthe simple gift of being able to experience life. It justmeans that you have outgrown this experience, andyou seek something new, something different, andsomething that fulfills your soul as apposed to yourmind.

I don’t want to make it seem like completely nothingoutside of myself provides me with joy. There is love,relationships with other individuals, friends, beautifulplanet Earth, sports and more. But these are allfeelings that come from within, and cannot beproduced by materialistic gains. These are empiricalexperiences producing these feelings, the joy thatcomes from the simplicity of EXPERIENCING life,rather than acquiring. These are indeed spiritualexperiences.

Next time you are feeling down ask yourself, is thisfeeling coming from a place where you feel you arelacking something? Because the truth is, all you needis within you, and it has been there all along.



Sources:

(1)http://www.bccf.ca/sites/default/files/Spirituality%20and%20Happiness%20in%20Children.pdf

http://media.noetic.org/uploads/files/SHIFT23_FRONTIERS-ResearchRoundUp_lores-2.pdf

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090108082904.htm

More from CollectiveEvolution?


http://media.noetic.org/uploads/files/SHIFT23_FRONTIERS-ResearchRoundUp_lores-2.pdf

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090108082904.htm

https://www.content.ad/AboutUs.aspx

Documents

Study Suggests That Spirituality Is Key To Kids’ Happiness | Collective-Evolution