Spirituality In Eastern Religions

Undeterred by the fact zero participants claimed a religion, nearly all of them stated that they participated in some sort of spiritual practice. I questioned further into the types of spiritual practice, and three of the participants claimed that going outdoors was part of their practice, while two participants mentioned meditation as part of their spirituality. The idea that taking walks in nature will help the spirituality and mental health of an individual is not a far stretch. As proven by a Stanford led study, “people who walked for 90 minutes in a natural setting experienced decreased activity in a part of the brain involved with an element of depression.” Kisling expressed, “I love to go out in nature… it really makes you forget about …show more content…
The ability to get up and go where we want, without anyone watching, can help reduce stress and anxiety, being alone in nature allows one to truly reflect on themselves. Nature and spirituality are intertwined in the majority of eastern religions, including Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism. Buddhism believes that the human life is just part of a natural cycle, it is a common belief that there is no distinction between humans and nature. It is no surprise that those who participate in eastern religions felt a closer connection to the planet, given that those religions are based upon a relationship with nature and the earth. This new connection to eastern religions can also be viewed as the rejection of western religions, due to the opposite beliefs of western and eastern religions. Every participant was born in, and grew up in the United States, which is known for the practice of it’s major western …show more content…
The research that I collected seems to imply that those who have attempted suicide have found a new regard for life, have a new connection to the world around them, and seem to have started exercising spiritual practices that mimic those of eastern religions. This new connection with the world, and practice of eastern religious practices indicates a change of spirituality, because all of the participants seemed to express the previously mentioned qualities. The unforeseen shortcomings that I experienced while conducting this paper, was that I was not able to go back for re-questioning for one of the interviewees due to scheduling conflicts, as well as getting my interviewees to elaborate on their answers took multiple rounds of questioning, which gave me less time to analyze all the responses. These unforeseen shortcomings affected the validity of my research because on interviewee was not able to provide as in-depth answers as the other participants, and the longer interview times meant that I didn’t have as much time to holistically look at all the