Correlations Between Spirituality, Mood, and Stress Following Meditation Training

Although Buddhist meditation techniques evolved to enhance spiritual experience within a religious context, they are often presented in secular settings to improve psychological and medical health. Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is known to reduce stress, improve mood states, and enhance subjective spiritual experience. This study investigated the correlations among changes in mood, stress, and spirituality before and after an 8-week MBSR program. Participants in the Penn Program for Mindfulness at the University of Pennsylvania (n=147) completed the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual Well-Being (FACIT-SP-Ex), the Profile of Mood States (POMS), and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). Paired sample T-tests showed significant improvements in all POMS subscales, the FACIT-SP-Ex, and the PSS (p<0.001 for all measures). Determination of Pearson’s r demonstrated significant correlations between all variables before and after the intervention (p<0.001 for all correlations). The degree of correlation among results changed from pre- to post-intervention; PSS results more strongly correlated with FACIT-SP-Ex results post-intervention, while the association with all other variables decreased. Our presentation will consider the relationship between stress and spiritual experience, and how these results may illuminate factors that contribute to spirituality.