Do People With a Spiritual Core Cope Better?

Some people cope with things better than others. We all know what we’ve lived through during this crazy COVID pandemic year. We’ve wiped down groceries, worn masks, used hand sanitizer until our hands hurt, have endured vaccine jitters and vaccine side effects, experienced isolation, loss, anxiety, and worry. This is all to say that this has been a long, difficult COVID year, but how well have we coped?

As a therapist, I work with people who are oftentimes going through the darkest period of their lives, nothing short of horrible—the death of someone close, the end of a marriage, loss of work, severe financial issues, family problems, difficult relationships—compounded by this COVID year. And yet, some have fared better than others.

What seems evident to me is that people who have developed a spiritual core and/or believe in God have had an advantage in coping with this COVID period and seem to be basically overall better at coping in general. That’s been my consistent experience as a therapist for over three decades. For one thing, my experience has been that people are forthright about their respective ability to cope and oftentimes seek therapy to help reinforce coping abilities and learn additional coping strategies. A pretty concise definition of spirituality is “an awareness of the metaphysical, the religious, or the sublime. In practice, spirituality includes participation in organized religion, contemplation, meditation, prayer, reflection, and activities fostering self-growth and connections with others and with nature.”

So, what’s that about and why does it help people cope better?

People who have the ability to draw from something outside of self, a belief in God or some form of the spiritual, and those who meditate, pray, and are awed by nature, seem to cope better. They seem to possess a particular inner strength that acknowledges limits but reaches beyond the self. What they cannot muster for themselves, they are able to draw from the external—joining their inherent strength with the divine, the universe, nature, the “bigger than self.”

Here are some of my thoughts about why. For one thing, it seems that having a worldview involving something larger than ourselves seems to help. It relieves the burden of having to figure out and control everything—especially something like a pandemic, which is a reminder that we can’t control certain things.

With a spiritual core comes faith that things larger than ourselves are possible. And that includes solutions.

The power of hope is essential in facing adversity. The belief that things never stay the same and can get better is key.

Being part of a larger community helps, too. Uniting with others of similar beliefs is strength in numbers, and the ability to join others is comforting.

And finally, people thrive in the face of awe and beauty and majesty. And they cope better.