Abstract:

The sacred in life has attributes long believed to promote well-being. This research provides a theoretical, empirical, and qualitative examination of the role of cultivating sacred moments in daily life on subjective well-being (SWB), psychological well-being (PWB), and stress. Seventy-three participants, (68% women, 32% men; 71% Caucasian, 11% Chinese), 87% living within the United States, between the ages of 18 to 54), were randomly assigned to one of two groups: (a)?an intervention group who were instructed in cultivating sacred moments for a minimum of 5 minutes a day, for 5 days a week, for 3 weeks, or (b)?a treatment-based control group who were instructed in writing about daily activities for a minimum of 5 minutes a day, for 5 days a week, for 3 weeks. Findings indicate that for these participants, the intervention effectively increased scores on assessments that measured satisfaction with life, positive-affect and negative-affect, and 5 out of 6 subscales that measured psychological well-being (PWB), including; positive relations with others, autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life, and self-acceptance, stress-reduction, and the occurrence of daily spiritual experiences. The intervention also effectively increased the participants' self-reported levels of connection with self, others, and spirit, increased self-reported awareness of the sacred in daily life, increased self-reported feelings of well-being, and reduced self-reported stress. Although the control group also had significant change in the same assessments as the intervention group, further analysis found that after the 3-week intervention, the intervention group had a significantly greater positive effect in measures of life satisfaction and stress-reduction. Furthermore, the 6-week follow-up showed that the intervention group maintained a greater impact on the measure of life satisfaction than the control group after intervention had ended. Future research is needed to address potential long-term effects of cultivating sacred moments in daily life.*

*This dissertation is a compound document (contains both a paper copy and a CD as part of the dissertation). The CD requires the following system requirements: Adobe Acrobat.