Meaningfulness and Healthfulnesss

Everyone at some point has asked themselves about the meaning of their life.  That question was much easier to answer in past centuries and decades. The religious could be content to know that their purpose was to "serve God."  The secular could believe that they were born to care for their family and/or community.  Religion and a shared moral code provided a reassuring and calming influence for its subscribers.  Unfortunately, contemporary America provides much less direction toward a meaningful life than it did in the remote past.

Reassurance and calm always has contributed to physical and mental health.  In bygone days, those who truly believed in the divine and in the social good had more incentive to comport themselves properly, since standards of proper behavior were more widely shared.  For instance, back then, all but the most non-religious people recognized the benefits of a life that avoided the seven deadly sins - pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and sloth.

Even today, one readily can imagine benefits from avoiding the seven.  Among other things, we could  anticipate something like the following: Absence of pride would decrease esteem problems.  Absence of greed would facilitate the distribution of scarce resources.   Absence of lust would fortify marital bonds. Absence of envy would enable us to feel more content and to appreciate better what we do have.  Absence of gluttony would reduce our waistlines and minimize our need to work relentlessly to get things we really don't need. Absence of wrath would lower our blood pressures and promote family and community unanimity.  And absence of sloth would help us come much closer to achieving our potentials.

Today those who make assiduous efforts to avoid the seven deadly sins inadvertently fashion a meaningful lifestyle.  By actively behaving to avoid the corrupting influences of the seven, people create implicit or explicit goals and standards that facilitate well-being.  One simply cannot engage consistently in unhealthful behaviors while committing the deadly sins.

Religion and community concern of course are not the only motivators to avoid the sins.  Even a purely selfish desire to live healthfully can prompt one to avoid pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and sloth. Whatever the reason for the avoidance, if it encourages a meaningful life, benefits accrue.  Stephanie A. Hooker, Kevin S. Masters, and Crystal L. Park (2017), in fact, render empirical support to the idea that a global sense of meaning reduces the likelihood of illness and death.  "Meaningful," they defined, as a life that their subjects felt had a comprehensible purpose with positive social implications. After scrutinizing the data, the researchers did conclude that a strong sense of meaning in life was correlated with improved coping skills, more health-promoting behavior, and reduced stress.

What "meaning" do you ascribe to the meaningfulness study?

Reference

Hooker, Stephanie A.; Masters, Kevin S.; Park, Crystal L. (2017).   A Meaningful Life Is a Healthy Life: A Conceptual Model Linking Meaning and Meaning Salience to Health.  Review of General Psychology, July 06 , 2017, No Pagination Specified. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/gpr0000115