PRINCETON, NJ -- An analysis of more than 676,000 Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index interviews conducted in 2011 and 2010 finds that Americans who are the most religious have the highest levels of wellbeing. The statistically significant relationship between religiousness and wellbeing holds up after controlling for numerous demographic variables.

Previous research has shown that religiosity, defined either as church attendance or as self-reported importance of religion, is related to age, gender, race and ethnicity, region and state of the country, socio-economic status, marital status, and child-bearing status. Because wellbeing is also related to these variables, all of these characteristics are controlled for in this Gallup analysis.

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This is an informative article...

This survey should come as no surprise to those who embrace the teachings of The Urantia Book. One of my favorite quotes:

^100:4.3  Of health and sanity man understands much, but of happiness he has truly realized very little. The highest happiness is indissolubly linked with spiritual progress. Spiritual growth yields lasting joy, peace which passes all understanding.

For even more information on religion - what is is, how to find it, and what it can do for us, please see this topical study on RELIGION

Hallelujah to the Nobel Peace Committee! By honoring three brave, determined women - Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee, and Tawakul Karman, they shine light on true heroines of our time. This prize of prizes points to two realities that politicians, academics, and media have long downplayed. Women and those they care for suffer disproportionately in war and conflict. But they are also at the forefront of work for peace. Women tend to be shoved to the sidelines when it comes to negotiations and treaties,barely visible in photos of the peace tables across the world. But where it really matters you find women at work. The Nobel trio honors hundreds of thousands of unsung heroines in far flung, often dark corners of the world.

Happily women's suffering, the unthinkable brutality of war and rape as a common weapon, women's creativity and potential, and women's rights to respect and power get far more attention today than a decade ago, not least because people like the three new Laureates have forced change.

But there's a special dimension that gets precious little attention: religion as an inspiration for women's work for peace, and the support they get from their faith communities. Religious peacemakers like Archbishop Desmond Tutu (whose birthday we celebrate today) and Mahatma Gandhi are icons among peacemakers. But women in religious communities, working doggedly to bring peace, are often invisible. With formal religious leadership so heavily dominated by men, it's the men who are generally at the forefront. But, if you look more carefully, you find the women.

Sometimes women welcome a shroud of invisibility: they cite modesty but also the benefits of being unseen and unremarked. But women's invisibility matters, and nowhere more so than within religious circles and communities. Women often see avenues that the male leaders miss. They also can tap reservoirs of strength and ideas that women and men who work outside religious mindsets and institutions can ignore. It's not a simple matter as the boundaries among categories are blurred. But it's a strong tendency that needs to be addressed.

Putting faith at the fore adds new perspectives. It forces a deeper look at what peace means because true peace is far more than just silencing the guns. Looking at peace more broadly brings in many fields where women are active and that are truly essential to peace--from development and public health to political advocacy--all contribute to creating stable, just, and peaceful societies.

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From The Urantia Book:

^84:6.4  "Woman, however, has always been the moral standard-bearer and the spiritual leader of mankind. The hand that rocks the cradle still fraternizes with destiny."

Also, please see TruthBook's topical study on WOMEN 

Peace is an elusive quality, challenging to teach, challenging to achieve, challenging to maintain on such a planet as ours...

Please see our topical studies on Peace, and Peace of Mind

The mere mention of inner peace brings me visions of rolling-meadows with wildflowers and meditating monks. But what exactly is inner peace? How can we possibly achieve it during these interesting (some would say turbulent) times? Is inner peace a far-off fantasy or something we can attain in this lifetime?

For me, inner peace is the holy grail of spiritual and psychological health and can be experienced by most of us, at least for short periods of time. Realistically, I don't expect to experience it 24/7. I discovered many years ago that I have an inner wound that says, "I'm not good enough." I've also discovered that this inner message is almost universal, at least among those of us raised in the Western world. It is hard for me to experience peace when my inner voice sometimes whispers and sometimes shouts out all my shortcomings. By working on this psychological shadow — the parts of me I want to hide, repress or deny — I have been able to experience longer periods of inner peace.

I find it hard to feel peaceful when my body is agitated or my mind is fatigued or depressed. By supporting my health and resilience at all levels, I have boosted my happiness tremendously. I consider authentic happiness to be the other holy grail of psychological and spiritual health.

Another big piece of peace for me is feeling fulfilled and living my life on purpose. For me, passion and purpose go together. Spending time developing my life mission has helped immensely to give my life meaning. In my quest for truth and to be of service in the world, I have come to realize that asking and answering the question, "Why bother?" is crucial. Why bother to get out of bed in the morning and do what I need to do stay healthy and happy? Why bother to exercise, eat right, deal with my inner conflicts, and connect with other people? As I've gotten an inkling of why I'm here and where I want to go, my journey has become much more peaceful.

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Jesus promised "peace that passes understanding" when we follow him and accept the good news of our sonship with God under the Fatherhood of God...when we experience the spiritual growth necessary for successful religious living.

^100:4.3 But the great problem of religious living consists in the task of unifying the soul powers of the personality by the dominance of LOVE. Health, mental efficiency, and happiness arise from the unification of physical systems, mind systems, and spirit systems. Of health and sanity man understands much, but of happiness he has truly realized very little. The highest happiness is indissolubly linked with spiritual progress. Spiritual growth yields lasting joy, peace which passes all understanding.

Nicholas Stojakovich's spiritual well-being grew once he supplemented his private faith with attendance at Hope Church in Springfield.

And the church was there for him when his only son, Matthew, 25, died in an August 2008 auto accident in Pennsylvania in which he was a passenger in a car that hit a pole.

“I was just an absolute mess. My whole world just came crashing down,” said Stojakovich, who lives in Springfield. “I loved my son dearly and had a lot of questions about faith. I never got angry at God as much as I just (asked), ‘God, why?’”

Without the support of his church family, Stojakovich said he doesn’t know what he would have done. They talked and prayed with him. A group of people surrounded him with love, concern and support.

Thousands in 25 Countries
to Celebrate 1st Global Oneness Day Oct. 24

BOULDER, Colo.—Thousands of people in more than 25 countries will celebrate the first Global Oneness Day Oct. 24 by demonstrating humanity's inner unity and outer diversity, organizers announced today.

The day—initiated by the global grassroots Humanity's Team movement and supported by the Association for Global New Thought and some three dozen other groups—"is a day when the greatness of the whole is reflected in the greatness of its parts," Humanity's Team Worldwide Coordinating Director Steve Farrell said.

It is also a day that is a key steppingstone toward creating lasting peace in the world, organizers said.

"Lasting peace requires that we awaken humanity to our underlying oneness, educate people to the beauty of our diversity and alert the world to the imperative that we must embody these values so that life as we know it may not only be preserved, but renewed and transformed," AGNT President the Rev. Dr. Michael Bernard Beckwith said.

Prominent Global Oneness Day supporters include South African Nobel Peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu; artist-musician Yoko Ono; spiritual writers Deepak Chopra, Marianne Williamson, Neale Donald Walsch and Andrew Harvey; Trappist monk and priest Father Thomas Keating; futurist Barbara Marx Hubbard, and U.N. Culture of Peace emissary Anwarul K. Chowdhury.

The day, planned as the first annual worldwide celebration, provides opportunities for individuals, organizations and nations to create practical acts demonstrating unity, diversity, harmony and compassion on a shared date, comparable to what happens on Earth Day.

Practical action will provide tangible, experiential proof of how we can live "when we come from a place of oneness," Beckwith said. "It will encourage us all to expand our hopes, beliefs and behaviors so that at any moment oneness may permeate all aspects of life."

"Would the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks have occurred if humanity had already recognized we are all one?" Beckwith said. "Would we now tolerate accelerated global warming, extreme poverty and hunger, and gender inequality? Would we fight each other under the banner of organized religion and in the name of God?"

Recognizing the oneness of humanity and all of life is the key to solving most chronic and acute world problems, Beckwith said.

U.N. ENVOY: NO PEACE WITHOUT ONENESS

Indeed, peace efforts will continue to fail until people embrace humanity's oneness, Chowdhury said May 20 on receiving a grassroots plea to the United Nations, signed by more than 50,000 people from 168 countries, appealing to the world body to affirm humanity's oneness and endorse an annual Global Oneness Day.

"I believe that unless we have that sense of solidarity among the peoples of the world, all our efforts of peace and security will go nowhere," said Chowdhury, a former undersecretary-general and high representative of the United Nations.

A sampling of scheduled Global Oneness Day events, to date, includes:

• PHILIPPINES: A Global Oneness Eve Celebration with speakers and workshops at Mogwai Cinematheque in Quezon City near Manila.
• AUSTRALIA: A Oneness Circle, picnic, free hugs campaign and other "unity in diversity" activities at the Botanic Gardens of Adelaide.
• SOUTH AFRICA: A five-hour workshop and picnic near Johannesburg to "reflect upon, celebrate and experience that which we have in common, as well as that which is uniquely who we are, in respect of religion, spirituality, culture and our connectedness to all of life." Organizer Humanity's Team South Africa—leading a drive for South Africa's Parliament to embrace oneness by declaring a National Ubuntu Day—said it would also hold a food and clothing drive "because we are all one."
• GERMANY: A bilingual, German-English public global oneness meditation teleconference, with local phone numbers in most European countries and the United States and free phone service over the Internet through Skype.
• ITALY: A screening of "ONE: The Movie" near Venice to increase awareness of humanity's connections "in a world that too often seems disconnected and broken."
• ENGLAND: People holding hands in Oneness Circles in at least seven cities, including around the base of the historic Cabot Tower in Bristol, followed by discussions and shared meals in most cities.
• ARGENTINA: A festival with music, dancing, free hugs, a shared meal and "reflections on practical ways of living in oneness" at the Seven Palms Community in Buenos Aires.
• BRAZIL: A Festival of Unity at a major square in Salvador da Bahia, a city known as Brazil's "capital of happiness" due to its joyful population and many outdoor parties.
• UNITED STATES: Oneness Circles in at least 16 cities, interfaith services in a number of churches, a meditation in Seattle, a rally for oneness in Hagerstown, Md., and a daylong visit to the Montgomery (Ala.) Zoo organized by a group that wants "to develop a greater appreciation for all life."

In addition, at least three dozen New Thought churches in six countries will hold special services that day, AGNT said. Beckwith's Agape International Spiritual Center in Culver City, Calif., with more than 9,000 members, will stream its three morning Global Oneness Day services live over the Internet on www.agapelive.com.

"Oneness is more than a beautiful word," Beckwith said. "The voice of science increasingly agrees with what mystics, prophets and sages have said for millennia—that life is a unified whole with multiple dimensions, each complementing the other. This means we are all one!"

GLOBAL ONENESS DAY TELECONFERENCE

A key official ceremonial event will be a 60-minute public "Global Oneness Day Celebration Connection" teleconference with Walsch, Chowdhury, Hubbard and more than a dozen other international dignitaries, celebrities and grassroots leaders beginning at 10 a.m. EDT (14h00 GMT). The teleconference—at phone number +1-218-486-3850, access code 52059#—will include a report on Global Oneness Day activities around the world.

A separate public teleconference spotlighting U.S. Global Oneness Day activities is set for 6 p.m. EDT. It will use the same phone number and access code.

A number of activities led up to Global Oneness Day. Three of the biggest included the Humanity's Team "peace through oneness" International Day of Peace observances Sept. 21; AGNT's Seasons of Interfaith-Intercultural Celebration, part of its Gandhi-King Season for Nonviolence Campaign; and a free, global "40 Days to Oneness" program of daily practices and weekly teleconferences that Humanity's Team began Sept. 11 with Walsch as a special guest and will end Oct. 23 with Harvey. The program, supporting the expression and celebration of oneness, is based on the book "The Proof," by James F. Twyman and Anakha Coman, and done in collaboration with the authors.

"The awareness that even with our individual differences we are all one will shift the political, economic and spiritual reality so humanity can finally realize a dream it has had since time immemorial—citizens of the world living in peace, harmony and happiness," Beckwith said.

For more information about Global Oneness Day, visit www.global-oneness-day.org.

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Credit: Dreamstime

When Felicia Snyder voluntarily left her job at a high-tech start-up company, she found her life in transition and upheaval. On a friend's recommendation, she went on a spiritual retreat to a secluded retreat called an ashram and spent three hours a day in meditation and prayer. Her life, she says, changed for the better.

"There was this deep sense of peace, like a protective bubble around me that I had never experienced before," Snyder said.

Snyder, 27, was then inspired to found Meditation for Women, a Boston-area center devoted to giving women a comfortable haven for practicing meditation and finding balance in their lives.

Snyder is one of countless people seeking stillness amid all the commotion. Meditation can be good for the mind and soul, experts say, and it is becoming a more common way to treat health conditions. While it is not fully understood what changes in the body during meditation, the practice has been shown in various studies to relieve stress and improve the physical side effects of anxiety.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention refer to meditation as a group of techniques that may be practiced for many reasons, such as to increase calmness and physical relaxation, improve psychological balance, cope with illness, or enhance overall wellness.

How to meditate

Particularly for a beginner, the person preparing to meditate should seek a quiet location without distractions. Specific comfortable postures, a focus of attention and an open attitude are general elements of the practice.

Two common forms are mindfulness meditation and Transcendental Meditation. Mindfulness meditation is based on Buddhist teachings that involve focusing one's mind on the present. A person should sit alone quietly, be aware of her breathing and be mindful of the thoughts that come and go.

Transcendental Meditation is a different technique. TM is based on mantra meditation, in which the person chants a mantra or other sounds and sits comfortably for 15 to 20 minutes twice a day.

Most kinds of meditation should be practiced daily, preferably at the same time of day. Meditation should be done before a meal rather than after, and a quiet spot should be set aside for no other use than meditating.

The benefits

Two recent studies presented at the annual meeting of the Society of Behavioral Medicine showed Transcendental Meditation may reduce symptoms of depression in older adults at high risk for cardiovascular disease. The studies were conducted at Charles Drew University and University of Hawaii. Participants in both studies who practiced the meditation techniques showed significant reduction in depressive symptoms compared with those who did not meditate.

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While meditation of the kind described in this article may be beneficial, it bears little in common with the kind of meditation that Jesus practiced while living his life on earth. I would venture to say that learning about, and practicing "Jesus-Style Meditation" could produce even greater benefits. Unlike the forms of meditation that have come from Eastern religions, Jesus-Style meditation engages the mind and encourages a dialogue between God and the individual. Please click on the link provided to read all about it.

When people want to change, they often turn to religion. Though the specifics of what we should change and how vary by tradition, the promise that our lives will become more peaceful through spiritual practice runs through many traditions. In a society where anxiety seems higher than ever, this may be one of the most appealing aspects of religion.

Seeking Peace

The Qur'an promises relief from anxiety for all believers (including Christians and Jews), saying that those who believe in God "on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve" (Qur'an 2:62). The commands "Be not afraid" and "Fear not" run through the Bible, though in some parts it says that we should fear God, just nothing else. In Matthew's Gospel, Jesus challenges his followers: "Do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' ... But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you" (Matt 6:31-33).

Along with the call to trust God, these scriptures also include the instruction to care for other people, especially those Jesus calls "the least of my brothers." As the prophet Isaiah states:

If you give your bread to the hungry and relief to the oppressed, your light will rise in the darkness and your shadow become like noon. Yahweh will always guide you, giving you relief in desert places. He will give strength to your bones and you will be like a watered garden, like a spring of water whose waters never run dry. (Isaiah 58:10-11)

In spiritual traditions that do not center on a supreme deity, we still find the instruction to serve and care for others rather than anxiously focusing on ourselves. As the Dalai Lama explains, "If the love within your mind is lost, if you continue to see other beings as enemies, then no matter how much knowledge or education you have, no matter how much material progress is made, only suffering and confusion will ensue." On the other hand, he teaches, "If you contribute to other people's happiness, you will find the true goal, the true meaning of life."

How to Change

How do we change so radically that we are more concerned about other people's happiness than our own? How do we find true peace? The answer in many faiths is summed up on a bumper sticker: "Know God, know peace." Black Elk, a Sioux spiritual leader, once explained:

The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness, with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize that at the center of the universe dwells Wakan-Taka (the Great Spirit), and that this center is really everywhere, it is within each of us. This is the real peace, and the others are but reflections of this.

Spiritual practices -- whether fasting, study of scripture, prayer, or works of charity -- are meant to gradually transform us. Cistercian monk Thomas Keating writes, "The conscious resolution to change our values and behavior is not enough." An advocate of the centuries-old practice of silent contemplative prayer, Keating says we have deeply embedded patterns of selfish and unhealthy behavior, so we need help from what he calls "the Divine Therapist." Similarly, Quakers starting in the seventeenth century adopted a form of silent worship in which they felt the "Inner Light" reveal to them the parts of themselves that needed to be changed.

On the surface, centering prayer and Quaker worship don't look that different from Buddhist meditation, though in Buddhism there is no "Divine Therapist" guiding the process. Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh explains, "Peace is present right here and now, in ourselves and in everything we do and see. The question is whether or not we are in touch with it." The promise of practice, he teaches, is that we can "smile, breathe, walk, and eat our meals in a way that allows us to be in touch with the abundance of happiness that is available."

Our Role

One of the tensions between and within traditions is the question of how much our transformation is in our control. For some, God is the potter, and we are the clay, reshaped by something greater than ourselves. For others, we have the power to initiate change, or at the very least, we choose to yield to the potter's touch. In the recovery movement, they talk of willingness to change, rather than willfulness. Even in Buddhism, where more emphasis is put on a practitioner's dedicated practice, striving for enlightenment is not the way to achieve it. There is an aspect of change that is a mystery, though that does not mean we are powerless.

When thinking about trying to become a more peaceful and loving person myself, I think of Reinhold Niebuhr's Serenity Prayer and the hope and humility it offers:

God, grant me serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can change,
And wisdom to know the difference.

Dekha Ibrahim Abdi, a courageous woman from the arid north of Kenya, devotes her life to building peace. She compares this work to an egg. "An egg is delicate and fragile. But if given the right conditions, it gives life." Likewise, the potential for peace is fragile, and it needs careful nurturing if that potential is to be fulfilled.

Only a tiny number of those who sign peace agreements are women (one count puts the share at 2 percent). Likewise, photographs of interfaith gatherings constitute unmistakable evidence that religious leadership is one of the last places where the glass ceiling survives intact. But women, of course -- as victims of war, citizens, and nurturers of values that are transmitted from generation to generation -- are obviously deeply engaged in peace and religion. So where are they?

This was the question underlying a symposium at Georgetown University last week held by the United States Institute for Peace out of concern that both religion and women were too rarely at the center of its work. The symposium revealed an extraordinary array of activity that involves women, peace, and religion.

Stories of creativity, persistence and heroism tumbled out in a series of interviews and at the symposium. Dekha Ibrahim Abdi quoted the Koran to shame the groups fighting each other in her country into addressing their differences. Nuns in Uganda, Colombia and the Philippines stand as witnesses, hide those in danger, and demand action where rape is used as a weapon of war. Ashima Kaul returns again and again to Kashmir to document a past where different communities lived peacefully side by side. Bilkisu Yussuf demands action from Muslim and Christian leaders alike in the tense north of Nigeria and Amina Rasul-Bernardo helps Muslim women religious leaders (the Aleemat) in the Philippines to break out of traditional supporting roles into action to transform the community. Elana Rozenman hosts women from all Israeli communities at her house in "pajama parties" that offer a tiny glimpse of her vision of peaceful diversity.

So a first puzzle is why so much of this work is simply invisible. Security and peace have continued to be male bastions, despite Security Council Resolution 1325 that calls unequivocally for more women in peace processes. Some women claim that they need to be invisible to do their work well, to protect them from threats and to make sure that credit and responsibility are shared.

But invisibility has a cost. It means that heroines are rarely recognized and celebrated. There are fewer role models to inspire young leaders. And support and funding rarely go to invisible efforts.

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Please click on "external source" to access this entire article. And, you may be interested to have a look at Truthbook's topical study on Women HERE. The Urantia Book has a lot to say on this subject...and HERE is the link to our study on Peace