Abstract
While many studies have indicated a connection between religion and health among older individuals, fewer have focused on spiritual practices, and none to date on spiritual practices among nonreligious seniors. The purpose of this study was to examine the types, meanings, and benefits of spiritual practices among older adults and to discuss their implications for health and support. In-depth interviews were conducted with a sample of 129 individuals, average age 77, of whom 98 were highly religious members of churches or synagogues and 31 were atheists, agnostics, secular humanists, or religiously indifferent. Interviewers probed to ascertain distinctions between religious and spiritual practices. Results indicated, first, a surprisingly wide array of activities identified by respondents as spiritual or religious practices: over 18 were recorded, ranging from the anticipated (prayer, meditation, reading scripture) to the more novel (attending long-distance bible study groups via Skype, watercolor painting). Second, we found a surprising overlap between the religious and the non-religious older adults in many spiritual practices: meditation, music, communing with nature, feeling gratitude, being with intimates. Third, many respondents reported that their spiritual practices had changed as they were aging, many reporting an increase with age. We examine these findings in terms of their implications for health and well-being. Unfortunately, too often health practitioners have not been sensitive to the benefits of spiritual practices in the lives of older adults.