Distress relief and stabilising psychological well-being: spiritual coping among Sinhalese Buddhist in Sri Lanka

ABSTRACT

The present study explores how personal experiential narratives influenced by culture affect psychological well-being among Sinhalese Buddhist in Sri Lanka, and how religious coping methods can be employed to refine negative narratives to reduce distress while obtaining psychological well-being. A narrative psychological approach was used to obtain autobiographical interviews from 27 participants. Empirical observations were carried out at two religious sites. The study reveals that the sense of uncertainty can form negative narratives about life-episodes, which in turn causes self-efficacy distortion while depreciating psychological well-being. The study thus highlights the importance of spirituality and mindfulness in refining those negative narratives of life-episodes that ultimately contribute to psychological well-being.

KEYWORDS:

• Distress
• experiential narratives
• psychological well-being
• religious coping
• self-efficacy

Acknowledgement

I am grateful to editor Kate Loewenthal and the anonymous reviewers for their generous and thoughtful comments. I also wish to acknowledge Dr. Gayathri Wijesundara for her help and encouragement in improving this piece. Lastly, I deeply appreciate the generosity and hospitality of all those who shared their stories with me.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Black and White Rituals: Black rituals are performed for evil purposes involving evil spirits whereas white rituals are used for good purposes such as to obtain prosperity.

2 Demonology: The study about influences of demons or non-humans on human beings.

3 Great tradition: The culture of the elite in society as conceptualized by Redfield (1956).