"Walking with God": developing and pilot testing a manualised four-week program combining Christian meditation and light-to-moderate physical activity for daily stress.

In the current study, the authors developed and pilot tested a manualized four-week program for Christian adults with daily stress, combining Christian meditation with light-to-moderate physical activity among a community sample of churchgoers (N = 8). Although Eastern-influenced mindful walking and...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Mental Health, Religion & Culture Vol. 23; no. 9; pp. 756 - 777
Main Authors: Knabb, Joshua, Pate, Robert, Sullivan, Sean, Salley, Erik, Miller, Amy, Boyer, William
Format: Article
Published: Taylor & Francis Ltd Nov2020
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Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
Description
Summary:In the current study, the authors developed and pilot tested a manualized four-week program for Christian adults with daily stress, combining Christian meditation with light-to-moderate physical activity among a community sample of churchgoers (N = 8). Although Eastern-influenced mindful walking and yoga practices are quite popular in the contemporary psychology literature as interventions for a wide variety of psychological problems, we wanted to offer a Christian-sensitive alternative for Christian adults to draw from their own faith tradition to impact psychological change. Over a four-week period of time, Christian participants were instructed to meditate on a short passage in Scripture as they engaged in a daily 30-minute movement and walking activity. On all four outcome variables, pilot results revealed that 75% of participants reported score changes in the hypothesized direction. To conclude, study limitations are reviewed, as are directions for future research.