People practice meditation and other psycho-spiritual practices for a variety of health and growth-promoting reasons practices. The spectrum of motives is broad and includes the following areas:
- Health promotion, relaxation and stress reduction
- Promoting self-awareness and body awareness
- Deeper understanding of your own inner psychological processes, conditions and needs
- Strengthening emotional and behavioral self-regulation
- Desire for self-optimization (e.g. performance, creativity) and realization of personal potential
- Cultivation of healing, pro-social emotional qualities (e.g. mindfulness, compassion, forgiveness, wisdom, serenity, gratitude)
- Striving for transcendental experiences and spiritual self-realization
States of the latter category have been discussed and examined in the relevant literature for some time under terms such as “transpersonal or post-conventional stages of self and consciousness development”, “the further reaches of human nature”, “peak experiences”, “awakening experiences”, “persistent nonsymbolic states”, “optimal mental health”, “optimal well being”, “non-dual states” or “minimal phenomenal experiences”.
The thematic focus is dedicated to the following questions around the topic of spiritual well-being and growth:
