“Walking with God”: developing and pilot testing a manualised four-week program combining Christian meditation and light-to-moderate physical activity for daily stress
Joshua J. Knabb, R. Pate, Sean Sullivan, E. Salley, Amy Miller, William R. Boyer
Mental Health, Religion & Culture October 20, 2020 DOI: 10.1080/13674676.2020.1819221 (opens in new tab) via Semantic Scholar
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Pilot study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 8 |
| Population | Christian adults with daily stress who are churchgoers |
| Interventions | Christian meditation Light-to-moderate physical activity |
| Duration | 4-week intervention |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Psychology |
| Key points | 75% of participants reported score changes in the hypothesized direction on all four outcome variables after a four-week program combining Christian meditation with physical activity. |
Abstract
ABSTRACT 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.