Spiritual Activities and Health: Insights from Pew’s Religious Landscape Study
Health is bigger than a narrow focus on physical illness and disease. In its constitution, the World Health Organization defines health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” Medical professionals have also called for expanding national views of health to consider people in their communities and families, alongside how health develops and changes over time (Fiscella and Epstein 2023). The big picture is that health has multiple dimensions including physical, mental, emotional, social, and even spiritual.
In this post, I point out ways in which religion, spirituality, and individual health behaviors overlap. Religion is an important social institution, and people’s spirituality may inform how they think and act. Through an academic lens, religion and spirituality can function as social and cultural factors that shape what health means and how people approach it. A person’s religious or spiritual worldview can potentially affect how they navigate their health; a simple example is religious dietary restrictions. Our physical, mental, and spiritual lives represent different aspects of a holistic way of thinking about health. These aspects can be interrelated and mutually influential, while also remaining analytically distinct. I highlight these overlaps by pointing to connections between science and religion in activities people consider spiritual, but that are also associated with health-enhancing outcomes.
The Pew Religious Landscape Study is the most comprehensive and recent national survey estimating the religious and spiritual composition of the United States. Released in 2024, it surveyed people from across the country. The report discusses activities Americans engage in for spiritual purposes. The findings highlighted below correspond to behaviors that research has independently associated with positive physical and mental health outcomes.
These are activities Americans regularly report doing for spiritual reasons, along with related scientific findings:
Listening to music
Almost half of respondents (48%) report listening to music every week. Scientific research shows that music’s rhythm, tonality, reward, and sociality are associated with mood, motivation, and cognitive processes (Bowling 2023; Orpella et al. 2025).
Introspection and meditation
Forty percent of those surveyed take time for introspection (such as looking inward or centering themselves) weekly or more, and 23% report meditating weekly or more often. Taken together, these findings suggest that a large portion of Americans engage in some form of reflective or mindful practice. Research has found associations between meditation and well-being, including links to changes in brain structure related to emotional regulation and stress reduction (Calderone et al. 2024; Jamil et al. 2023, 2021).
Physical exercise
About one-third of participants (30%) report exercising at least weekly for spiritual reasons. A large body of research links exercise with physical and mental health outcomes, including physiological resilience (the body’s ability to repair itself), circadian regulation, and emotional well-being. Exercise is also associated with mental health factors such as emotion regulation, self-esteem, and resilience (White et al. 2024; Qiu et al. 2023; World Health Organization 2020; Li et al. 2018).
Spending time in nature
Just under one in six (15%) report visiting nature for spiritual reasons. Research has found that spending time outdoors is associated with lower anxiety, reduced rumination, and the maintenance of positive emotion. Activities such as gardening, outdoor exercise near water or greenery, and nature-based therapies have been linked to emotional support and anxiety reduction. There is also some evidence suggesting associations with physical health outcomes, such as lower blood pressure and improved immune function (Bratman et al. 2015; Coventry et al. 2021; Howarth et al. 2020; Jimenez et al. 2021; Nejade et al. 2022).
Yoga
Approximately 7% report practicing yoga for spiritual reasons. Americans have increasingly used yoga for pain management and stress reduction since the early 2000s. While scientific evidence of yoga’s physical and mental health benefits remains limited and more research is needed, some studies suggest its potential as a supplementary approach for lowering blood pressure, reducing non-clinical anxiety, stress relief, and supporting chronic lower back pain (Cramer et al. 2018; Chang et al. 2016; Wayne et al. 2025; Elgaddal and Weeks 2024; Khajuria et al. 2024; Nahin et al. 2024; Wu et al. 2019).
These percentages differ across religious groups, but even respondents who report no religious affiliation—atheists, agnostics, and people who believe in nothing in particular—report engaging in these activities for spiritual reasons.
Disclaimer
I acknowledge that this is not an exhaustive list of behaviors people may engage in for religious or spiritual purposes. This post focuses on the six activities reported in the Pew Religious Landscape Study. While these activities are associated with positive health outcomes, some religious behaviors may negatively impact health. This post is descriptive rather than prescriptive and does not argue that religion or spirituality cause better health outcomes.
Read the study here. A full citation list is available upon request.
