<p> Common principles, or threads, are studied that are readily found in both spiritual traditions (including religion) and in the field of sustainability. Oneness, Living Simply, Purity, and Care and Heart are examined at length, while Awakening, Awe and Wonder, and Preservation of Life are covered briefly. Opposite principles&mdash;for example, Oneness versus Fracturedness, and Purity versus Pollution&mdash;are analyzed as well. Principles <i>and</i> their opposites are found to have both high and low modes. Each polarity has life-supporting and life-degrading forms. </p><p> Spiritual and religious traditions are grouped into five broad categories. While three of the categories consist of world religions (traditions of Indian origin, Abrahamic traditions, and East Asian traditions), also included are indigenous traditions, alchemy and Hermeticism, and modern spiritual teachings. Sustainability is organized into three categories: ecological science, activism, and sustainable business. </p><p> The common threads between sustainability and spirituality are most reliably found in the segments of world religions that tend toward mysticism, and within teachings that emphasize the cultivation of a greater capacity for just awareness, or presence itself, such as Eckhart Tolle&rsquo;s works. Indigenous traditions shine as examples of societies that have embodied, and in some cases, continue to embody life-supporting principles far more explicitly and fully than cultures that have lost intimacy with their local ecosystems. </p><p> The conclusions drawn based on findings is that wisdom traditions corroborate the idea that the outer world is a reflection of the inner world, and that improving the state of the planet therefore requires personal transformation as a prerequisite to outer improvements. A higher order of intelligence, or nous, referenced in multiple mystical traditions, is indispensable to sustainability work. This and other spiritual principles directly inform sustainability efforts, but to be fully employed they require first-hand, personal experience of spiritual realities. Those who would work toward a genuinely sustainable society are urged to pursue mystical or presence-based spiritual training and experience as a matter of urgency, including direct interaction with nature to facilitate rebuilding intimacy with ecosystems, combined with deepening understanding of ecologically sophisticated indigenous lifeways. </p>

<p> This doctoral project focuses on the effectiveness of Relational Spirituality training administered to the direct support professionals at Cedar Lake Lodge, an intermediate care facility for adults with severe intellectual and developmental disabilities. The effectiveness was tested through administration of a survey prior to and following a professional training session offered by the researcher. The results seem to demonstrate an increase in spiritual integration for direct support professionals who participated. The reframing of spiritual life supports as an element of recognizing the individuality of each person supported at Cedar Lake Lodge seemed to have a positive effect on professionals of various age, religious, and cultural affiliations. The expanded perspective of spiritual support holds the potential for cultivating rich, person centered care that is mutually beneficial to the people offering and receiving care in the intermediate care facility setting.</p>

<p> The album <i>Odalisque</i> by the indie rock band Sanglorians is the culmination of many years of deep personal, artistic, and technical work. Many aspects of the composition, arrangement, performance, and recording of the project album were widely influenced by the methodologies espoused within the Master of Music program in Commercial Music Composition and Arranging at California State University, Los Angeles. This project report explores these methodologies of commercial music composition as they were applied to each song during the songwriting, arranging, and production processes. Approached as a scholarly personal narrative manuscript, each song's genesis is sourced, and its meaning examined in proper creative context within the whole.</p>

<p> The harried nature of our society and contemporary church culture tends to prescribe that, for Christian artists, preparation for worship ministry occurs mostly during the hours immediately before Sunday service. While this practice demands a measure of technical, artistic or musical proficiency, it does not adequately prepare local church worship leaders and arts ministers to touch the deeper spiritual needs of the congregation. In addition, such short-termed preparation fails to promote spiritual growth towards Christian maturity. Neither does last minute preparation create spiritual stability within the life of the artist and arts ministries. A survey of Jesus&rsquo; ministry preparation habits indicates that he spent a significant amount of time preparing for ministry. However, his preparation was a patterned lifestyle. The opposite is true for most people in ministry today&mdash;including church musicians, worship leaders, worship team members and media volunteers. </p><p> The aforementioned challenge is particularly potent for emerging adults&mdash;people between the ages of 18 and 34. Cultural shifts impacting their definition of Christian spirituality threaten to distort the purpose and meaning of worship ministry in the church. Emerging adults are tomorrow&rsquo;s leaders. Consequently, forward-looking pastors, worship pastors and worship directors are hungry for answers to the question, &ldquo;How can we prepare the next generation of spiritual front-runners to lead transformational worship in the church?&rdquo; </p><p> The purpose of this applied research project is the evaluation of a 28-day course designed to spiritually prepare emerging adult worship artists for transformational ministry. Drawing on existing research regarding emerging adult spiritual formation, this study hypothesized that as a result of this intervention, the participants would experience four types of enhancement: In awareness of God and daily spiritual experiences with God; In the knowledge of how God uses the disciplines in one&rsquo;s ministry preparation; In effectively using spiritual disciplines in personal worship ministry preparation; In contextual understanding of how one&rsquo;s spiritual preparation interacts with and impacts the community (the congregation). </p><p> Participants met with the researcher for group coaching, once a week. These ninety-minute sessions were held during weekly worship rehearsals. The participants practiced spiritual formation homework assignments, incorporating fasting and prayer, silence and solitude and study and worship with a focus on ministry preparation during the other six days. The methodology for this course was a mixed approach since neither quantitative nor qualitative methods alone could adequately test the participants and the spiritual impact of the course. Self-reporting forms were created so that the participants could record their thoughts and use of the disciplines. These documents were emailed or handed in to the researcher at weekly meetings. Pretesting, homework, focus group data and post testing documents were statically analyzed or content analyzed. The findings were used to evaluate the course and its hypotheses. </p><p> The results of the analyses answered this research project&rsquo;s primary question in the affirmative. However, the degree of enhancement and kinds of enhancement varied based upon the participants&rsquo; individual role in ministry and application of the teachings. Twelve of the fourteen participants experienced some degree of an enhanced awareness of God&rsquo;s presence, enhanced knowledge of the spiritual disciplines as tools for worship ministry preparation, the effective use of the spiritual disciplines for transformational ministry preparation and an enhanced appreciation for the role artists play in meeting the spiritual needs of the congregation through worship.</p><p>

<p> This dissertation explores the stories of seven women spiritual-ecofeminist-activist-artists, including myself. It answers the question, <i>What transformative and spiritual connections does one have with her ecofeminist activism and art? </i></p><p> This study connects different ways of knowing from the mind, body, heart and spirit; and it has three significant dimensions. The first dimension&mdash;transdisciplinary spiritual feminist inquiry&mdash;allows the researcher to interconnect several disciplinary ways of knowing, and it presents feminist ways to inquire about experiences with activism and creative artistic expression. The second dimension&mdash;exploration of transformational and spiritual connections&mdash;explores how study participants experience spiritual connections within their spiritual-ecofeminist-activist-artwork. The third dimension&mdash;inspirational narratives&mdash;holds the hope for the reader to connect to these stories, ecofeminist activism, and artwork, and become inspired to become agents of creative social change. After the conclusion of each of the interviews, I created a reflective art-piece, inspired by each artist-activist.</p><p> The research methodology combines transdisciplinary inquiry with feminist and women&rsquo;s spirituality methods. Epistemological approaches are rooted in women&rsquo;s spirituality and feminism.</p><p> The responses of the seven women spiritual-ecofeminist-activist-artists revealed, upon analysis, nine shared themes: Inspiring Others; Finding One's Voice, Connecting to Ancestors, Healing; Honoring/Connecting to Nature, Finding Community, Traveling, Greening Daily Life, and Discovering/Honoring the Goddess. These themes, along with the three main themes&mdash;Early Inspiration and Goals, Art and Activism Interconnections, and Spiritual Dimensions&mdash;affirm that numerous spiritual and transformative connections exist between their activism and creative artwork, and that these connections are dependent upon the person&rsquo;s background, history, chosen spiritual-ecofeminist-activist-artwork, and creative media. Their responses indicate that there is a spiritual component to their spiritual-ecofeminist-activist-artwork and that their activism and artwork are interconnected. Their responses show that each of the seven women spiritual-ecofeminist-activist-artists defines ecofeminism in her own unique way, while making connections to nature, women, the sacred feminine or Goddess, and healing. And they utilized art and spiritual sources to heal and regain balance in their lives. The voices in this study, through storytelling, create a space of &ldquo;multiple consciousness,&rdquo; where the multi-dimensional voices of the seven women spiritual-ecofeminist-activist-artists are heard and valued.</p>

<p> This pilot study examined the impact of Christian meditation and biofeedback on levels of stress, anxiety, and depression of seminary students in Southern California. Participants were randomly assigned to practice Christian meditation or biofeedback for 4 weeks, three times per day, and to keep a log of their practice times.The study included 20 seminary students all of whom were theology students and who were recruited from two seminary campuses in Southern California. The participants were of various ethnic backgrounds with the majority being European Americans. The average age was 31. The results from a paired samples <i> t</i>-tests indicated that both biofeedback and Christian meditation significantly reduced the levels of stress, anxiety, and depression experienced by the participants. ANCOVA indicated that neither intervention was more effective than the other. The implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research are discussed.</p>

<p> <b>Purpose.</b> The purpose of this quantitative study, consistent with the original study by Bell (2006), was to examine the relationships between spirituality and job satisfaction among elementary school teachers.</p><p> <b>Methodology.</b> The Spirituality Assessment Scale (SAS; Howden, 1992) was used to determine the spirituality scores and the level of spirituality among teachers. The Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) short form (Weiss, Dawis, England, &amp; Lofquist, 1967) was used to determine intrinsic satisfaction and general satisfaction. The general satisfaction and spirituality scores were compared to determine if a relationship exists between job satisfaction and spirituality. Demographic variables of age, educational level, grade level taught, and numbers of years teaching were used to determine additional relationships between spirituality and job satisfaction among teachers. </p><p> Findings and Conclusions. A moderate significant positive correlation was found between spirituality and general job satisfaction. Similarly, a higher significant positive correlation was found between spirituality and intrinsic job satisfaction. These findings seem to confirm the idea that spirituality is closely related to general job satisfaction levels for elementary school teachers. No significant differences where noted on the spirituality measure or the general job satisfaction scale on any of the demographic aspects of the participant sample.</p><p> Recommendations. Future research should utilize this study to examine whether a strong sense of spirituality among educational leaders correlates to teacher job satisfaction. Studies should also examine where high levels of spirituality among teachers would positively impact the academic performance of their students. Researchers may also wish to consider the following question: Why did the correlation between spirituality and job satisfaction have a moderate significant relationship, and yet the overall job satisfaction scores of this group indicate low levels of general job satisfaction?</p>

<p>This interpretive phenomenological analysis research study articulates the experiences of 3 Christians who manifest secure attachment to God characteristics. Human infant attachment theory and subsequent attachment to God conceptualizations were the perspectives used in order to explore the phenomenon. Analysis of the data led to 4 emergent themes focused on the psychological implications of having a secure attachment to God: View of God as Kindhearted, View of Self Transformed by God, Theological Exploration without Fear, and Need for Closeness When Suffering. Findings indicated that participants experienced God as a loving parent who fully accepted an authentic self. Across time, participants were able to deconstruct theological concepts incongruent to life experiences and explore new theological ideas and practices without anxiety of experiencing negative responses from God. Participants? need for closeness to God when experiencing painful events, in particular when feeling powerless to fix the circumstances, was described as needing authentic conversation with God. These findings suggest that secure attachment to God may have psychological benefit and encourages clinicians to validate and explore attachment to God dynamics with clients who indicate having a relationship with God.

<p> The main purpose of this research was to explore the ways the members of church-based small groups of various denominations in Southern California have experienced transformative learning, and to identify the factors that contribute to that experience. </p><p> A qualitative research was conducted. Purposeful sampling was used, and the data was collected by semi structured interviews between May to September 2015. The interviewees had at least two years of experience in a church-based small group and had experienced a major change in their worldviews and values. A total of 22 people from six different churches were selected. Data was analyzed using the program NVivo 10. </p><p> The data analysis was done in two main sections. In the first section the transformative learning experiences of the participants were discussed. Some of the transformative learning experiences of the participants had started outside the small group, but the small group supported the person during the hard time of transformation. In the second section factors that fostered transformative learning were discussed. Ten major themes came up: relationships, Bible, God, good examples, problems, ministry, Christian literature, willingness, preaching of the church and church retreats. The most prominent theme was relationship, which had two main subcategories: Small group and one on one relationships. Small group in itself had nine subcategories: praying, discussion, love, sharing, accountability, transparency, support, fellowship and safe environment. </p><p> Implications of the study were presented: the church should faithfully teach the Bible; the church should provide opportunities for the members to get connected and develop relationships; to foster transformation within the small group, besides studying the Bible, the leader should provide room for discussions, sharing and fellowship; to support the members during transformation the group should be a safe haven, the Bible should be taught, but also relationships should be nurtured by sharing, praying for each other and holding each other accountable; role models should be available; serving should be encouraged; the members should be exposed to Christian literature; joining sermon-based small groups should be encouraged ; the group leaders should be attentive to the Spirit&rsquo;s works and flexible to adapt their plans.</p>

<p> A traumatic and life-altering event, such as sexual assault, can adversely affect a survivor&rsquo;s psychological well-being. In conjunction with an individual&rsquo;s natural resources, religious and/or spiritual resources can provide additional and critical support as the realities of the Interpersonal trauma come to fruition. However, many mental health professionals do not feel comfortable or prepared to include spiritual or religious issues, within the therapeutic relationship. The objective of this research study was to examine the connection between a female sexual assault victim&rsquo;s perceived God-image, attachment to a perceived God-image, and her experienced psychological distress, when processing Interpersonal trauma. This study employed Bowlby&rsquo;s attachment theory and Rizzuto&rsquo;s God-image theory. A convenience, nonprobability sample of 132 women, 18 years or older, who had experienced a sexual assault (but not within the past two years), completed a demographic questionnaire, Froese and Bader&rsquo;s God Questionnaire, and Lovibond and Lovibond&rsquo;s Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21). Data was analyzed using a MANOVA. The data concluded a lack of significant difference between the participant&rsquo;s perceived God image, her attachment to a God-image, and her selfreported levels of psychological distress due to the traumatic, Interpersonal experience. In the future, qualitatively analyzing this population would further explore valid themes and personal perspectives on the relationship between perceived God-image, an individual&rsquo;s attachment to a God-image, and her experienced psychological distress, which may further be used to inform mental health professionals on the most conducive treatment for sexual assault survivors. </p>