Distress relief and stabilising psychological well-being: spiritual coping among Sinhalese Buddhist in Sri Lanka

The present study explores how personal experiential narratives influenced by culture affect psychological well-being among Sinhalese Buddhist in Sri Lanka, and how religious coping methods can be employed to refine negative narratives to reduce distress while obtaining psychological well-being. A narrative psychological approach was used to obtain autobiographical interviews from 27 participants. Empirical observations were carried out at two religious sites. The study reveals that the sense of uncertainty can form negative narratives about life-episodes, which in turn causes self-efficacy distortion while depreciating psychological well-being. The study thus highlights the importance of spirituality and mindfulness in refining those negative narratives of life-episodes that ultimately contribute to psychological well-being.