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ABSTRACT
Life and death are like two faces of a coin, when an individual ponders upon their existence, the thought of death comes invariably. The appraisal of contentment within one's life is bound to be dependent upon several factors, and one such relationship that needs to be explored in-depth is between the meaning in our life and our existential thoughts with life satisfaction. The present study aimed at exploring the relationship between personal meaning production, critical existential thinking and life satisfaction using the Spiritual Intelligence Self-Report Inventory and the Satisfaction with Life Scale. The sample comprised of 108 (N=108, Females=52, Males=56) educated, middle aged and older adults residing in urban areas of Delhi, NCR. The findings suggested that personal meaning production was a positively correlated with life satisfaction.
Key words: Existential thinking, Life satisfaction, Meaning in life, Spiritual intelligence
INTRODUCTION
Spiritual Intelligence
The definition of spiritual intelligence varies according to different authors, however beliefs that remain alike is that spiritual intelligence is an 'ability' that exemplifies values, principles and qualities that facilitate manifestation of awareness, and strengthen positive growth and well-being.
According to David B. King (2008), spiritual intelligence is "a set of mental capacities which contribute to the awareness, integration, and adaptive application of the nonmaterial and transcendent aspects of one's existence". He emphasizes that the outcome of this inherent human ability allows the individual to reflect upon existential dilemmas, engage in the process of personal meaning making, and experience an unequalable awareness about oneself and other deeper states of consciousness. With regard to this, King (2008) proposed four core abilities or capacities of spiritual intelligence: Critical Existential Thinking, Personal Meaning Production, transcendental Awareness, and Conscious State Expansion.
The focus of the present paper is towards two specific dimensions of spiritual intelligence, namely critical existential thinking and personal meaning production along with life satisfaction.
Critical Existential Thinking
According to King (2008), Critical Existential Thinking has been defined as "the capacity to critically contemplate the nature of existence, reality, the universe, space, time, death, and other existential or metaphysical issues". In other words, it could be understood as thinking about one's own existence, understanding the matters of life, death, reality, consciousness and alike. With thoughts regarding one's existence, spirituality and spiritual intelligence are often...