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Caitlin Crawshaw
For Canwest News Service

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EDMONTON - While it remains gauche to talk-up your Bible study or meditation group at work, faith plays an instrumental role in employees' health and can even benefit their workplaces, says a Vancouver psychologist.

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Photo handout/Edmonton Journal

Faith - Carole Kanchier, author of Dare to Change Your Job and Your Life. With Edmonton Journal story by Caitlin Crawshaw for Canwest Workplace and Computers Package.

"Spirituality is part of mental health," says Carole Kanchier, author of Dare to Change Your Job and Your Life.

"When a person is a fully functioning person, he or she is intellectually growing, emotionally at peace ... (They have) good relationships and take care of their physical health ...They also have spiritual practices."

Kanchier says more and more people are becoming spiritual.

"Certainly different kinds of religion are growing - one is fundamentalism, but another is spirituality that doesn't involve any religious practice."

She stresses that spirituality needn't involve religious practices, per se. More and more people are spiritual, says Kanchier, but not religious, and may practise their beliefs in a wide range of ways - simple things like meditation, listening to music or appreciating nature.

A 2006 study by Statistics Canada suggests adult Canadians may not be attending religious events in high numbers, but engage in spiritual practice at home. Fifty-three per cent did this at least once a month, 11 per cent a few times a year, and 32 per cent attended religious services at least monthly.

Those who have a sense of spirituality often have a number of positive personality traits that help them relate to people and succeed at work, Kanchier says.

"They respect others' beliefs and their rights to hold them, they expect good things to happen, and they befriend new employees ... They're positive, helpful and accepting. That's part of being a spiritual and/or religious person."

Spiritual people are also inclined to help others, and are both trusting and trustworthy. Many are excellent team players, which is crucial for a company's success, she says.

"There are lots of work teams, so lots of people are in teams to achieve department and company goals."

However, while people may practise their spirituality at work by helping the team and treating others with respect, there's a limit to what you should say about it, Kanchier says. "They shouldn't blabber about everything."

This can be problematic. For many people, happiness at work requires making friends at work, which requires a certain degree of openness. "Certainly, many people do place associates high in one of their needs for a job," she says.

However, it's important to choose your friends wisely, and to be very careful about what you choose to reveal, and to whom.

"Just like there's appropriate (office) dress, there's appropriateness in what you should share or not share."

While you wouldn't necessarily post your Bible group meetings on the bulletin board, if you know someone well enough, and you know they're thinking about spirituality, you might mention them gently.

For many people, their interactions at work are similar to how they conduct themselves in their religious communities.

"One gentleman I worked with was very involved in church activities, and of course, he was a very nice man and practised the principles of his religion with his work colleagues and subordinates without flaunting what he did at church," she says.

"And what he did at church was similar to what he did at work, being nice and helpful, and so forth."