Spirituality as a coping mechanism among widows in Nagaland

Widowhood is a journey filled with difficult challenges. It is plagued with financial difficulties, social exclusion, new added responsibilities on top of grieving the loss of their spouses. It is often common to see them turn to spirituality for healing and strength. The current study seeks to understand how spirituality is used as a coping mechanism to mitigate widowhood. The study adopts a qualitative, phenomenological research design to understand the lived experiences of widows. The data was collected through semi- structured interviews to get in depth-knowledge. The data was coded and thematic analysis was used to identify reoccurring themes. Five themes were generated: Emotional impact of loss, Spirituality and coping, Challenges of Widowhood, Spiritual transformation and personal growth and role of support networks