“I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as an old man in the sky. I believe that what people call God is something in all of us. I believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and all the rest said was right. It's just that the translations have gone wrong.”
John Lennon
Personal Spirituality
Spirituality is often regarded as an intangible feeling or practice that is often personal and unique to each individual. To live a more spiritual life is to acknowledge and connect with the deeper meaning and purpose of life. It is about finding inner peace, balance, and fulfilment within oneself and with the world around us.
How to live a more spiritual life.
Meditation and Mindfulness
Meditation and mindfulness are powerful tools that can help a person connect with their consciousness. Research has shown that regular practice of meditation can help reduce stress, and anxiety and also improve overall mental well-being.
Practising mindfulness can help a person live in the present moment and be more aware of the subtle details of life. To start a mindfulness or meditation practice, one can begin by setting aside a few minutes each day for quiet reflection. There are various guided meditations and mindfulness exercises available online that can be used as a starting point.
“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Gratitude and Compassion
A spiritual life is often marked by deep levels of gratitude and compassion. Being grateful for even the smallest of blessings can help bring perspective and a sense of contentment to life. Compassion, on the other hand, is the ability to connect with and empathize with others. Cultivating these qualities can help a person live a more meaningful life and also foster a sense of community.
“Dare to love yourself
as if you were a rainbow
with gold at both ends.”
Author-Poet Aberjhani
Connection with Nature
Nature has a way of inspiring and connecting people to their inner selves. Taking regular walks in nature or spending time outdoors can help a person connect with the beauty and rhythms of the natural world. This connection can bring a sense of peace and calmness to the mind and body.
“We are all connected; To each other, biologically. To the earth, chemically. To the rest of the universe atomically.”
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Service and Volunteer Work
Engaging in service and volunteer work can help a person connect with their community and also give back to those who are in need. Serving others is often seen as a way of connecting with something greater than oneself and can also help foster a sense of empathy and compassion.
"Service is what prayer looks like when it gets up off its knees and walks around in the world."
Michael J. Graham, S.J.
Creative Expression
Creative expression is often seen as a way of channelling the innermost thoughts and emotions of a person. Engaging in creative activities such as writing, painting, or playing music can help a person connect with their inner selves and also bring a sense of meaning and purpose to their lives.
“To me, all creativity is magic. Ideas start out in the empty void of your head - and they end up as a material thing, like a book you can hold in your hand. That is the magical process. It's an alchemical thing. Yes, we do get the gold out of it but that's not the most important thing. It's the work itself.”
~Alan Moore
We can all sit around and talk about spirituality and what it is when perhaps we need to be talking about spirituality in terms of what it does!
What does doing spirituality look like?
We are not talking about religion here, and certainly not religious dogma. These can destroy spirituality.
We read our holy texts and use them to guide our actions…
17 Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him.
18 But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.
Numbers 31 17-18
The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: that is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter;
Qur'an 5:33
It is easy to find snippets of text which support aggression and violence to “others”. The “others’ are whoever the supporting regime decides.
It seems far rarer to find those who interpret scriptures in a way which promotes humility, co-existence, understanding and freedom. Yet within both “religious texts” we find an overriding message of love. How can this be?
When we look around us at the world today we see ideological divisions within our governmental and religious institutions. Each seeks to find some kind of authority for their actions. Such authority is derived from manifestos, religious texts, spurious propaganda and “twisted” belief systems.
These divisions are created by those who lust for power. They are often happy to interpret religious and non-religious “laws” and “teachings” to fit their agenda.
Surely being spiritual is not about destroying others because they have a different take on the same “spiritual” texts.
Within ‘spiritual circles’ there are those who choose to dismiss the teachings of other disciplines simply because they don’t fit their conceptual framework.
The idea that you are either scientifically minded or spiritual is as dogmatic as the misrepresentation of religious teachings.
“Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality. When we recognize our place in an immensity of light‐years and in the passage of ages, when we grasp the intricacy, beauty, and subtlety of life, then that soaring feeling, that sense of elation and humility combined, is surely spiritual. So are our emotions in the presence of great art or music or literature, or acts of exemplary selfless courage such as those of Mohandas Gandhi or Martin Luther King, Jr. The notion that science and spirituality are somehow mutually exclusive does a disservice to both.”
Carl Sagan
Comforting Thought
Spirituality is NOT about others or the state of the world, no matter how crazy it currently is.
It is about YOU and the way you choose to live your life.
There is wisdom in focusing on what is around you and making changes wherever you can to promote peace and understanding.
The sea erodes the land and makes changes gradually over time and we can make changes in the world in the same way.
"I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples."
Mother Teresa.
Living a more spiritual life is about cultivating a deeper sense of awareness and connection with oneself and with the world around us. In doing so we may inspire others to look at how they can connect with themselves and who knows where that will lead.
Alan /|\
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