Spirituality

What is Spirituality?

Spirituality is exploring and seeking meaning, purpose, and connection beyond the physical realm. It is an individual’s journey to understand the inner self, the universe, and their relationship with something greater than themselves. Studies show that developing spirituality positively impacts your health, happiness, well-being, and life. This section has been created to promote thoughts about spirituality and provide information about the current research on this subject. This is not intended to sway you to any belief or take away from a belief. It is intended to help you develop a stronger connection to your beliefs and create more hope and comfort. We will attempt to start a conversation about this topic, knowing that we do not have any answers, only thoughts that might prompt discussion about a topic that can lead to growth within ourselves and our followers. We welcome your thoughts.

What does Spirituality mean to you?

Is Spirituality a concept or a belief?

A concept is an abstract idea or a mental construct, while a belief is a personal conviction or acceptance of something as true or accurate. Concepts are more general and can be shared among individuals, while beliefs are subjective and vary based on personal perspectives and experiences. Spirituality and Religion are different. Spirituality can be a concept or a belief regarding a higher power, while religion can be described as the organization of similar individualized encounters and beliefs. This is important to understand, for within society, spirituality is often based on the practices of a religion.

Why do we need Spirituality?

Spirituality creates hope and gives us an anchor to rely on when things get tough. But spirituality is not just for difficult times. Human nature seeks to find purpose and meaning in life, and it is through this purpose that one finds much satisfaction. Spirituality helps provide that meaning and direction to orient your life.

The following link highlights research on spirituality and its importance to better health outcomes. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/spirituality-better-health-outcomes-patient-care/

According to the International Consensus Conference on Spiritual Care in Health Care (see study above), spirituality is “the way individuals seek ultimate meaning, purpose, connection, value, or transcendence.” This could include organized religion but extends well beyond to include ways of finding ultimate meaning by connecting, for example, to family, community, or nature.

Practically explained, other than religion, one can find a spiritual purpose in various life experiences. For example, an individual can find true meaning in spending time with friends or family, serving food to people experiencing homelessness, putting a lifetime’s worth into a book, creating an array of model submarines, or developing a website about positive mental health practices.

It is typically through the act of selflessness that one can find true meaning in life. This then changes the perspective in one’s mind to realize that the contribution of something bigger than the individual can help empower and give direction to a person or purpose to their life.

Religion is beyond the scope of this website, and the goal is not to deconstruct any religion but to dive deep into one’s self to notice and strengthen spirituality and celebrate how we are all connected. Religions often separate us from personal beliefs, while spirituality can bring us all together. These distinctions have important implications for how we live our lives and for our collective mental health. If you only believe something due to the nature of being told to, then your faith and understanding have less room to grow. It is okay to question the nature of thoughts or beliefs through the lens of wanting to understand and grow. Since the creation of different religions, many of the purposes of practices have been lost in the common knowledge of the believers. It is, therefore, helpful to understand how spiritual practices build up one’s faith and help them thrive. 

How do you create spirituality or grow it within yourself?

One way to look at spirituality is to take a moment to organize your beliefs on paper. Note to one side what you were raised or taught to believe and compare this with what you want to think and hope to be true. Compare the two. If you see they are similar, you can work to understand more about your thoughts and the history of your beliefs. You don't need to figure out the absolute truth; that bar is far beyond any person’s capacity. The idea is to connect with your beliefs and strengthen your spirituality.

If your beliefs conflict with what you want to believe, do not let this dishearten you. You are dealing with what you have been raised to believe and what feels natural. Let this be the first step towards taking action to figure out what you connect with most and what best opens you to hope and meaning in your life. That direction is right for you. Study both views to build a stronger understanding of your beliefs. Taking time to sort through this can be very helpful.

Once you have worked on and developed a stronger spirituality within yourself, explore other beliefs. This will help you understand others better and help you to appreciate how we are all connected and different without being afraid or judgemental of one another. We are most afraid of what we don’t know or understand. Most religions say the same thing, just in different languages.

The Show, “The Story of God with Morgan Freeman,” provides information about different religious beliefs and may be a stepping stone for you to learn about the history of beliefs and how we are alike.

https://www.google.com/search?q=the+story+of+god+with+morgan+freeman+episodes&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari

We encourage everyone to find something that gives them meaning and a reason to wake up daily. We encourage individuals struggling with purpose to reach out and connect with someone who might help. We are all the same in that we exist in the physical realm, but we are often highly separated by our thoughts about these issues. From our perspective, spirituality can help us find common ground and peace. Again, we welcome your thoughts.