What is Spirituality?

It's not easy to define 'what is spirituality' - it can mean different things to different people. For a long time, I was embarrassed to admit to any spiritual leanings. First, I guess it just wasn’t ‘cool’ when I was a kid and then by the time teenage years came around it wasn’t just uncool it was foolish too; the consensus was that ‘God’ was just as ‘unreal’ as Father Christmas and RE was a just sit-off lesson.

But I’d always felt that there had to be something more to life. As a kid I was perplexed and terrified of the adult world, the ‘real’ world – people seemed to bumble about like the living dead with no idea why they were stuck in jobs they hated other than, ‘must make money…monnney…’.

Spirituality vs Religion

I wasn’t interested in religious education lessons, probably because for the most part, the way it was taught killed off the spirit of religion. But from an early age I gravitated towards rituals, practices, celebrations… of a spiritual nature. I loved Christmas not just for the presents but because it was filled with tradition, because the story of Jesus seemed so hopeful and important, because it felt extra special, the family all coming together to en-joy one another, because the day seemed to vibrate with some unseen force – love and goodwill flowing through humanity. I loved hymn practice because, although I hated being trapped in school with all those other kids, singing together gave me a warm feeling, and those hymns contained important teachings that we weren’t taught anywhere else.

Spiritual Practices

Though I’ve yet to develop any regular spiritual practices, I’ve been to church services and bible studies, I’ve tried various forms of meditation, prayer, some yoga and qigong, in my creative and healing pursuits it seems I’ve instinctively undertook a sort of shamanic shadow work approach, and as I’ve got older, the more I’ve taken an interest in learning about different forms of spirituality.

Of course, not all my encounters with the religious world have been good. We had to find my ex-girlfriend a new church because when the members of the one she was attending, found out we were romantically involved, they offered, in the nicest possible way, to perform an exorcism on us. An attraction for the same sex and an aversion to skirts also helped me escape going too far down another religious rabbit hole. Dogmatic religion is not, as far as I’m concerned, spiritual. The beauty at the core of religious traditions is their shared spiritual values – all the good I’d found in hymns and Christmas and meditation – all the acts of kindness in everyday life that lift us up – all the moments of awe, inspiration, joy… all that is beyond word and comprehension but works within us and through us, and makes life meaningful, and saves us from becoming the living dead.

Aids for Spiritual Practices

Studies have shown that certain practices, of a spiritual nature, are indeed good for us. Such as:

Meditation

Yoga

Mindfulness

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