You would most likely have heard both the terms spirituality and religion and heard people try to distinguish spirituality from religion. These people claim that it is entirely possible to be spiritual without being under the umbrella of any religion.
So, is there a relationship between religion and spirituality? And if there is, what exactly is it?
Well, first off, it is important to point out that it is indeed very possible to be spiritual without being religious. However, you cannot be religious without having to observe some elements of spirituality.
Therefore, seeing that spirituality is the subject that keeps popping up, it is essential to understand what it means to explore your spirituality and why you should even spend your time doing it at all.
Spirituality goes beyond just trying to step out of the physical. This is because it does have some physical benefits as well. So, if you consider yourself a practical person who makes decisions based on evidence, you just might be skimping on some of the best methods for personal development.
In this article, we would be considering the subject of spiritual, its essence, and then steps to exploring your spirituality.
What Is Spirituality?
Your spirituality simply refers to that part of you that is keyed into the idea that there is more to life than meets the eye.
It basically consists of coming to terms with the fact that our human senses do not tell/ comprehend the entire story about the universe; that beyond our body and brains, there is more.
In being spiritual, you’re simply admitting to the fact that there is a higher life form or agreeing that there is a form of conscious awareness of the universe. Exploring aspects such as discovering your spirit animal is all a part of this concept.
While spirituality might vary to an extent, there is a common tagline among people who practice it. And this is that it brings meaning and coherence to their lives.
The Essence Of Spirituality
The reasons why you may need a spiritual dimension to your life are in the dozens. For most people, spirituality equips them with a sense of direction and purpose in life.
For others, it’s about looking for a measure of significance to life and being part of something bigger than ourselves. Others claim that there is a sense of connection and love that spirituality provides.
It could also provide a measure of awareness of fellow human beings and fill you with feelings of compassion, completeness, and oneness with others.
For certain others, the spiritual side allows them to reflect and encourages them to question everything about life.
It could also make you go further to grow and transform both emotionally and intellectually. For some spiritual people, they describe their spirituality as one that started in a quest for enlightenment.
Searching for peace for some way to contextualize could also be the reason. Spirituality provides the necessary resources for recovering from some of the most painful experiences in life.
Steps To Exploring Your Spirituality
Here are 5 steps that you shouldn’t dispense with if you want to explore your spirituality to the fullest:
Get In Touch With Your Spiritual Core
This is about the first step on your journey. This involves going beyond the physical to discovering that part of you that is greatly concerned with forces bigger than yourself. By discovering and exploring your spiritual core, you would simply ask yourself questions that concern who you are as an individual.
For instance, you would definitely come face to face with questions like: Who am I? Do I have a purpose? What is this purpose? What do I value a lot? These are questions that would take you down the path where you would start to think more in-depth about your real self. In addition, you would be able to notice things about yourself that would help to improve your sense of fulfillment.
Explore Deeper Meanings
Exploring your spirituality means that you would have to start seeing things beyond face value. The spiritual is distinct from the physical and should, therefore, be perceived so. There are probably certain random events in your life that you didn’t think so much about.
When you start to look for deeper meanings in your life, you just might see that some of these occurrences meant more than you took them as previously. In addition, analyzing recurring patterns would help you see that you have a measure of control over your destiny. Achieving this realization would help you lead a better, happy, and healthy life.
Positive Thinking
Thinking positively has an overall positive experience effect on individuals as well as their general outlook on life. And this is a very vital aspect of exploring your spirituality. Pessimism or a dull outlook on life is never part of the steps to explore your spirituality.
When you start to look at things in your life in a positive light, you would notice that you start to think differently and your mind would be refocused to a happy, healthy place. Once you eliminate negativity and reorient your thought process, changing how you handle different situations, you would notice that you feel a whole lot more relaxed and the quality of your life would greatly improve.
Meditation
Meditation is a very essential step in the process of exploring your spirituality. Beyond this aspect, there is the physical that you have to devote your time to every day. You probably have daily tasks to accomplish and managing your time can be pretty difficult. All of this can lead to stress, so it is essential that you take out time to connect with yourself. It could be in the morning just after you wake up, during a lunch break or at night just before you go to sleep. Meditate for at least five to ten minutes every day.
Introducing meditation and relaxation into your lifestyle is a recipe for freeing your mind and fostering a more stable relationship with your spiritual wellness.
Don’t Hold Back
Expensing yourself all the time on your journey to exploring your spirituality is essential. This is because you might have questions or get confused at a point. In times like this, you would need to get a way to release them. Having a trusted mentor is a good idea for this.
In addition, unburdening yourself of all of these would help you to preserve a focused mind. When you’ve had a long day or been part of some significant event, you might feel some confusion and find it hard to make sense of your feelings. Writing these thoughts down, recording them, or sharing with someone can help you clear your head and move forward.
The Bottomline
Spirituality is a subject that requires an enormous amount of personal understanding and study. And exploring your spirituality implies that you would need to go beyond the physical.
This article makes for a mini guide to exploring your spirituality and the points included are some of the most practical. However, given that it is still very personal, you would need to find what works for you.
And when you find that, go with it.
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