No. 11 - Spirituality
In this blog I will introduce a human strength that is one of our most powerful resources, spirituality. I suggest reading this blog in conjunction with the “Seeing from Awareness” blog because at the core of that process and spirituality is self-transcendence.
For some, the term “spirituality” is a topic that is taboo, uncomfortable, ignored with indifference or viewed as being the domain of people who are ‘religious’ or eccentric. These reactions are very understandable given that spirituality is easily confused with religion, it is not located in the mind and cannot be accessed by intellect alone, and it is abstract and difficult to define. In addition, unlike the mind, it is seldom intrusive, and so it’s silent voice is easily drowned out by the noise of technology, intellect, the emphasis on physicality, the busyness of multitasking, and our inflated sense of control over life.
Yet research shows that a stronger connection to personal spirituality predicts resilience and better mental health and wellbeing in a wide range of contexts. Several well established psychotherapies target the cultivation of spirituality and contemporary psychology is much more explicit about the role of spirituality in mental health. Hence, it can be very powerful to draw attention to this transcendent aspect of self. In my book I describe how discovering and nurturing my spirituality helped me to transcend the lifelong silent echoes of past traumas and engage my passions.
Spirituality refers to our sense of the nonphysical or transcendent dimension of life. This dimension is dynamic, unstructured, personally sensed, naturally occurring and boundless. It permeates humans and the world around us.
Connecting with this dimension typically involves searching for universal truths, cultivating broader meanings of life, nourishing intimacy with the life within us, exploring possible boundaries to our existence, searching for what is significant and meaningful in the world, investigating new elements in the constant unfolding of life, and pursuing deeper connections to humans, nature, the universe and to a ‘higher power’ or purpose.” In my book I describe my ongoing existential search and how it has sustained me and given me hope during adversities.
Spirituality involves practices or activities that cultivate a connection to it. For example, connecting with nature, engaging in artistic pursuits, savouring human creativity, nurturing and respecting diverse manifestations of life, deepening connections to others, giving to others and the community, prayer, meditation, and being reflective. A person may engage in these with the expressed purpose of nurturing spirituality, whereas another individual may participate in them and be unaware of their potentially spiritually enrichening properties.
Spirituality may also involve beliefs. Some people have well developed personal beliefs about their spirituality, which may or may not be connected to a religion, whereas others tend not to contemplate their spirituality. Spirituality is a deeply personal experience. There is no right or wrong way to experience it.
Although spirituality and religion overlap, they also differ. Religion consists of a set of texts, a belief system, specific rituals, institutional dependencies and beliefs about the transcendent shared by a community, and involves a relationship with ‘God’. Spirituality is more about our personal experience of what is unseen and recognized as greater than ourselves. This may or may not involve a relationship with ‘God’. Religion can encourage the development of personal spirituality through individual and community spiritual practices, however, personal spirituality can be developed independent of adhering to a religion. In my book I share how I learned to discern the beneficial and sometimes adverse effects of religion on my spiritual growth.
At the core of spirituality is a deep human aptitude for transcending the self, in particular our concepts of self, in order to connect with something that is bigger than the mentally conceived self. Self-transcendence allows for expanding self-boundaries and greater awareness of life dimensions that exceed the self. Self-boundaries may expand in four ways (Reed, 1991):
Inwardly as we gain greater self-acceptance
Outwardly as we reach out to others or connect with nature
Upwardly as we reach out to a higher entity or greater purpose
Temporally as we connect with the present and gain perspective on the past and future
In my ‘Seeing from Awareness’ blog I discussed the observing-self (awareness), which offers a perspective from where we notice the flow of our experiencing without attachment to it. In accessing the observing-self we ‘see’ beyond our mental and physical self-boundaries and gain perspective on the fluidity of life. In the latter chapters of my book I describe how discovering observing-self (which I referred to as my ‘essence’) helped me transcend the pain of my divorce and the associated intense resurgence of trauma echoes.
There are many ways we can cultivate our spirituality. I mention just a few:
Identifying your spiritual values is an important first step in cultivating spirituality, which may include values such as being reflective, respectful of life, creative, compassionate and authentic. See my ‘Connection to Values’ blog for a more detailed discussion of connecting to personal values.
Engaging in activities that align with personal spiritual values, such as recycling rubbish, volunteering, caring for a person, animal or plant, acts of kindness, lifelong learning, artistic or creative performances, sharing wisdom with others, contemplative practices and reflecting on one’s spirituality. See my ‘Values-based Committed Action’ blog for a more detailed discussion of developing goals and behaviour patterns that align with personal values.
Participating in religious or secular contemplative practices, such as prayer, reflecting on sacred texts, meditation and meditative movement practices (e.g., yoga, tai chi).
Practicing self-compassion.
Deepening your connections with others and nature.
Practicing being still.
Developing a personal meditation practice.
Practicing unconditional self-acceptance; accepting yourself as perfectly created.
Engaging in activities that heighten awareness of observing-self such as meditation and communing with nature.
Searching for personal meanings in past and present experiences.
Cultivating personal spirituality is a lifelong quest that offers ever widening perspectives which enable us to ‘see’ beyond the physical, the mind and the mental concepts of self and self-identity.
- Kenneth Pakenham PhD