Spiritual advice

How do you find your spirituality? What does spirituality even mean?

Its something I'm interested in exploring, but I dont know where to start. I really just dont understand it. I would love some guidance, ideas, perspectives.

Hi. I wish I could tell you how but, for me, my spiritual journey didn't start until I hit rock bottom with my drinking, then began attending AA meetings. From there I started to get into Buddhism. But I never would've gotten into Buddhism in the first place, had I not hit the rock bottom, so yes. Maybe start by drinking very heavily all the time until it destroys everything in your life? Just kidding :-)

There was a well known spiritual teacher named Osho whose teachings really inspired me, too. There's a lot of his ideas on the internet. Maybe you could look there?

I myself struggle with spirituality greatly. I need it, I'm fascinated by it but it's incredibly scary and triggering at the same time.
Maybe start with mindfulness as connecting to one's environment and senses is very important.
Then do research on sacred texts (it's forbidden and censored to mention them here).
There are also modern versions of ancient practices of paganism, witchcraft, shamanism.

Anyway, don't expect any answers on this forum because any kind of discussion is basically forbidden and censored. We are only allowed to mention Buddhism and vague "meditation" practice, nothing else.

If you are interested in real discussion find forums of specific religion you're interested in. However most forums have their narrow perspective and if you cross it you'll be banned. Some do allow more open discussion but once you start you may literally be engulfed in it and spend hours and hours (or years) arguing about philosophy that no one can know or prove. I've spent a great amount of time on such forums debating and I believe it has made my mental issues worse.

I struggled with organised mainstream religion all through my childhood. I just knew deep down it neither made sense to me and felt totally wrong. In university though I enrolled in a Philosophy of Religion course. Not only did we do a broad exposure to world religions but we learned about how religion came to be and developed. For example, the idea of the anthropomorphism of God which basically is an understanding and theory that man created God in his own image and not the reverse. Anyway, something to discuss elsewhere. but, it really moved and spoke to me. Finally I had some answers and a discovery. It wasn't then about what I believed in but what I wasn't prepared to. For years I continued reading and exploring religion and spirituality until finally a form of practise I could feel comfortable with fell into my lap. It felt right and was a sense of coming home.

I am of the opinion that one should discover a belief system on their own. It is upsetting to me that people blindly accept what they are fed simply because that is what they were dragged to in childhood and told to. There are aspects then of mainstream religion that I find disturbing for this very reason. I am a preacher's daughter yet my father encouraged me to educate myself and come up with my own choice of how to celebrate the creative spirit even if it differed from his own.

Might I suggest a visit to BeliefNet and take a gander at their quiz. It is quite eye opening and educational.

Beliefnet: Belief-O-Matic, Religion Beliefs, What Religion Am I Quiz - Beliefnet

Anyway, enjoy your journey. A path that you are comfortable with will present itself.

And yes, one can be deeply spiritual yet not religious. I include myself in this.

Spirituality is becoming aware (to varying degrees) of the transcendental aspect or nature of your existence... The awareness of having an existence above and independent of the physical body and even this individual human lifetime... It's consciously connecting with the aspect of you which survives physical death, the aspect of you which is timeless and eternal...

How do you find spirituality? By steering and guiding your state of awareness in the direction of relinquishing attachments to the physical body, the physical mind (brain), and to limiting beliefs and perceptions which previously served to restrict your awareness... Also through conducting inner-work (deep contemplation, reflection, introspection, questioning things, releasing stored mental/emotional energy)... Many people find themselves moving in this direction due to experiencing suffering or some set of life circumstances that influences them to question and challenge their previous way of perceiving themselves and the world. Usually a crisis of some sorts... Could be a devastating divorce, a midlife existential crisis, a terminal illness, prolonged suffering, etc...

Joining a religion and claiming some religious title for yourself and subjecting yourself to all of the dogma and doctrines of everyone else who claims that religion and title - this is unnecessary and in many contexts will be counterproductive and limiting... There's also no guarantee that religious identification will lead to spiritual growth...

As far as something you can explore which doesn't have any doctrines to follow or dogma to adhere to, and no titles for you to adopt - I would recommend researching the literature and accounts surrounding Near Death Experiences.... Lots of Youtube Channels featuring long NDE accounts from experiencers... There are also a lot of reputable researchers out there who have been studying this field or phenomena for 2-3 decades (Kenneth Ring, Bruce Greyson, PMH Atwater, Sam Parnia, Pim Van Lommel, etc)... Deeply contemplating the implications that stem from these types of special transcendental experiences over an extended period of time can absolutely have a profoundly transformative effect on your state of being (I know it did in my life experience)....

Through the Vision Quest

I think it's something that must come to you. I've lost my spirituality many times. So far it's always come back. It just takes time. Sometimes years.

I don't think there's a "way"... it probably just naturally comes to some people.

"There's as many ways to God as there are people in this world."

I don't know how to tell you what you should do to get there. I don't think anyone can - and like the Dread Pirate Robert says in 'The Princess Bride' - "Life is pain. And anyone who tells you differently is trying to sell you something."

I'm still on the long journey to connect with the Creator - coming from an unshakable Atheism - it was only when I started to looking for the answers to the why's did I start to doubt everything that I was certain of... some people don't ever leave it, and that's cool too - no judgement. For myself, I had to walk through hell, and keep walking before I finally heard the whisper in my heart... but everyone's different.

This is a wonderfully insightful and thoughtful post. I completely agree with you. I find NDE accounts intriguing and more compelling than anything I have ever heard in a church or other religious setting. Thank you for your post.

I have tried going to various churches and finally ended up back in the one where I was raised, not so much because I share their beliefs but mostly because it felt comfortable. Not sure if that's a good reason to belong to a church.

Good luck. I hope you find what you're looking for.

For me it began as a personal journey around age 24-25. I was newly separated with two very young children and just could not accept that a loving god would pile all this pain onto one person. I was also an undiagnosed BP1 and stayed that way till my mid fifties. However, around age forty, there was my first eureka moment. After years of trying just about every path except for Satanist (too much commitment and farm animals in that one)...I began to look into real spirituality instead of any one religion. That was my turning point. I discovered Mindfulness and quantum physics...what? Huh? Yeah...

Anyway, the more I researched both, the more it dawned on me we are not just random bits of energetic matter clumped together higgildy piggildy. We are carefully designed, constructed and energized with star stuff...unlike anything else in the universe that we know of (of course I feel that bit is going to change sooner rather than later). But, here’s what I mean. The odds of DNA randomly configuring into a human is basically quite nearly impossible but the same holds true for a banana or an earth worm. In my opinion, nothing is created by random chance and that means an intelligent presence somewhere. If this is the case, who or what is it and why did it bother with all this creating at all?

I have come to view this intelligence as an omnipresent Source that permeate everything...and I do mean everything. Us, other animals, trees, grass, rocks, this planet, our solar system, the universe...it’s all One Source and our Soul center is a direct conduit to this source surrounded by animated matter making up our physical form. The Source IS Creation. Creation is Life. Life is the physical expression of Unconditional Love. It’s actually impossible for us to ever be alone because we are a representation of a bit of this Source who IS the energy signature of Unconditional Love itself. It’s an amazing feeling for me. It’s comforting and cuts down on the overwhelmed, panic times when my anxieties try to jump up and demand notice. I may be a bubble or two off but I am made from the same stuff as stars. To me, that’s incredibly cool.

I could go much deeper but then I’d have to get copy rights, get the editors involved and end up in a cover art war with my publisher’s graphics department but, I hope that helps even just a tad. Just feeling part of this mathematically endless network of pure loving, vibrating energy keeps me waking up every morning in a half ***** good mood most mornings. We are all connected to everything else. It’s a pretty awesome thought...at least for me

((((Everyone))))

I've always been spiritual. But my current spiritual path found me. It started with spiritual awakening, suddenly guides and angels showed up and bam. I walk the path I'm on. There's no name for it, unless you want to call it something like Gnostic-Pagan-General Spirituality. It does help to begin exploring various religions and traditions, but I think a lot of people just end up with their own brand of spirituality, because your relationship to the Divine and/or Earth, is unique to every individual. There's no wrong way.

A spiritual path or sense of spirituality will feel uplifting. It can carry you through difficult periods of your life, introduce you to new people or a supportive community of individuals who believe similar things. A lot of people find releasing their stress, problems, illness or general suffering to a higher power helps them immensely. A spirituality should feel warm, comfortable and comforting. Giving you a sense of belonging and connection to something higher than you. It's supposed to feel positive.

The best thing is to find what resonates with you on a deeper level, emotionally, mentally and within your soul (if you believe you have one).