Starting Your Spiritual Journey

The spiritual journey is a personal quest we undertake to reconnect with our Souls, find our authentic life purpose, and embody our “True Natrue”. It's entirely possible to be spiritual without endorsing any particular religion. Being spiritual is about recognizing that our human senses don't tell the whole story about the universe. That there is more to us than our bodies and brains.

One important point to make is that it is possible to be spiritual without being religious, but being religious arguably requires being spiritual.

With that in mind, what is spirituality in religion?

And what kind of role does spirituality play for you if you're not religious?

One helpful contrast between spirituality and religion draws attention to the role of experience. More specifically, your spirituality involves connecting to something beyond yourself through your own unique experiences. You can find, explore and grow to understand an important aspect of yourself, and how you relate to the universe.

In contrast, being religious involves connecting to something beyond yourself (typically a divine entity) through the experiences of others. You adhere to a specific code set out for believers, you follow rules, and you endorse a set of connected beliefs.

Where religion emphasizes knowledge, spirituality is more concerned with gaining wisdom.

And where religion places a strong emphasis on obey rules and being “saved” in a life after death, spirituality's core values are more typically aligned with love and freedom.

Spirituality also has more of a relationship to feelings, and to living in (and experiencing) the present moment. In contrast, religion typically teaches us to invest in the future, so that we can go to heaven (or some comparable afterlife).

There are clear points of compatibility between religion and spirituality – they can be complementary. However, it's clear that you can be deeply spiritual without being religions – and that this spirituality is a deeply personal, gratifying way to increase your self-knowledge and develop your potential.

It's about a search for our life's significance and allows us to feel part of something. It can push you to grow and change both intellectually and emotionally; you might be hesitant to develop your spirituality if you think the spiritual is at odds with the scientific...but you will have to experience for yourself before truly making said claim.

If you're ready to engage with your own spiritual awakening, what can you do in order to kickstart this process? An important thing you can do is to tune into and learn to listen to your inner voice. To connect with this part of you, try adding a daily meditation practice to your life.

• Spend at least ten minutes focusing on your breathing, allowing irrelevant thought to drift past your awareness.

• In addition, try to set a clear intention. What do you want to get out of your spiritual journey? What kind of things do you want to learn, and what sort of person do you wish to become?

• Find a simple way to formulate your intention in one or two sentences and reflect on these sentences every day. This will be the phrase that guides you throughout your spiritual journey.

To start practicing spirituality today, it's important to first work on learning and absorbing. What this means in practice listening to talks and reading about spirituality, taking in as much as you can. Not all of it will resonate with you, but broaden your understanding and find concepts that do click with you. Keep a log of the things you learn, either on paper or on your computer, and start to organize it into an account of spirituality that makes sense to you.

Practice a Positive Mindset

Ancient spiritual leaders and modern new-age thinkers agree that our thoughts influence our reality.This is the belief at the heart of The Law of Attraction – that we have the power to shape our futures just by changing how we think and feel.

Practice Mindfulness Whether you engage in prayer or meditation, take time to reflect and find your inner peace. Laugh Nothing does the spirit better than laughter. By finding the funny side of things, we relax into who we are and stop taking ourselves so seriously. We engage with the absurd and recognize the universe has a sense of humor.

Take Care of Yourself You can’t engage on a spiritual path if your body is weak. Eat right. Exercise. Get enough sleep. Don’t allow physical discomfort, pain, or illness to get in the way of your spiritual journey.

Pay Attention When you experience coincidence, nudges, roadblocks, or sudden interests that feel like are guiding your path, allow yourself to follow. Sometimes we’re given more guidance along the way than we realize. Learn to go with the flow and see where these divine nudges take you.

-The Luminous Loner

Source: The Spiritual Planet