IDGAF Blog post prompt
I have been given a blog post prompt by Renée from IDGAF: how do you define your spirituality?
I read a couple of books in the last year which influence my answer to this question. The first was The road less travelled by M. Scott Peck, in which he wrote that the psychological and the spiritual are the same, and I both agree with this in some ways and disagree in others. I agree in the sense that nurturing our spirit and our spiritual life often leads to increased psychological well-being. I disagree somewhat because (without getting too philosophical) I don't believe our spirit is housed only in the mind. There's also our body and also neither of these things; it's a pretty undefinable thing that I would describe as our "essence", if you will.
The other book I read recently was The book of atheist spirituality by André Comte-Sponville. This book explored the idea that you can be spiritual without having a belief in god or an afterlife etc. It went into the theory that many churchgoers are there for the social aspect regardless of whether they have any belief in the dogmas and doctrines of the church. Being an atheist doesn't mean you don't have a spirit and can't have a spiritual life. Since reading this book I've been comfortable with calling myself a spiritual atheist, and I don't feel this is at odds with my Pagan spirituality at all.
Getting back to how I define my spirituality, I define it as any actions or practices that nurture and honour my spirit. My spirit being my ineffable "essence" that exists regardless of whether there's a god, irrespective of what happens to me after I die, and is connected to (but not exactly the same as) my mental health and to a lesser extent the physical health of my body as well. I say this because when I eat nutritious food and do physical exercise I feel I am nurturing my spirit (not that I'm not nurturing my spirit when I eat and enjoy cake too!).
Another point I would like to make is that I don't define myself as a "spiritual person" any more that someone who isn't interested in spiritual topics. I like the old saying "we're spiritual beings on a human journey, not the other way around", meaning that we are all spiritual and we're all here learning what we are meant to learn.
Anyway, I hope this made sense at least somewhat. I now have to go and do some house jobs. Thank you for reading and blessed be. xx