What is Spirituality? It is a question to which it is difficult to give a specific answer. It’s is a broad concept with room for many perspectives, and it has a different meaning for everyone. In general, it includes a sense of connection with something bigger than yourself, something with the cosmos. It also has to do with searching for the meaning of life and what part you take in it yourself. As such, it is a universal human experience – something that affects us all to a greater or lesser extent.
People describe a spiritual experience as sacred or transcendent as a deep sense of aliveness and interconnectedness. Some find their spiritual life is closely tied to the practice of faith, while others may pray to find comfort in a higher power. Still, others seek meaning through their connection to nature or art.
Definition of spirituality
There is no unambiguous, generally accepted definition of spirituality. Traditionally, literature mainly mentioned spirituality as a “connection to a greater whole.” In modern times, the emphasis is on subjective experience and the ‘deepest values and meanings with which people live,’ involving personal growth or transformation. Therefore, the definition of spirituality must be kept abstract: philosophy in which someone searches for meaning and feels connected to a greater whole or higher power and gives substance to it according to his or her own insight.
Meditation as a spiritual experience
Meditation is an excellent way to give substance to your spiritual experience. By consciously focusing on what you are doing at certain times, your experience can become many times more satisfying. During meditation, the brainwaves change and generally slow down from beta to theta/alpha. Our brain comes to rest in this lower frequency. Although our brains are, of course, not muscle, you can somewhat compare it to a muscle that relaxes.
In a meditative state, you have access to your subconscious mind, and you are also able to make contact with the heart-brain, a cluster of about 40,000 neurons in the heart. This nerve network functions independently of our brain and has enormous intelligence that has only come to light in recent decades.
Many people who meditate say that they are “closer to themselves.” They say they are better able to make decisions, follow their intuition, and have clear insights. In this sense, many of them experience meditation as a spiritual experience.
Different kinds of spirituality
Mystical spirituality
Mystical spirituality is based on a desire to go beyond the material world, beyond the senses, the ego, and even beyond time. Personal relationships and a sense of oneness (with the cosmos) are central to this spiritual approach.
Authoritarian spirituality
Authoritarian spiritual practices are a very powerful form of spirituality based on a need for definition and rules. This kind of spirituality is especially common in specific religious practices.
Intellectual Spirituality
Intellectual spiritual practices focuse on building knowledge and understanding of spirituality by analyzing history and spiritual theories. Theology is an example of intellectual, spiritual interpretation, as well as studying the work of Dr. Joe Dispenza.
Service Spirituality
Service spirituality is a common form of spirituality common to many religions to apply. They serve others as a form of spiritual expression. Some people who work in health care see it as their “job in life” to care for those in need.
Social spiritual practice is often practiced by people who have a spiritual sense of being around others.
