Understanding What Spirituality Means to You

Spirituality is an extremely personal subject, and one that shouldn’t be taken lightly. While some people don’t care all that much about the spiritual aspect of life, at some point, most people have an experience in their lives with exploring what spiritual practices mean to them. No matter where you are in your journey, you can begin to explore what your spirituality means to you. Spirituality can have a very different presence in different people’s lives, and that’s the beauty of it! You can discover the layers of your journey at your own pace, in a way that works for you. Here’s how you can begin to understand the role that spirituality will play in your life.

Considering Your Roots

Everybody has a different past when it comes to their spiritual experience, and you are no different. No matter who you are, you have your own past and your own identifying experiences when it comes to how you were raised with spirituality. That will likely impact your current relationship to it. Even if that relationship is the experience of being raised without a strong spiritual or religious foundation, that still has the power to impact you, especially related to spirituality. Spend a little time considering your roots in a self-aware capacity. That can be a great way to get yourself started on understanding the role spirituality plays in your life, both then and now.

Thinking About Your Own Spirituality

Regardless of your past or even your current involvement in organized spiritual practices, it’s important to spend a little bit of time — or a lot of time, more likely — thinking about your own personal spirituality. Sometimes, the process of understanding what spirituality means to you is simply just the act of sitting with your thoughts. Explore things internally and take a moment to slow down. If you want to understand what spirituality means to you, the “you” part of the equation is half the journey.

Educating Yourself

Exploring your spirituality and your spiritual practice will often involve looking externally as well as looking internally. This means educating yourself on the variety of spiritual practices, traditions and experiences the world has to offer you!

Whether you already have a spiritual practice that you know a lot about or you are starting from scratch, diving a little bit deeper into your own tradition or other traditions can help guide you towards spiritual awakening. This does not mean that you need to stick to any one tradition. However, learning about the variety of different religions and spiritual practices can be an eye-opening experience. Even if you choose ultimately not to agree or practice with everything you learn, it’s still valuable.

Experiencing Different Avenues

Delving into the different avenues you’re curious about can help you explore and understand what it means to you. Try going to different religious services, reading different spirituality-related texts and even meditating or praying in different forms. This might help you find the options that are best for you, regardless of your history or current beliefs.

Sitting With Your Experiences

An often overlooked process of exploring yourself, but in terms of spirituality, it’s one of the most important. Realistically, you’re never going to know exactly what you think and how you feel about everything right away after you experience it. Things like this take time, especially for all of the moving pieces to fit together and form your overall experience.

Exploring your feelings and ideas internally can lead you to your ultimate understanding of yourself and your own spirituality. Sitting with your experiences can involve going about your life, praying or even meditating. This can give you the space to explore everything you need to explore within.

Recognizing the Evolving Process

One of the most important pieces of learning about your own spirituality and what it means in your life is recognizing that spirituality is an ever evolving process that changes and grows with you. Your opinions, your understanding of yourself and your relationship to spirituality will change as the years go by, or even as the weeks go by, and that’s perfectly natural. In fact, it means that you are growing and developing as a person, and should be welcomed with open arms.

Understanding Your Spirituality

When it comes to understanding your spirituality and your relationship to your spiritual life, it’s important to recognize that the work is never done, but it is consistently rewarding. By educating yourself, looking inside yourself and continuing to grow and change, you can understand your own spiritual landscape and feel fulfilled in another avenue of your life.