Below are some definitions of spirituality:
How might people define spirituality?
Some Recovery College Online students submitted their ideas about the question:
What does the word ‘spirituality’ mean to you?
Their ideas are shown below. Please note that these are students own personal quotes.
Quote 1:
‘Being at one with the universe and everything in it.’
Quote 2:
‘Spirituality fills an emptiness inside. It gives you inner peace and an understanding of connecting to the world and all living things.’
Quote 3:
‘Spirituality is a sense of connection, freedom, growth, strength, self-expression, exploration, hope, and love. This is on the spectrum of its manifestations.’
Quote 4:
‘Spirituality to me means being in touch with both our physical presence in the world but also our spiritual one. It helps me believe there is something higher that what we can see.’
Quote 5:
‘Spirituality to me is the conscious embodiment of our higher selves. It is being in action with all the good we’ve learnt from religion or other. It’s the daily efforts of living each day better than you lived it the day before. And leaving people no worse than how you met them. It’s the stripping of the ‘I’ and being of the ‘We’.’
Quote 6:
‘Spirituality to me is finding yourself within a connection that cannot be explained in just words. It’s an energy that is within all of us, every living thing on this planet, that keeps us connected. It is spirit.’
Quote 7:
‘Spirituality references the ‘spiritual’ rather than the purely ‘physical aspect’ of our existence. Spirituality may be ‘caught’ in a glance between two people. For example when they each understand what the other person ‘means’; communication occurring, as if outside the physical realm. It is that sense of awe we feel seeing a wonderful view. Or the sense of loss we encounter when a loved one passes. Spirituality goes beyond our physical world or existence. We become aware of deep emotional responses or spontaneous reactions. Or maybe an inescapable sense of ‘belonging’ or ‘oneness’, for example. This ‘spirituality’ is a universal aspect of experiencing ‘Life’ and often leaves us ‘dumb-founded’. We sense an Awakening, an Enlightenment; we become instinctively aware of a greater purpose to our existence?’
Quote 8:
‘Spirituality is a connectedness to something outside of ourselves.’
Quote 9:
‘Spirituality to me is when you’re out in nature. I stop take a deep breath and feel the wind move and smell your surrounding. The awaking that everything has life and purpose.’
Quote 10:
‘Spirituality or being spiritual to me doesn’t mean being religious. But instead means bringing oneself closer to the higher collective consciousness of all people. It means doing what you can to better yourself and others for selfless reasons. It means trying to get a better understanding of how our spirit relates to Nature and all things.’
Ways spirituality may be expressed
People may not consider themselves to be spiritual nor associate things they do with spirituality. However, there are many ways in which spirituality may develop and be expressed in their lives. Expand the sections below for more information.
Being part of a spiritual community
Religious practices
Friendships and volunteering
Living by certain values
Wearing particular clothes, eating particular food
Rituals
Creative and cultural activities
Activities that increase self-awareness
Physical activity
Consider more:
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