What Does Spiritual Mean?

What Does Spiritual Mean?

Today, when attaining spirituality has become more of a fad rather than something all human beings should strive for, having been given the privilege of being called “humans”, its essential that you know what does spiritual mean and what are its benefits. In order to know what does spirituality mean, you have to first of all quell all the misconceptions associated with it.

What Does Spiritual Growth Mean

Many people hold this belief that just because they go to church everyday and pray regularly, they have become spiritual. Following a religion and performing prayers, no doubt, is one of the ways to connect with oneself, but on its own, being religious does not make one a spiritual person. So, if you are wondering, “what does spiritual but not religious mean?” It simply means that a spiritual person can be religious but its not necessary that a religious person be spiritual.

Next, we move on to another highly held belief regarding what does spiritual mean. Some people feel, in order to be considered a spiritual person, you should give up your family life, your possessions and everything dear to you. And that you should go to some faraway mountain and pray, only then you will attain salvation and become spiritual. This again is just a misconception. To be spiritual does not mean that you cut away from everything. On the contrary, spiritualism actually makes us understand how we are part of this whole universe and that each one of us has its own place in it. You may read more on finding your place in the universe. Spiritualism tells us that all our actions and thoughts, whether positive or negative, ultimately affect us and everybody else around us because we are all, after all, an interconnected whole!

Now that we know what all does not count as being spiritual, let’s try to understand what does spiritual mean and how can one attain spiritual growth. Well, to put it simply, being spiritual means to be kind and caring for ourselves, the living beings we know and also for the living being we do not know. Our kindness should not only be reflected through our actions, but through our words and thoughts as well. So, there might be a person who religiously goes to church every day or meditates, but if he does not love himself or his fellow beings, if he is selfish, judgmental or has even a slightest hint of negativity in him, it means that he is not spiritual. More on self improvement.

So, what does spiritual mean? It means to inculcate love, truthfulness, positive thinking, peace, kindness and happiness within ourselves. It means to realize that everybody – all humans, animals, insects, plants and all other living beings are connected to one another. So, if any harm is done, or wished upon on any of these, the others are bound to be affected. That’s why, in order to be spiritual, a person needs to be helping, caring and considerate of others and thus, choose his actions, words and thoughts consciously. You may further go to finding and celebrating spirituality in the mundane.

After understanding what does spiritual mean, one thing you must have realized that spirituality is not something which will come to you in a flash. So, no amount of praying or joining any religious group or Yoga meditation, is going to make you spiritual. Spirituality is something which you choose to be, by being helpful, caring and kind to others. The day you feel that you wish happiness and success to even those whom you once considered your enemies, the day you feel that you have forgiven those who hurt you once, the day you have only kind and good thoughts, that’s when you will be considered spiritual in the true sense.

The Spiritual Energy of Ordinary Things

The Spiritual Energy of Ordinary Things

By Julie Redstone

Each of us is far more powerful than we believe ourselves to be. For the small, unseen gestures of hand, heart, and body carry a spiritual energy that continually affects the world in which we live.

Each gesture that we make with our physical bodies has an effect that is much more far reaching than would appear.

Everything carries vibration, and the vibration of a simple handshake or of a smile carries a spiritual energy that ripples out into the universe to bless it and to add to its positive feeling and content. By contrast, when we withhold gestures of friendship, we express an energy of contraction and separation that has a similar rippling effect.

In this sense, each of us is totally transparent to the life of the spiritual world and much more powerful in creating effects than we believe ourselves to be. For it is not only the more noticeable actions that we might take that achieve success in the world. It is also the small, unseen gestures of hand, heart, and body that affect the vast spiritual network in which we live, creating a successful outcome when they help uplift the world and contribute to its healing.

The consciousness of oneself as a spiritual being grows within heart and mind in progressive stages of self-revelation. At one stage, it may be related to knowledge of oneself as having a relationship with the spiritual world, with God, or with the divine Presence within the world in which we live. At another, it may be experienced as an awareness of ourselves as souls and of others as souls, joined in a sacred dance of life. Yet both kinds of awareness can become more detailed and more embodied. They can become an expression of our own, intimate clairvoyance which allows us to see and to know the energetic effect of whatever we do.

The important principle here is that everything carries energy. Everything has a vibration of a spiritual nature. We are never invisible, and we are never disengaged from making an impact on the rest of life. Since this is true, it becomes imperative that we consider what effect we wish to have on life, for this contributes not only to the well-being of others, but also to the effect that life will have upon us, for what we give, we shall receive. The effect that we choose will color our lives far more than any seemingly random event that appears to occur by chance. Our interaction with life, consciously chosen, will create a lens through which all of life is viewed, including all events which might enter our life that appear to be accidental or serendipitous.

When we choose to create a positive effect in life, to let every gesture be an expression of love and of a desire to participate in a sacred world, we ourselves are uplifted by this intention and can know beyond the shadow of a doubt that the world is also uplifted by our intention. The fact that this intention is invisible is only true at the level of the physical. In terms of spiritual energy, our intentions are very visible to those who can see or feel spiritual energy, and we live constantly in a matrix of such energetic interactions.

Think of the ordinary gestures of the most ordinary of days – washing, cleaning, driving, walking, carrying, holding, listening, writing…

Now imagine that while engaged in any of these, that a subtle spiritual energy is emanating from you to the rest of the universe, proceeding outward in waves from the physical body that is the point of emanation, and the heart that is the point of feeling. See what quality of consciousness you can bring to these simple things – to the very ordinary things of life, for in this decision lies a world of meaning and a world of accomplishment – the accomplishment of having determined to live a life that is sacred and that upholds the intimate connection that it has with the rest of Life.