How important is spirituality in your life?
Becoming a more spiritually oriented person is a definite challenge for me. During the first eighteen years of my life there was a lot of religion – but as I found out in retrospect – it had precious little to do with the individual spirit. There was a great deal of talk about what our relationship with a higher power should be and how this would enrich our lives and make us better people. However, the reality was much more about mind control and manipulation to serve the selfish interests and needy control issues of a small oligarchy which ruled over us.
If anyone reading 📖 this is starting to get the picture that I’m talking about Jehovah’s Witnesses or some other cultish, domineering, mind-control religion – – you’re absolutely right!! Genuine spirituality and solid inner peace requires a considerable degree of introspection. Many religions such as Jehovah’s Witnesses or Mormons (among the more prominent and disturbing examples) don’t actually encourage or promote this. What these religious leaders expect is for their members to become consumed with and constantly study the literature they create to really serve other purposes.
Thus, by doing so, we are convinced to be on the right path to spiritual stability and godly salvation. There is also this strong pressure to accept belief in any number of so-called biblical prophecies about the “end times” and other rubbish which is passed off as the correct way to connect with and pacify god. Actually being a “good” person is not the main point (which would be a key aspect of being a spiritually balanced, healthy individual). Following someone else’s commandments is supposed to suffice in this regard – which is devious at best and evil at worst.
On the other hand, a poor sense of spirituality or having a stunted nature in this respect cannot always be blamed on toxic religions. Since we are all different, some people are in better touch with their spirits and feel more deeply about important matters. For myself, it took many years to sift through the difference between organized religion and spirituality. In all honesty, though, even after sorting through all of this my nature is still more oriented towards material things and secular ideals. Connecting with a higher power and a greater whole was (largely due to religious upbringing) always difficult for me.
Nevertheless, my inner nature will always find it challenging to prioritize spiritual matters over the material and the physical existence. There are any number of aspects of our lives where both nature and nurture come into play. Certain things about our personalities are just simply the way they are! Trying to change things that are deeply ingrained may be possible for a time but most of us ultimately revert back to our true selves – whatever that entails both for good and bad!
