Do you consider yourself to be spiritual?

Question

if not, can you explain to me why you reject it?

if you are, can you explain what attracts you to it?

i didn't ask if you believe in god, you can be siritual without believing in god.

"Spirituality is, in a narrow sense, a concern with matters of the spirit. The spiritual, concerning as it does eternal verities regarding Man's ultimate nature, is often contrasted with the temporal or the worldly. The central defining characteristic of spirituality is a sense of connection to a much greater whole which includes an emotional experience of religious awe and reverence. Equally so, spirituality is concerned with sanity and psychological health. As with some forms of religion, the emphasis of spirituality is often on personal experience. It may be an expression for life perceived as higher, more complex or more integrated with one's worldview, as contrasted with the merely sensual"

Answer 1

The truth is not out there, it's inside you. When you pray to a god, you are not reaching out to an external supreme being. What happens is that you actually look within yourself for additional desire, courage and motivation, in order to feel empowered to face your challenges.

Because we are sentient beings with highly-developed brains we ask ourselves why everything exists and why we are here. I don't have any water-tight answers to this type of question - nobody does. Some people need to believe in a creator and a purpose, but I do not.

What I believe is that my life, and its destiny, is largely in my own hands, within certain limitations (other people's actions, a country's law, forces of nature etc. etc.). If I work at it, I can realise my ambitions, but only I can do it. There is no benevolent super-being watching over me, because everyone can not be favoured. Some people will succeed and enjoy the proceeds of whatever it is that they want - riches, power, sex etc. However for some people to rise up, others must be displaced from the top, or sink even lower than they were. There's a debit for every credit.

It is easy to believe in a god, to whom you can pass your problems, but that's just simple escapism. There is a reality to face, it's tough, but we're in this on our own.

But hey, you find your own answers. If you find a set of beliefs that work for you, then I'm happy for you. However let us all accept that we have "beliefs" - we do not have "knowledge".

Answer 2

I am spiritual and I live by my beliefs which are dirived from what I see in nature (simplified somewhat but I'm sure you get the jist). If I had a label its kind of close to pathism but I reject this as how can something that I privately believe be labled with anything but me. Anyway I digress but the reason why I am attracted to this kind of spirituality was when I realised I found more peace being in a forest or by a huge lake than listening to manmade doctrines in a building built for the purpose, (all a little contrived I think)! So my spirituality is in everything but it doesn't dictate my life and I am free to choose what feels good!

Answer 3

I consider myself capable of understanding many things and for the most part apply what I do know in a positive way. I do not do this because of a promise of paradise but because i feel it is the way things should be done.
This may sound like the start of an athiestic opinion but no because I consider myself a spiritual being and connected to something so alien to my current state and beyond my capacity for understanding that I cannot adequetly describe it or label it.

In short I have a sense of something in me that I consider spiritual but it is apart from the ethical me. So I "believe" spirituality is ultimatley about hope whereas good or evil is about choice.

I am hopefully a good person.

Answer 4

"Spiritual" is such a vague word.

To some, it means believing in some kind of "spirits" that are some kind if disembodied beings. Even then it is vague what those beings are, and there's no real evidence of any existing. If you try to get people to define what they mean by "spirit", you get vague answers like "essence" or some kind of invisible floating mind.

To other people, "spiritual" means to have a sense of awe or be introspective about the universe around us. In that sense, most people are spiritual to some degree. Though many seem more in awe and introspective about their own mythical version of what the universe is. They deem the regular material universe as too mundane and like to add to it, pretending there are super powers of the mind or disembodied dead people floating around or super intelligent aliens visiting Earth and probing the backsides of country hicks.

Personally, I find the material world to be anything but mundane. I don't feel the need to make up dieties, spirits, and other nonsense. The world as it is, is fascinating on its own. In that sense, I am truly spiritual in the awe and introspection sense.

Answer 5

Spirituality is learning to be lead by the spirit. Spirit is the share of our Creator within us. Allowing that share to grow and lead our self is the spirituality.

It is a very lengthy process to reach a stage of 100% spirituality. But as the spirit grows there will be changes in the life. The more you travel spiritually, there will be more to know. It is wider than any ocean. Larger than the whole universe.

I am a spiritual student and my master is my Creator. I am not religious and don't follow any religions, but take guidance from any religion if they suit my understanding about spirituality.

The more you gain spiritual strength, it will be easy for you to control your carnal desires.

Answer 6

Do I consider myself to be spiritual? Well, I'm a Spiritualist, so does that make me spiritual? I except that we are beyond the physical and that we are spirit which is the literal meaning of being spiritual, but again, does that make me spiritual?

Being spiritual goes way beyond any of that. It's also how we live our life, how we treat others. I know many "Spiritualists" and people of other faiths that are anything but spiritual.

All I can say is, I try to be spiritual, I can't say that I am always. Can any of us? We are only human after all.....

Answer 7

Yes i feel like were all connected by energy, connected to many things that arnt even materielisticaly on this earth.
Trouble is you can have bad spiritualists as well as good, same as spirits. I believe phsycics can bring information through to people and it can come across as good but the spirit may have bad intentions.
The hear and now is of most importance, so many people forgett that and get intrenched in spirtualism as a way of life, which is bad i think, unless you are doing good with it.

Answer 8

Yes, I consider myself spiritual. Being a spiritual person is anyone that has a relationship beyond wordily things such as God, Buddha, Kirnsa etc... . I think am spiritual because I believe that the sprits of God and his angels are constantly helping me, Through for am constantly connected to sprits.

Answer 9

I'm a christian if that is what you mean by spiritual. And what attracts me to God is he's love and the fact that I know He is always there for me no matter what. And all He asks is that I live my life for the greater good of others and follow in His loving footsteps. And by doing this it makes my life and the life of people around me much better.

Answer 10

I do indeed.
There is much more to this life than the mundane. I am not a christian but would liken my Spirit to their Soul. It is the life essence and the part of myself that is aware of conscience and such like concepts.

Addendum
I also agree with your added statement about emotional and psychological health. I have suffered psychological 'ill-health' and it is my spirit that has suffered. Without spirit we are empty machines.