Inner Practice: Spirituality is Not What You Think It is
When you hear the word “spirituality”, what pops up in your mind?
Images of someone praying or begging for protection and money? Airy fairy meditation classes? Rites and rituals? Amulets and incense? Yoga retreats?
People always thought that being spiritual is all about the far-fetched journey of getting to nirvana, or be closer to some higher power, if not praying to something to get something. Or just the fact that is something beyond the physical.
And people always also confuse spirituality with religion. Let’s first explore about religion. Religion is based on pure belief and faith, no doubts no questions about who and what teachings you feel connected to, and you just do as what is told, think as what is taught. Because it will get you somewhere in the end, as what is promised, they say. It is based on something you have heard or saw and become influenced and drawn to. It is based on something on the outside.
Spirituality, on the other hand, is never about anything on the outside.
It is about turning inwards and observing and contemplating what life is about and the experiential occurrences that it brings.
Spirituality requires your full participation in the exploration of life and the mechanics of it. Your own life, you yourself is the subject of matter. You can read all about how life works in books, from inspirational speakers, from life coaches. But in the end, you got to experience it and feel it yourself. And for what you may ask? For the sake that you can grow out of your current state and become better, as a human. For who you may probe? For yourself and then extending to others.
Because you are part of life and life is always flowing in a fluidity state of imbalance. That is why problems, issues, challenges are always there because they come as part of the package. Even if you seem to lead the perfect life, internally your thoughts and processes are still in a constant flux of changes, good and bad ones, because you are alive. Have you realized issues and problems that are constantly in your life are usually same or similar? Have you wondered why the same kind of people always come into your life, influencing you in a way you find familiarity with? Have you experienced why some health issues are so chronic you seem to have to live with it forever?
So ‘Why?’ you may ask, ‘that you seem to never get out of the same old pattern’?
THAT is what spirituality is about. That you finally are aware that you are the PATTERN and you start to look for answers, inside. Then eventually you develop the strength, courage and intelligence to take the right actions and rise beyond your old current state.
In my practice, I have seen patients with issues that seem so ‘grave and incurable’ to them that they always fall back to the state of victimization and living with it, instead of seeking help. But as an outsider, the problem is never so magnified as they have described. It is whether they dare to face their inner demons and finally decide to do something or seek a simple treatment to resolve it. The first step to changing your life is on the inside, not outside. And that’s where spirituality comes in, should you allow it. Read about Beautifully Broken here.
Spirituality is knowing there is always a better version of you and is the science of life that leads you there.
Further reading:
Everything you need to know about Acupuncture
Men’s Health Series: Which is the Better Way to Treat Prostatitis - TCM or Western Medicine?
How do Acupuncture and Acupressure work and which is the Better One
Everything you need to know about Dampness
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Why Everything Cold is Discouraged during Menstruation
