Spirituality Guide for Genuine Happiness and Successful Life
If you want to make your life work, be happier, and live your best life, spirituality is the perfect tool for the job. In this spirituality guide, we will take a look at what spirituality is and how to apply that understanding to your daily life.
You will learn:
- What is spirituality?
- Why does spirituality matter?
- How to apply spirituality to your everyday life?
- Why spirituality is the best way to be happy and stay happy?
Before we start, it’s important to understand that although spirituality has been studied, the subject is very ambiguous. There is no widely agreed-upon definition of spirituality nor is there a way to scientifically study or prove many of its aspects.
So this spirituality guide is largely an opinion piece, based on my understanding and experiences of spirituality that I have accumulated over the past 20 years.
But that is precisely the point!
Spirituality is something that must be experienced and lived first-hand. That is the only way to understand it, for by its very nature it is all about your experience, not the experience of others. Spirituality encourages you to explore and experience, come to your own conclusions and find your own truth about life, the universe and everything.
Fortunately, you are a spiritual being and all of life is spiritual, so spirituality is in your very nature. I will give you my best tools, tips and tricks for exploring this fundamental aspect of life and yourself.
If you are already decided that you wish to start living your best life, below are links to two of my favourite authors to guide you on your way.
My top picks
The best spirituality guides
In his latest book, METAHUMAN, Deepak Chopra unfolds a path to higher consciousness up that allows all of us to realize our infinite potential.
(photo and text credit:deepakchopra.com. I am not affiliated with the site or the author)
The ultimate spirituality guide, this 9-Week Online Course will take you on a deep journey through a powerful 3-step process that will allow you to transform your life and start living from your soul every single day.
(photo and text credit:evolvingwisdom.com. I am not affiliated with the site or the author)
Introduction to sprituality
Originally the word spirituality referred to a process of re-formation of the original shape of man, oriented at the image of God. Over time, the meaning of spirituality has developed and expanded and the word now has several different definitions.
Currently, the term spirituality is used in many religious traditions and refers to a wide range of experiences, such as:
- The subjective experience of a sacred dimension
- Deepest values and meanings by which people live
- Separate beliefs from organized religious institutions
- A supernatural realm beyond the ordinarily observable world
- Personal growth
- A quest for an ultimate or sacred meaning
- Religious experience
- Encounter with one’s own “inner dimension”
With all these meanings out there, it might seem hard to even begin to understand spirituality. Yet, this presents an opportunity to learn a fundamental lesson.
We are so accustomed to living in a world where nothing exists without the opposite also existing. There can be no hot without cold, tall without short, bright without dark, and so on. Therefore we have learned to define things very specifically. If something is tall, it can’t be short. If something is hot, it can’t be cold at the same time.
And we have an incessant desire to know which one is true. Is it hot or cold? Tell me. Which one is right? Is it tall or short, which one is it?
Spirituality invites you to widen your perspective, to take on higher awareness. Consider that all of the above-mentioned experiences might be true.
Spirituality invites you to find your truth
Spirituality is an encounter with your inner dimension, which just happens to be a “supernatural” sacred realm beyond the ordinarily observable world. It is a quest for the ultimate sacred meaning, understanding the deepest values and meanings by which you live, a subjective experience of a sacred dimension achieved through personal growth.
Some might even call it a religious experience. But even though spirituality is used to describe religious experiences, the true nature of spirituality is the opposite of organised religion. Religion is about accepting the truth of others, while spirituality is about finding and accepting your truth.
That is the key. Everything in life is subjective. The only things that you can know are the things in your conscious awareness and the best but too often overlooked teacher is your own experience.
Thinking of already knowing the truth is a major hindrance. We think we already know the truth and thus cannot see the truth. Frequently we choose to accept someone else’s decision about the way things are and fail to make assumptions from our own experience.
It’s so easy to not have to think. Our institutions, governments, and religions are all based on the fact that they require no independent thought from people.
Spirituality invites you to live your life based on your understanding. Spiritual truth, your truth, must be lived in practice to change the everyday experience of life.
What is Spirituality?
With all the different things out there that are labelled spirituality, what is true spirituality and how do we define spirituality?
An all-encompassing definition may be impossible and probably will not be beneficial, since the emphasis of spirituality is all about subjective experience. What is the definition you wish to give spirituality? Now there’s a question to make you think and come up with your own answer.
But it does not help much either to label anything and everything “spirituality”. Therefore, let me present to you a tangible idea about spirituality, that you can use as a reference point.
You are a three-part being
In one way or another, this is what we agree about our existence: We are three-part beings consisting of body, mind and spirit. Spirituality refers to the part of you that is not the body or the mind: The part of you that is the “spirit”, whatever that may mean to you.
Spirituality is thus a journey to understanding your spirit and the spiritual realm (the world beyond the physical).
The spirit has many other names and it does not really matter what you label it. It can be the soul, the higher self, the subconscious mind, the source, the holy ghost, you name it. In the context of this spirituality guide, what matters is that you acknowledge that this part of you exists and that you have a desire to get to know it.
Therefore this journey of understanding your spirit becomes about getting to know yourself fully, or to put it another way, getting to know your true self.
To understand the concept of the true self, let’s start by examining the different aspects of your being and determining what is not the true self.
You have a body - but that is not who you are
As mentioned, you consist of three parts: Body, mind and spirit. The physical, emotional and metaphysical. Ego, super-ego, Id. Conscious, subconscious, superconscious. They all make up the totality of who you are and any one part is equally as important as the other two.
But who you really are is not your body or your mind. You have a body and you have a mind, which are incredible tools for experiencing the physical world, but they are not who you are.
Here’s a thought to help you on your spiritual journey: Say “I have a body”, then think deeply about who is this “you” that says it has a body?
Hint: It’s not your mind as we will soon find out.
Nevertheless, your body is a wondrous biological machine, a vessel capable of experiencing things physically. It is a highly sophisticated sensory device. That’s the main function of your body. It takes in information using your senses and in conjunction with your mind, this information is formed into an experience.
Your body is a collection of cells (or atoms on a deeper level). It is made up of the things you have eaten during your life. The body takes building blocks, like protein, from the food you eat and makes cells that in turn make the totality of your body.
Your genes contain the instructions to make the cells, and on the subatomic level the particles that make up the whole that is your body, are arranged based on a blueprint that is called the energy body, or the subtle body.
Described in this way, you may better understand that your body is something that you have built during your life, but it is not who you are. It is the physical representation of your idea about yourself, but it is not your true self.
You have a mind - but that is not who you are
You can use the same thought experiment with your mind that you did with your body. Say “I have a mind”, then think deeply about who is this “you” that says it has a mind?
Is it your mind making it all up? Could be, but here’s another hint: Don’t think the answer, feel the answer.
Another important thing to understand is that your mind is not born in your brain. To this day science cannot explain how consciousness comes into being or what it is. That is because it is a fundamental part of the universe.
Consciousness is everything there is. Your brain is not the creator of consciousness, but a receiver. And what you call your mind (ego, conscious mind), your thoughts, feelings and behaviour, is but a part of this consciousness.
Like your body, your mind is also a collection of things and a representation of your idea about yourself. When you are born, you are the metaphorical blank slate. You know nothing.
As you grow, your mind observes everything around you. It does so very efficiently and takes in all of the information it receives.
The Conscious mind or Ego
Based on that information your mind then constructs your ego. Your ego is who you think you are. All of the assumptions and guesses your mind has made during your life now make up your thoughts and beliefs.
Your ego is designed to react. It operates based on past knowledge. It is useful in some situations, like knowing that you should not put your hand on a hot stove.
But your ego can also be non-beneficial for you, such as in the case of constantly activating the stress response in any situation it deems dangerous to you. That could be just being late for a meeting.
The conscious mind, or ego, is the part of you that you relate to the most, so naturally, it seems to be who you are.
Yet it is not who you are. You have a mind, but you are not your mind. Your mind is a tool that you can use to choose from different options available to you in the physical realm.
Usually, you choose based on your past experience and keep repeating the same patterns over and over (you can notice this in situations where you say “why does this keep happening to me?”).
It’s natural and exactly how your mind is supposed to operate. It is designed to react to situations around you based on your past knowledge. But if you learn to be aware of your thoughts, your mind can also work in a different way. Rather than react, you can choose to create.
The Spirit - Your true self
If you are not your body or your mind, who are you then? Who is this “you” that has a body and a mind?
You may have already guessed that the spirit (the soul, the subconscious mind, the higher self), is who you really are.
The true meaning of spirituality is that you are a spiritual being in a body. All of physical life is spiritual, meaning something “made of spirit” manifesting as physical.
Then what is this spirit that you truly are?
Well, this is where things get complicated. It’s difficult, if not impossible, to describe the spiritual world from the limited perspective that we have now here in the physical world.
For the purposes of this spirituality guide, in the broadest sense and at the root of it all, we can say that the spirit is all there is. It is everything and everyone, everywhere, all the time. Yet the spirit also has multiple levels.
It contains what you now call your body and your mind. It also encompasses many other lives, many bodies and minds in many different times. It is perfect knowing. It is the facilitator behind your every experience, the creator.
Your Spirit's desire is to create itself anew
In the very centre of your being, the deepest depths of your subconscious mind, your spirit has but one thing it wishes to do. To know itself as the creator.
That is what your spirit is up to. In this way, your whole life and the three parts that make up your being can be understood in a new way. Life, the reason why you are here (on Earth, in the physical realm), is all about creation.
This is the essence of spirituality. The purpose of your life and spiritual journey is to experience yourself as the creator.
- Your spirit (soul, subconscious, higher self) conceives
- your mind creates (chooses)
- your body experiences.
Based on the experience, the spirit then makes a new conception. The circle is complete.
There’s much more I’ve written about the nature of the spirit and spirituality, you can learn more by reading this blog post or by downloading my free eBook below.
Why does Spirituality matter?
Now that you have a grasp of what spirituality at its core is all about, you might ask “why should I care?”. It sounds awesome (or totally nuts), but it has no practical applications. What good would it do to get to know my true self?
And you would be right in asking those questions. It doesn’t do much good to be told what spirituality is. Spirituality must be lived and experienced first-hand. And if you do, your life will change in miraculous ways.
If you meet and get to know your true self, it will irrevocably change your perspective on life.
Your spirit, true self, is all about pure joy. Understanding who you truly are will be such a joyous experience, that you may entirely forget about your physical and emotional needs.
You will stop chasing material wealth, power, control, possessions, etc. You will let go of your obsession to acquire more money, fame and success. You realize that happiness is your natural state of being and being happy requires nothing outside of you.
To know your spirit is the highest of joys
For example, monks, who have dedicated their lives to seeking spiritual wisdom, often live in the most basic conditions. You have probably heard or read stories about monks in monasteries, especially in Asian countries, that wear robes and eat only a bowl of rice every day.
We tend to think, that this kind of asceticism is the prerequisite for finding your true self or enlightenment. In fact, the opposite is true, but not in the way you might think. Experiencing this “meeting of the true self, the spirit” is so magnificent, so life-changing, that the matters of mind and body become almost irrelevant.
That is not to say the needs of the body and mind should be neglected, but they are just not a priority anymore. It also does not mean that body and mind should not be valued, but the seeking of pleasure through body and mind are simply set aside.
Just as you set aside, or let go, of something that you no longer find useful or amusing (like a child sets aside toys), so are the needs of your body and your mind set aside to make way for the joys of the spirit.
There’s so much joy in the “realisation of self” that worldly success is just not appealing in comparison.
True happiness is spiritual
The irony is, that usually living as your true self will allow you to easily manifest all the wealth, fame and success you could have ever wanted, but you do not hold them in such a high value anymore.
It does not mean that you cannot enjoy them or use them as a means to create the next greatest vision you have about yourself. It just means that you do not need any material wealth to be happy.
Because if you meet your true self, you will find it impossible to be sad, anxious, depressed, worried, concerned, afraid, and so on. You will experience life in a new way, as a wonderful and joyous experience.
This is very difficult to comprehend and even more difficult to put into words. It must be experienced in order to understand.
But no matter whether consciously seeking this experience or not, there comes a time in the evolution of every soul when the main concern is no longer the survival of the physical body, but the growth of the spirit.
How to Be Spiritual?
Spirituality is a journey to understanding your spirit, getting to know yourself fully, and meeting your true self.
Your true self is the grandest feeling, the highest thought, the most loving action.
The best way to be spiritual is to make the highest choice every moment. Act only out of love. Speak only the truth. Think only the most joyous thoughts.
This must be done intentionally with complete awareness. Another word for spirituality in this case is awareness. Complete awareness of who you truly are and total awareness of your thoughts, words and actions every moment of every day.
All too often we coast through our days on “autopilot”, letting our thoughts, words and actions be dictated by our beliefs and habits. But it’s possible to learn how to gain more awareness and make choices consciously.
The first thing you can do is learn to listen to your feelings, they are the language of the spirit. Feelings are truth-tellers. They are your first thought and they reveal the truth behind your thoughts, words and actions.
If you feel good, you know that your last thought was the truth, your last word was wisdom, and your last action was love.
Exercise: What am I thinking?
Here is the most essential exercise in this spirituality guide.
Start asking yourself: what am I thinking?
Condition yourself to do this. Write it on post-it notes and put them around the house. Write it on your bathroom mirror. Set a reminder on your cellphone. Asking this question often enough during the day will eventually form into a habit. It takes somewhere around three weeks for your brain to adopt this new behavior, but it pays off.
You’ll notice that once you become aware of the thoughts you are thinking, you can consciously weed out the non-beneficial thoughts and replace them with a higher thought.
For example, when you find yourself thinking “I can’t do this”, discard that thought. Don’t give it a second thought, instead, replace it with a positive thought. Say to yourself: “I can do this!”.
After some time (around 21 days) your brain will adopt this new behavior of thinking positive thoughts.
You can do this with your feelings as well. Start asking: What am I feeling?
If you find yourself feeling negative feelings, start deliberately thinking different thoughts, doing new things, and speaking new words.
These new thoughts, words and actions will give you new feelings. You will then understand that you can influence how you feel.
Raise your vibration
Everything in life is vibration. This text that you see is a wave of light, vibrating at a certain frequency. The sounds you hear around you are pressure waves in the air vibrating on different frequencies. Your thoughts and emotions are also vibrations.
Think about it. How do you feel when you are sad? You feel down, right? So you intuitively know that negative feelings are low vibration, they feel “down”. Positive feelings are high vibration, they feel “up” or “high”. Positive feelings “lift your spirits” or “cheer you up”. You may even feel high on life, on top of the world, on cloud nine.
If you want to raise your vibrations, make yourself feel strong positive emotions. Strong positive feeling = high vibration.
Anger, sadness, and fear are low vibrations, love, joy, and bliss are high vibrations.
There’s also the aspect of knowing yourself as the creator. Your spiritual joy, fulfilling of spiritual needs, is in the process of creation.
What you think, say and do create your experience. Therefore, whether consciously or subconsciously, you are participating in the process of creation. Your spirit (soul, subconscious, higher self) conceives, your mind creates (chooses) and your body experiences.
Based on the experience, the spirit then makes a new conception.
If you want to be spiritual, you can do so by starting to choose your experience consciously. This is done, again, by being aware of and choosing your thoughts, words and actions.
Live with complete awareness
There’s a pattern here. Complete awareness is knowing what you are thinking and feeling every moment. Then purposefully choosing only the highest, most joyous, thoughts, words and actions. That is spirituality, lived in everyday life.
You can also take on a spiritual practice to help you on your spiritual path. Meditation is one such practice.
Despite what you may think, meditation is effortless. I know there are dozens of different types of practices out there, but meditation can be anything that connects you with your true self.
The key is detaching from your ego (the conscious mind) and the best way to do this is to stop and be “in the moment”.
Stop and notice where you are. Look at your surroundings. Take a deep breath, hold for a couple of seconds and exhale slowly. Then turn your attention inwards. What are you thinking? How do you feel?
Concentrating on breathing deep a couple of times is a good form of “instant meditation”. It brings your attention to the moment. The more you can be still, the more you will be aware of your thoughts and feelings. And the more awareness you have, the more you can choose what to think, say and do, rather than react to things around you.
Think energy up
As we learned, spirituality means getting in touch with your spirit, your true self. We also learned that everything is vibration. The higher your thoughts and feelings (vibrations), the closer you are to knowing your true self. You can raise your vibration by choosing the highest thought, word and action, but you can also raise your vibration in a very concrete way.
This way is to “think energy up”. What this means is to literally think of energy as a flow from the bottom of your feet along your spine up to the top of your head. Visualize it and feel it.
This practice is meant to activate your Chakras, the energy centers of your body. Raise the energy through these centers all the way to the sixth Chakra, the third eye, and you will get a glimpse of your true self.
This is far too big of a subject to cover further here, but if you are interested in learning more, I suggest taking a look at the work of Anodea Judith. She knows everything there is to know about Chakras and working with energy.
Nonetheless, this is a great spiritual practice that anyone can do, regardless of their beliefs, without any additional knowledge of energy or chakras.
The best way to be happy and live your best life
Our crash course in spirituality would not be complete without addressing the most interesting part: Can spirituality help you be happy and create an awesome life?
The answer is yes. Spirituality is in fact the best way to be happy, stay happy, and live your best life.
If you’ve read my blog (like this post for example) you are familiar with the claim that happiness is your natural state of being. Well, your natural state of being is spiritual. Who you truly are is spirit, and your spirit is all about pure joy.
When you get in touch with your true self, your spirit, you will realize that happiness is even an understatement when describing the joys of the spirit. Those who know the joys of the spirit frequently use the word “bliss”.
Nevertheless, true happiness is found in meeting your true self, finding your inner truth and transforming yourself to the grandest vision of yourself.
Let’s recap what we learned previously since it sums up the happiness of spiritual life quite nicely.
You are more than you think you are
It is your conscious mind, your ego, that has wants and needs. Your ego does everything in its power to ensure the survival of your body. It loves distractions and never shuts up, and one of its favorite ideas is that you need something to be happy. Always something and then something more.
But your ego is only your ego; it is not who you are but rather who you think you are.
When you get in touch with your true self, you can live your life free of the demands of your ego. The wants, needs, fears and doubts are all constructs of your ego, operating on the knowledge it has previously acquired. It’s all learned behaviour.
Happiness is your natural state of being
There’s so much joy in the “realization of self” that worldly success is just not appealing in comparison. Getting in touch with your spirit will release you from needing anything to be happy.
You will find it impossible to be sad, anxious, depressed, worried, concerned, afraid, you name it. You will experience life in a new way, as a wonderful and joyous experience.
It just so happens that living as your true self allows you to easily manifest all the wealth, fame and success you ever wanted; you just realize that you do not, and did not, need any of those things to be happy.
You can still enjoy the pleasures of the body and the mind, but you will not attach to them, instead, you will use them as a means to create the next greatest vision you have about yourself.
You are the creator of your life
As mentioned, your spirit desires to know itself as a creator. It is constantly trying to create something bigger and better, the grandest and best version of who you think you are.
You create all the time, it’s just a matter of whether you are doing it consciously or subconsciously. Usually, you create based on your experience and keep repeating the same patterns over and over (you can notice this in situations where you say “why does this keep happening to me?”).
It’s natural and exactly how your mind is supposed to operate. It is designed to react to situations around you based on your past knowledge. But if you learn to be aware of your thoughts, you can create your experience at will.
Learn to be happy and good things will follow
How you think, say and do things, determines what you will experience. All of this derives from what you believe you are being. You get what you believe is coming to you.
Your spirit, true self, is all about pure joy. Spirituality can lead to such a joyous experience, that you realize that happiness is your natural state of being and being happy never required anything outside of you.
This is the spiritual solution to happiness. Start with being happy and all other things in your life will be derived from that happiness.
Conclusion
Spirituality is something that must be experienced and lived first-hand. It encourages you to explore and experience, come to your own conclusions and find your own truth about life, the universe and everything.
Spirituality invites you to widen your perspective, to take on higher awareness.
Even though spirituality is used to describe religious experiences, the true nature of spirituality is the opposite of organized religion. Religion is about accepting the truth of others, while spirituality is about finding and accepting your truth.
You are a three-part being consisting of body, mind and spirit. Spirituality refers to the part of you that is not the body or the mind: The part of you that is the “spirit”, whatever that may mean to you.
Spirituality is a journey to understanding your spirit and the spiritual realm (the world beyond the physical).
If you meet and get to know your true self, it will irrevocably change your perspective on life.
Understanding who you truly are will be such a joyous experience, that you may entirely forget about your physical and emotional needs. You will let go of your obsession to acquire more money, fame and success. You realize that happiness is your natural state of being and being happy requires nothing outside of you.
The best way to be spiritual is to make the highest choice every moment. Act only out of love. Speak only the truth. Think only the most joyous thoughts.
This must be done intentionally with complete awareness. Another word for spirituality, in this case, is awareness: Complete awareness of who you truly are and total awareness of your thoughts, words and actions.
Spirituality is the best way to be happy, stay happy, and live your best life.
Who you truly are is spirit, and your spirit is all about pure joy. When you get in touch with your true self, your spirit, you will realize that happiness is even an understatement when describing the joys of the spirit.
Living as your true self allows you to easily manifest all the wealth, fame and success you ever wanted. This is the spiritual solution to happiness. Start with being happy and all other things in your life will be derived from that happiness.
Disclaimer
The entire contents of this blog are based upon the opinions of the author. It is intended for informational and educational purposes only. The information in this blog is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified health care professional and is not intended as medical advice. Please consult your health care professional before trying any of the products or methods based on this content. I cannot guarantee that you will be free of stress, anxiety or depression, or that you will be happy. I simply want to share with you what I have discovered during my twenty years of seeking happiness and what has worked for me may not work for you.
