What is spirituality and why it can be as annoying as the gum on your shoe
Spirituality – what is it?
Been reading some interesting articles about spirituality and its’ definitions.
Like many general terms it can be many things to many people.
My favorite definition to date comes from Brené Brown’s book The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are
In data she has gathered over years on the nature of fear and shame within the human condition, Brené states that wholehearted people (those with the most effective strategies for dealing with shame and our ‘imperfection’) are those that combine the practice of spirituality with everyday life.
Brené Brown’s definition of spirituality being…
Spirituality is recognizing that we are all inextricably connected to each other by a power greater than all of us, and that our connection to that power and to one another is grounded in love and compassion.
Practicing spirituality brings a sense of perspective, meaning and purpose to our lives. (Definition from her book).
Brené even goes so far as to say that, based on the data in her research – the most resilient wholehearted people shared and held this deeply based belief – that we are all connected.
From this frame of spirituality in connectedness we can then release some of our commonly held fears and shames
- that we are useless because we are not coping (from spirituality’s perspective, if we are all connected, then others must be feeling this too, it’s not just us)
- that others are ‘better’ than us because they are doing ‘a’ ‘b’ or ‘c’ successfully and we are not (from spirituality’s perspective, we are all connected and all have unique individual gifts which we can learn to honor with the Art of Self-Love)
- that others will exert Power Over us (from spirituality’s perspective – if we are all connected – then others are simply projecting their own ideas of Power Over because they are on a different place on the Spiritual Journey than we are and it’s OK – their projections are really nothing to do with us.)
Then we get the gum on our shoe in the parking lot
Gagh.
Why did that person leave the gum there? How could they just spit it out? Darn now I have to clean it up, and it’s really nothing to do with me.
So…
From the perspective of spirituality and connectedness, can you honestly say…
- …you never littered
- …you never spat out gum or stuck it under a table
- …you are not standing here projecting the image of the useless individual who was thoughtless enough to spit the gum out there in the first place. People who litter are so thoughtless, it must have been somebody with no thought or care for the environment (add your own projection here_________________ (From the Higher Perspective of spirituality – maybe it was a kid with an overtired mom who didn’t notice, maybe it’s nicorette gum from a smoker who is trying so hard…______________________ add your own thoughts here to cancel your projection.
Even through the gum on our shoe, we are all connected
We can all practice spirituality. Whoever said it was going to be easy?
One Response
This seems to be a subject, steeped in that Oneness of the ALL, that at last is cropping up constantly on my radar screen! As a member of 2 separate conversations, one on Spirituality as it relates to the Episcopal Church (happy for a topic that allows me to look meaningfully at the organization again in the company of thoughtful leadership, after 60 years absence (except where there was good music!)). It is significant that the discussion is authentic enough to grab my attention even though the music is painfully basic. The other revolves around Democracy, which also leads back to a basis in spirituality (not religiosity) if there is to be any hope of a workable format. Thanks for this pointed synopsis!