Spirituality and religion are deeply connected, and they are not one in the same. Religion is a particular community’s set of beliefs and practices. Spirituality, on the other hand, according to Brene Brown, “is recognizing and celebrating 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.” Many times spirituality is enjoyed, expressed, and experienced through religion, but it can also be accessed through yoga, meditation, ritual, music, community, nature, or simply going within oneself.
It is spirituality, not the specific religion you adhere to or practices you engage in, that is starting to be recognized as a crucial element of mental wellness. Throughout history, the psychiatric world has either avoided or waged war against this aspect of the human experience, but the truth is each of us is innately wired for spirituality-wired to consciously connect with a greater life force and to perceive a greater reality than the material world. Lisa Miller says in her book The Awakened Brain, “Beyond belief, beyond the cognitive story we tell ourselves, the awakened brain is the inner lens through which we access the truest and most expensive reality: that all of life is sacred, that we never walk alone.”
When we tap into this natural capacity, this awakened brain, it leads to more fulfilling lives with less depression, less anxiety, less substance abuse, and more resilience, connection, optimism, and creativity. In studies where scientists used composite MRI images to compare the brains of people with high and low spirituality (by self-report), it was revealed that those who reported spirituality to be of high importance had healthier, more robust brains than those who reported spirituality to be of lesser importance. Amazingly, the thickening and health of the brain were strongest in the exact same places that tend to be weak and withered in the brains of people experiencing depression.
It is now scientifically proven that spiritual experiences are an imperative aspect of healing and health both for individuals and whole communities.
Have you ever had such an experience? A time of connection with a higher being or the universe where you felt known and loved and held? A feeling of complete awe when gazing out at the ocean, across a mountain range, or even into the eyes of another living being? Maybe synchronicity, where things lined up far too perfectly to be chance. For some, it happens in collective worship, and others experience that same sense of universal connection at a concert, festival, forest, or yoga class.
If you haven’t yet experienced spirituality, know that you were born with “a set of innate perceptual capacities…[to] experience love and connection, unity, and a sense of guidance from and dialogue with life…But we have to choose to engage it. It’s a muscle we can learn to strengthen or let atrophy” (Miller).
If you’d like to explore this capacity within you or build on what you have already discovered or connected with, working with a spiritual awakening counseling therapist here at AUM Integral Wellness can help.
While you wait for your first appointment, watch this TedTalk on how depression and spirituality are two sides of the same door, or check out Lisa Miller’s book, The Awakened Brain.
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