It’s time I lay another piece of foundation for this blog. I find that it’s essential, and crucial, to know the reason why I emphasize spirituality. Why don’t I find something else to blog about? Someday, I will introduce other topics, but there’s a fire for spirituality. There’s a reason for this fire, and it’s time to explain.
Spirituality is the key. I’ve explained before that spirituality is what’s important in religion, but it’s more than that. Sure, a common embrace of a common spiritual core between religions can help qualm conflict, but it can still do more. It can help save lives.
The UN has reported that about 800,000 people are committing suicide worldwide per year. That’s a larger number than people that die from armed conflict and natural disasters combined. Depression and anxiety are on record high levels, we’re in a crisis. And I believe it can all be traced to a crisis of the soul.
What’s causing this? There isn’t a single cause. A large number of the causes can be summed up to a consequence of the modern lifestyle. An excess of running around and stress drains us, and the typical diet can either cause or aggravate biochemical imbalances. As Jason Silva mentions in the video below, there is also the increasing lack of effectiveness of religion. This is when the mythology of religion is starting to become too outdated. For those that suffer from this, it’s crucial that they take a spiritual beliefs journey and find the heart of religion.
And it’s precisely because of the nature of depression and it’s variant causes that I see spirituality as an effective treatment. Spirituality is holistic. It treats the whole of a person. It can simultaneously be a separate facet of life/health, and a part of all other facets. For example, one may change their diet due to their religious/spiritual beliefs. Likely any change of diet with conscious effort of improvement will result in some improvement.
Balance is the Key
There are some studies that indicate adverse effects of religion-less spirituality. I personally believe that these studies should be taken into consideration, but there might also be problems with them. Some of the risks are higher chances of mental disorders, and possibly even worsening pre-existing ones. One possibility is that the people in the study started exploring religions (or became religion-less) as a consequence of those disorders. Another possible problem is how they rate spirituality. Should they instead be looking at the types of relationship(s) that they build with the Divine? Either way, I still believe that spirituality is what matters most, but a balance must be struck.
A previous mentor once gave me this analogy: that if you’re walking while staring at the sky, you can trip over anything. If you’re always staring at the ground you may walk straight into a tree. You should learn to look straight ahead, that way you can see both the ground and the sky. One should always stay grounded. So if you consider yourself to be spiritual, but not religious. I encourage you to not remain that way very long. Don’t completely disregard religion, be sure to find the right one for you.