Being spiritual or soulful usually comes with a host of connotations. Some would say that it is an experience, some a state of mind, others that it’s a way of being. And more often than not, it is ridiculed or dismissed because the mind doesn’t know what to do with it, doesn’t know how to understand it.
For the mind, spirituality or soulfulness is this weird, challenging, and intangible thing.
For some it is the equivalent of being religious; for others, it is believing in energy healing, tarot cards, angels, fairies, and other elementals. For some, it involves being reflective, practicing forgiveness, compassion, and non-judgment.
No matter which meaning you give it, our society, for the most part, doesn’t consider being spiritual or soulful as valuable as the rational mind.
I first came across spirituality in my early 20s. I had recently landed my first job in accounting at a global high-tech electronics company. As I got to know the others in the office, there was one lady who stood out to me as very “colourful” shall we say. She was into theatre, dance, and – lo and behold – energy healing (whatever that was!).
She was a bit “loud”, and according to my frame of the world at the time, she didn’t seem to “fit in”. I remember vividly, she wore a lot of purple plush and had wacky necklaces. She was very good at her job, but I did not take her seriously. Today, I’m smiling at my youthful ignorance.
One way to give further dimension to spirituality, soulfulness, and being spiritual could be to say that someone spiritual is leaning more towards the WHO than the WHAT.
For example, I’m more interested in WHO I am than WHAT I am, which harkens back to my musings in Consciously or unconsciously, we are seekers – any external label is not who we are.
I’ll end with a question. I’m curious, how would you describe your first encounter with spirituality?
