15 Aug 2022

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Spiritual Beliefs: What You Need to Know

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Spirituality is a broad concept and has room for many perspectives. However, many people think that spirituality and religion are the same which is not the case. This can be proven by the fact that one can be spiritual without being religious (WAAIJMAN, 2015) . Spirituality is more of individual practices and has to do with a sense of purpose and peace. Spirituality also relates to connection with others as well as the process of developing beliefs around the meaning of life without specific or any set spiritual values. On the other hand, religion is a set of organized practices and beliefs that are specific to a group of people and shared amongst the group of people or community (OFILADA MINA, 2014) . Spirituality is a universal human experience that touches us all. It involves a sense of connection to something bigger than human beings. It also involves a search for meaning in life. It is, therefore, the aspect of humanity which refers to the way people express and seek purpose and meaning as well as the way they experience their connectedness to the significant sacred, nature, others, self and the moment. 

Being religious does not make a person spiritual. People practice spirituality due to many reasons. For instance, due to the ups and downs, bad and good times, people seek comfort and peace in spirituality (Phelps, 2012) . Spirituality can often be practiced alongside things like yoga since yoga focuses on the release of emotion and stress relief. People use spirituality as a way of coping with uncertainty or change as well as a way to relieve their dependence on material things. It helps people to understand that their life has a greater purpose. Spirituality recognizes that peoples role in life has a greater value than what they do in everyday life. 

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Spirituality raises one's effectiveness to a level that is higher than the previous level since it is a way of sharpening one's mind. Spirituality involves the way to achieve a purpose or goal, knowledge of the self (person), the relationship of the self with God and the purpose of the existence of a person (Bowden & Lux-Sterritt, 2012) . Spiritual people always devote their time in the company of the divine thus experiencing happiness, peace and true love that last longer than attainments that are material in nature. Spiritual people always remain contented with themselves hence seeing everybody else as a soul. Spirituality enables spiritual people to be loveful to all human beings regardless of physical traits, gender, country, or religion. Such spiritual people always remain peaceful regardless of how other people or situations surrounding them are because being peaceful is being spiritual as well as being the true self. 

The spiritual world is inhabited by spirits both good and evil with manifold spiritual manifestations (Kelly, 2016) . The spiritual world is, therefore, the external environment for spirits. According to my personally held beliefs, we live in two worlds. That is the natural world in which we live and are aware of and the spirit world which we have very little knowledge about. Although we as human beings can get in touch with our inner spiritual selves, we can only awake to the spiritual world that was previously hidden within us after we die and leave the natural world behind (Chambers, 2013) . The spiritual world is a place or state between heaven and hell; it is neither heaven nor hell. The spiritual world lies alongside our physical universe. Hence, when we are alive and in the natural world, we live in the spiritual world as to our spirits. Due to this, the spiritual world is, therefore, the world in which we awaken from death. The world of spirits enables every person in this world to present good and bad spirits. 

Good spirits provide an inflow of feelings and thoughts that are good to counteract the inflow of bad thoughts and feelings that arise from the bad spirits (Blackman, 2016) . According to my personally held beliefs, we are therefore kept in a balance between the bad and good spirits. We have the freedom to tune in to the good and bad spirits from the spiritual world which are related to heaven and hell since good spirits are associated with heaven while the bad spirits are associated with hell. According to my personally held beliefs, when we awaken from death in the spiritual world, our true characters arise, and we enter hell or heaven freely due to the choices we made whether good or bad in the natural/physical world. According to my personally held beliefs, the spiritual world plays the role of guiding and influencing our actions and thoughts in our lives. If one chooses the bad actions, then one will join the spiritual world with pain and suffering after death which is known as hell. On the other hand, if one chooses good actions while in the natural world, then that person will join the spiritual world with joy and happiness know as heaven. Hell is associated with Satan while heaven is associated with God and many people desire to go to heaven after death. 

Afterlife refers to life after death (Meyer, 2014) . According to my personally held beliefs, there is an afterlife. Here, those people who followed God's will shall rise from the dead and go to heaven where they will rejoice with God eternally. Those who did not follow Gods will while on the natural world will rise from the dead and go to hell where there are eternal pain and suffering. The spiritual world is an intermediate state between heaven and hell (Lascano, 2013) . It consists of good and bad spirits. The good spirits guide people towards heaven while the bad spirits guide people towards hell afterlife. However, people have the freedom to choose whether to follow the good or bad spirits from the spiritual world while in the natural/physical world. 

Soul refers to the essence of a person and is usually thought to consist of a person’s personality and thoughts (Pedersen & Willerslev, 2012) . Souls are believed to live on after the death of a person. According to my personally held beliefs, there are souls and souls define a person through either their bad or good actions while in the natural world. There are spiritual beings which cannot be seen; these spiritual beings include angels from God and angels from Satan who are mainly demons. God is a supreme being who is immortal and has superior powers. Faith refers to a trust or a conviction of things not seen. Faith enables people to believe in God since God cannot be seen. 

Spirituality plays the role of interconnecting a person to a supreme being. It, therefore, plays the role of uniting me with God since I am a Christian. Spirituality helps me to live according to God's will so that I will join heaven in my afterlife. Spirituality, with the help of the good spirits, guides my actions in the natural world so that I can follow God's will and later rejoice with God in heaven (Maas, 2014) . The general premises of my faith include the belief in a supernatural being who is God. God is invisible, but his presence can be felt by those who do according to his will. God's will is that we follow the Ten Commandments which are stipulated in the book of Exodus in the holy bible. The bible is a religious book containing God's teaching and is read by Christians during religious services and when they are free to read it. As a Christian, we have been taught to obey the Ten Commandments, obey our parents and this includes anybody older than we are. We have also been taught about stealing. Here, we have been taught not to still and always to help the needy since we can only serve God by serving other people in the natural/physical world. Religious services serve the purpose of reminding us how to live according to God's will as well as enhancing the growth of our faith. 

References 

Blackman, L. (2016).  Spirituality . London: Lawrence & Wishart. 

Bowden, C., & Lux-Sterritt, L. (2012).  Spirituality . London: Pickering & Chatto. 

Chambers, A. (2013).  Man and the spiritual world . [Place of publication not identified]: The classics Us. 

Kelly, T. (2016).  The reality of the spiritual world . Breinigsville, Pa.: Kessinger Publishing. 

Lascano, M. (2013). Anne Conway: Bodies in the Spiritual World.  Philosophy Compass 8 (4), 327-336. doi: 10.1111/phc3.12025 

Maas, R. (2014). Practicing Christianity: Critical Perspectives for an Embodied Spirituality by Margaret R. Miles.  The Thomist: A Speculative Quarterly Review 54 (1), 155-159. doi: 10.1353/tho.1990.0050 

Meyer, A. (2014). Heaven, hell, and the afterlife: eternity in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam: v.1: End time and the afterlife in Judaism; v.2: End time and the afterlife in Christianity; v.3: End time and the afterlife in Islamic, Buddhist, and indigenous cultures. Choice Reviews Online 51 (07), 51-3574-51-3574. doi: 10.5860/choice.51-3574 

OFILADA MINA, M. (2014). Philosophy and Spirituality.  Studies In Spirituality 6 (0), 145-152. doi: 10.2143/sis.6.0.2004150 

Pedersen, M., & Willerslev, R. (2012). "THE SOUL OF THE SOUL IS THE BODY": Rethinking the Concept of Soul through North Asian Ethnography.  Common Knowledge 18 (3), 464-486. doi: 10.1215/0961754x-1630395 

Phelps, K. (2012).  Spirituality . Elsevier Health Sciences APAC. 

WAAIJMAN, K. (2015). Spirituality - a Multifaceted Phenomenon.  Studies In Spirituality 17 (0), 1-113. doi: 10.2143/sis.17.0.2024643 

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