Integrate Spirituality into Your Everyday

Recent times have been filled with dramatic life challenges. First our lives had been drastically impacted socially and economically by COVID-19. Then a major conflict in Ukraine has had major global repercussions. On top of this are trends of more severe weather patterns, economic inequality, increasing pollution, and social unrest. More than ever we all long for a means and a way for a better life that doesn’t just revolve around working harder. 

This article is an invitation to start embracing life in a way that organically brings solutions, options, safety and support into our everyday being. This can be done without needing more time, money or effort. It is done by embracing a more pragmatic view of spirituality. When you can do this, you start to become a person that is resilient, creative, happy, and clear about anything that life brings.

It used to be that my spirituality consisted of perhaps going to a church a few times a year, kneeling in prayer, or possibly meditating. That way of life was fine as long as things remained reasonably manageable. That was not the case. For a large number of years, things were not fine. They were overwhelming and very depressing. As my wife struggled through increasingly unexplained physical disorders — I dipped deeper into exhaustion and depression. 

During those times conventional allopathic medicine was failing us and more and more we resorted to alternative medical doctors and therapists. The form of therapy that for much of the time showed the most promising results came from human energy healing practitioners. In many cases, the health treatments overlapped with religious and spiritual beliefs. We spent lots of money on treatments not covered by insurance and the results always seemed temporary and inconsistent. As time progressed the next doctor, therapist, or practitioner revealed a new layer of cause. It seemed we were always focusing on symptoms or side effects and not the root cause that could solve all the problems once and for all. We needed to find the root cause.

During these dark times of depression, I sought the help of therapists, religious and spiritual thought leaders for support. And in the process, I gained extensive knowledge of the spectrum of alternative health care treatments. So, I started to teach and share my knowledge in a local night school. One night as I was preparing to teach a class, I found out that everyone had canceled.  So that night for some odd reason I was guided to go ahead and teach to an empty class. As I taught, suddenly the answer to coming out of years of hopelessness and forever depression became clear. And the answer to the root cause of issues in my wife’s health, my health, my overall outlook of life and the future was quite surprising. 

I saw that whenever we seek to get to the core of a problem and not just the symptoms then we are looking for the root cause. And ultimately the root cause of any problem is the same as finding the purpose of that problem. Then I also came to realize that “finding the purpose of an issue” is the same as “finding the spirit behind an issue”.  What do I mean by “spirit behind an issue”?  

What I found is that if you simply replace every use of the word “spirit” with the word “purpose” you’ve kind of removed all the mystique of “spirituality” and go straight for the answers. For example, if someone talks about “Team Spirit” or “Patriotic Spirit” they are not talking about the religion, prayer, or meditation behind the Team or Patriotism. They are talking about “Team Purpose” and “Patriotic Purpose”. And so if we want to find the fundamental root cause and solution to every problem and challenge in life we need to seek Purpose. I found that this “search for purpose” is also called “spirituality.”

So if you’re not worried about upsetting someone’s belief of what is or is not spirituality then I propose the following simple and practical approach to finding answers that have worked for me. I was once a skeptical scientist and engineer struggling to find any answers in my life – a life that I was drowning in terror and depression. I’m still the same skeptical scientist and engineer but now have been imbued with resilience, creativity, joy, passion, confidence and clarity about life. I’ve become both the spiritual mystic and still yet the same skeptic at heart.  This is my technique.

1. Every time you think, read or hear the word “spirit” replace it with “purpose”, and every time you think, read or hear the word “spirituality” replace it with the phrase “the search for purpose”
2. Then for every issue, challenge or problem you face in life, no matter how big or small, decide on who you feel like asking a challenging life question to. You can pick God, Buddha, Allah, Jehovah, Great Spirit, Mother Earth, Life, the Universe, Source, Higher Self, or even a deceased relative or friend. Ask whoever you trust. Feel free to change as needed.
3. Then for every issue, challenge or problem you face, ask the following question: “What is the purpose for this in my life?”
4. Now be open to look and listen for the answer to that question. Know that the answer will always come because you’ve done the most important work of asking the right question using the word “purpose”.

Keep repeating these four steps over and over. As you do this you now start to organically open a direct channel to all that is Divine and galvanize it with a direct line into every beat of your heart and every breath of your life. And as you do this you now can experiment and decide for yourself if any form of ceremony, prayer, meditation, chants, incense, crystals, clothing or music helps you in this cause to figure out problems in your life. 

Continually, repeat these four steps and you now have spirituality fully integrated in your life. You are now positioned to be resilient, creative, happy, and clear about anything that life brings.

To help solidify things I recommend following the short meditation in this video.

If you’re interested in finding out more I suggest reading my first book: Spirituality for REAL: Beyond the Incense and Meditation