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Mind - Spirituality


All of us, at all ages, seek to find meaning in our everyday activities. Age makes a difference in the intensity and importance of this has in your life.

As we all remember, the young are immortal. At our age, we appreciate a little better that most of our years may be behind us. We seek not only meaning in the years we have, but to compose with mortality.

In my experience, people who engage in religious and spiritual practice often cope psychologically better with ageing and have better physical health than those who don’t.

Some of us incline to the pursuit of the spiritual through organized religion. This path adds the advantage of a society of like-minded believers, soul-mates in the pursuit of inner peace and a shared understanding of life and death.  The appeal of the various forms of Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Islam is personal and cultural. There is no denying their power within the life of a believer.

The credos of organized faiths is not for everyone at our stage of life. We may have been practitioners earlier in life and have lapsed in our adhesion to a particular religion. Whether we ever followed the path of a conventional religion or not, we all have an inner life that is mysterious and beckons us in ways that we refer to as the spiritual. Expressions of spirituality through religious practice or compassion, service to others or passing on wisdom to succeeding generations if often a source of  deep personal satisfaction, comfort, and peace. These attributes of a spiritual life usually take on more value as we advance in age and maturity.

Many people confound spirituality and religion, some discarding both as they flee religious practice. At the risk being simplistic I would say that you can run away from organized religion but you can’t run away from yourself – and part of your inner self exists as a spiritual manifestation of life. Everyone has a spiritual component, but not everyone needs to be  “religious”.  As with most important aspects of living, the right balance for you is yours to determine. The risks attendant on  ignoring this aspect of your life is, however, a danger of which you should be aware. Somewhere, in some recess of yourself there is a need to give expression and to air this facet of living.

Every organized society since the beginning of time has expressed its need for the spiritual in some manner – artefacts and engravings from before recorded time attest to that simple truth. The wise life exists as much through an inward glance as it does in taking responsibility for the world around you. Spirituality is about our existence, relationships with ourselves, others and with the universe. It is something we experience and requires abstract thinking and will. Spiritual development provides us with insight and understanding of ourselves and others.
 

Read more about:

- "Our Garden" [more]
- Learning [more]
 

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"Our Garden" [more]

  
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Sage Vita advice:










For some, spirituality and religion offer a way to find solace in social support, security, and a sense of belonging to something larger than oneself.

This can be an important aspect of coping with pain and grief that can otherwise be insurmountable.

  


 

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