Non-Religious Spirituality and Mental Health

I thought this article may be helpful to others who are seeking/practicing a non religious spirituality in their lives. Since my first traumatic experience I had often felt a kind of sensitivity towards life that motivated me to search for understanding about what had happened to me and what way we were all connected. I wanted to know what I could do to make the circle I moved in, somehow, more meaningful. There was so much I had to work through that it wasn't until about 15 years ago that I first began to get the smallest of understandings. This article, for me, kind of put things in perspective about why I was driven to find a spiritual meaning, and, a little about what my own sense of spirituality has given.

Being a non – religious but spiritual person means we do not need to ‘buy into’ particular religious texts, systems of belief or traditions which have been passed on from generation to generation over many, many centuries. Indeed, free from such restrictive shackles, we are liberated to go about our spiritual practice in a way which is unique to us, if we so choose.

People who are spiritual often report that being so :

– helps them to find meaning and purpose in life

– helps them during periods of suffering

– helps them recover from traumatic experiences

– helps them develop their creativity

– helps them to become kinder, more patient and more compassionate

Also, those who are spiritual often find that they are more able to draw on their own suffering to effectively help others. Thus, suffering becomes less meaningless.



SPIRITUAL PRACTICES INCLUDE :

– meditation

– yoga

– Thi Chi

– appreciating nature, its beauty, exquisite complexity and ability to inspire feelings of awe

– contemplative reading (literature, poetry, philosophy)

– forming deeper relationships/friendships

– appreciation of the arts

– creative activities (eg painting, gardening, cooking)

– volunteering to help others

Non-Religious Spirituality and Mental Health | Child Abuse, Trauma and Recovery

My feelings, prior to beginning to develop my spirituality, had become quite negative, in general. It seemed, there were only takers, and those taken from in life. I felt angry, disturbed, joyless. Then, one day, feeling I had taken all I could take, and not wanting to take my own life, I crumbled, before the universe, before whatever God might be 'out there'. I admitted my failings, that, everything in life I had attempted to accomplish, for my own gain, had failed, that, after all that, I was still isolated, and miserable. I made an agreement with whatever loving force existed, that, from then on, I would not make my life about myself, or my personal satisfaction, that, instead, I would follow whatever direction this more powerful, loving energy, guided me. From there began the most amazing journey of my life.

I'd like to read about others non-religious, spiritual awakenings. How did you feel before, after, since, during? How has spirituality changed the way you feel about your life experience? I hope this can be a positive and non religious, spiritual discussion. Thanks for sharing

No religious talk whatsoever is allowed here in this specific forum, including but not limited to church, clergy, the Bible, etc. Thank you.

Many years ago, during one of the first rough times; I began to have wonderful dreams, dreams of color, of circles, geometry, soothing voices, a hand atop the head that stops the wind, the moon at night in a perfect sky...other things... I recall being glad that I was not religious, as I might take it as a "religious" experience, and turn it to delusion...
But those dreams helped...and moved me, gave me times of peace, even pleasure where little was to be found. Now, I find this in nature, out in the woods, and, oddly, on real city streets...

I totally believe in Spirituality and practice this every day Has helped my mental health tremendously.

i've found NON-Religious spirituality to be very helpful to me. It is hard to get away from religious systems/beliefs - one thing i do is to see a lot of the forms of this World as myth, analogy, symbol & metaphor & also practise a non-attachment/allowance of what is - i find that helps. i also see the figures religions are based on as non-religious people - singing the same song with different tunes.

i've found NON-Religious spirituality to be very helpful to me. It is hard to get away from religious systems/beliefs - one thing i do is to see a lot of the forms of this World as myth, analogy, symbol & metaphor & also practise a non-attachment/allowance of what is - i find that helps. i also see the figures religions are based on as non-religious people - singing the same song with different tunes.

I don't believe that spirituality must rest upon religion, in fact, I believe, in a chicken or the egg scenario, spirituality definitely came first, and is more than capable of standing on its' own, without religion. I believe spiritual teachers are often influenced by other spiritual teachers, but, I also believe that no teacher is required to get at the essence of all that teaching, or to receive a harvest of spiritual wealth by one's own personal quest. In fact, in some cases, teachers on the topic, do more harm than good.

Spiritual principles, spiritual laws, spiritual truths are real and they govern us and the universe.
People will believe and do what they believe and do.

I love the Ellen Bass quote! So true! I thought the world needed to transform, but, I'm seeing more and more that it was myself that needed transforming first.

I loved your description Winter4me. Especially the night sky, the colors of blue. At times it could feel as if something were reaching out to speak to me, to me, specifically. It spoke no language I could comprehend, but, I could feel it, an immense, calming power, a beauty without description, and a depth that went far past what I could see with my eyes, always something more there, to know, to see, to feel.

I spend a lot of my time in the city now, the little gardens in places, in front of homes, the creekside parks, those little quiet getaways where you could go to read a book and have a few moments of silence and grateful reflection, matter so much more to me than they used to.

Me too Pikku.

Spiritual principles, spiritual laws, spiritual truths are real and they govern us and the universe.
People will believe and do what they believe and do.

I've heard there is nothing stronger than the power of what one believes. That can be healthy, or, unhealthy, depending on what one believes.

I would say our beliefs are powerful, yes, al63. Our beliefs determine our attitudes and thoughts. Our attitudes and thoughts determine our actions. If our beliefs are based on false information, irrational concepts or destructive ideas; we end up as perpetual children, dysfunctional basket cases and criminally insane predators.

It's up to ourselves to figure things out. When people have suffered enough from their ignorance, they will figure it out.

I'm new here but I just wanted to thank you for helping me validate my feelings about what spirituality really is. Sometimes it's hard to explain to people. A lot of my friends and loved ones are religious but don't understand that I don't have to be to be a spiritual person.

I am finding it very hard to get deeply ingrained religious teaching out of my head. I am finding non-religious spirituality to be very helpful to me as well but things I've been taught to believe all my life although I no longer hold to continue to have a hold on me. It disturbs me.

i've had this problem too. & have found that re-framing things is a great help. Getting other perspectives & understandings to things. i'm currently reading the Hermetica, & i've read 60 or so books on past life/inter life areas. i read 'Untold Jesus' by Grant Pealer the other day. i have over 600 books on comparative religion, Theosophy, Anthroposophy, Philosophy, depth/transpersonal psychology, shamanism, enlightenment, esoteric, occult, magic, tarot areas, all kinds of stuff.

i used to listen a lot to Atheists - Dawkins, Hitchens & others. Atheist writings can be very interesting.

i think it's possible to have a non-religious view on religions, if that makes sense. i see it all as fingers pointing to the moon - myth, analogy, symbol & metaphor.

Hope this post is allowed in the context of the question/discussion.

Thanks for the video and its' spirit of building, its' spirit of hope, its' spirit of belief and love. The song has a spirit of sharing and kindness and caring, of coming together and creating something positive and healthy and good. What I didn't realize, until I looked it up, is its' connection to religion.

Godspell - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In an interview on You Tube, Stephen Schwartz talks about the revision of the song following the L.A. Riots.



I've posted the revised lyrics here. The revised version is interesting in the way it describes rebuilding the city, not of angels, but the city of man. It causes me to think about man's history. Isn't that what we do? Build, collapse, rebuild? Each rebuilding is a fresh start, built by people, men and women, with determined spirit, to build the most beautiful, perfect city, and, in time, the city becomes corrupted in some way, falls, and is rebuilt again. Like the way a flower blooms, year after year, growing its' bud, blossoming, withering away, to bloom again in the next season. The way a heart beats, pumping life, then falling silent, for only a moment and the cycle repeats, until, one day, one heart stops beating, one flower stops blooming, and still, the spirit will not die, it remains alive and is born again with every new birth, with every re-pollination. For as long as it can.

Out of the ruins and rubble,
Out of the smoke,
Out of our night of struggle
Can we see a ray of hope?
One pale thin ray reaching for the day...

We can build a beautiful city.
Yes, we can( Yes,we can)
We can build a beautiful city.
Not a city of angels,
But we can build a city of man.

We may not reach the ending,
but we can start.
Slowly but surely mending,
brick by brick,
heart by heart.
Now, maybe now,
We start learning how.

We can build a beautiful city.
Yes we can( Yes, we can).
We can build a beautiful city.
Not a city of angels,
But we can build a city of man.

When your trust is all but shattered.
When your faith is all but killed.
You can give up bitter and battered,
Or you can slowly start to build!

A Beautiful City.
Yes,we can.(Yes,we can)
We can build a beautiful city,
Not a city of angels,
But finally a city of man!

I'm new here but I just wanted to thank you for helping me validate my feelings about what spirituality really is. Sometimes it's hard to explain to people. A lot of my friends and loved ones are religious but don't understand that I don't have to be to be a spiritual person.

I am finding it very hard to get deeply ingrained religious teaching out of my head. I am finding non-religious spirituality to be very helpful to me as well but things I've been taught to believe all my life although I no longer hold to continue to have a hold on me. It disturbs me.

Welcome PeaceLvr You are welcome if this thread helped to validate your feelings of spirituality. I know too well how it can feel, like a square peg, trying to fit a round hole. That's how it can feel when you're surrounded by people who look like you, talk the same language, but, don't seem to say things in just the way that agrees with how you feel and think yourself. Of course you are free to have your own spirituality, of any shape or form you choose, my only wish for you is that it is one that brings you good health. Part of good health is interacting with the people around us in the best way possible, even though we might think differently. Why is spirituality so different than, say, choosing corn, instead of peas? No one is harmed if I choose peas, are they? Well, maybe the corn growers are, because I didn't buy their corn, but, hey, there's plenty of corn eaters.

I think what might be different, is something like, if corn were really bad for our health, and, by eating it, we poisoned not only ourself, but others too. Then the pea farmers could get really upset and it'd be a case of how it's really obvious that we're doing something that isn't good for ourself, or good for others.

But, spirituality isn't peas and corn. Spirituality is, and can be, a very healthy experience for yourself and the people around you. It's too bad they can't see that.

Maybe try some meditation to clear your thoughts of the residual leftovers of what you've been trained you 'should' think and feel?



i think it's possible to have a non-religious view on religions, if that makes sense.

Makes perfect sense to me. How else could we observe accurately, or, process the information truthfully, if we did did not study objectively?

That's an awesome library Apotheosis, and, I like your 'fingers pointing at the moon' analogy.

Thanks. If i had the money & room i'd create a library with thousands of books. It's a dream i have - one of a few. i love books & researching that area - there are well over a thousand books on the amazon wish list. There are a vast amount of very rare & obscure books that i'd like to collect as well.

i see it that we currently exist in the lower Worlds, of form & matter - & that there are non-physical higher Worlds, for want of better terms. Everything in these Worlds of form are just that - forms - representations. Language is symbolic & a form.

PeaceLvr, are you familiar with Joseph Campbell? He was an American mythologist, writer and lecturer, best known for his work in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work is vast, covering many aspects of the human experience. He very much explored religion from metaphorical & mythological understandings. May help?

I like your post regarding the song, "Beautiful City"
It is actually a pure non-religious spiritual song. It was not in the original Broadway show. It was added for the motion picture. It really has no connection to a God or religion.

Religion is mans attempt to explain and connect to the spiritual.
Spirituality is eternal and unchanging. It is reality.
It turns out that spirituality is Love.
Love as far as we are concerned is the state of Wholeness and Unity.

So how do we become whole? How do we unite?
That is what we are in the process of doing, (Whether we know it or not)

Before I respond, I only want to take a minute, and express gratitude for everyone who has contributed to this thread. For me, it has been a spiritual journey, reading the replies, thinking of my responses, sharing in your feelings, and combining them with my own, leading to new understandings, new feelings, and new hopes and ideas that, for me, have needed to be acknowledged and given attention to for a very long time. Each of you are very special people.

I have this way of expanding ideas, of crossing over broad areas, and seeing the way the truths that apply in one area, are truths that apply in several areas. It isn't always the case, but, it happens, and so, when I read something, or think about something that resolves one kind of inner question or conflict I'm experiencing, I've developed the habit of 'testing' this newly discovered information by inserting it into the test tube of different scenarios and measuring if the 'boat will float'. It's how I discern truth from fiction. It's what I've called extrapolating, sort of like one key, that unlocks several locks.

Love is one such key, and, I believe, it is the master key, to all of the questions I have ever asked myself.

This discussion has become broad, and far reaching, and it is on track, exactly as it should be, exactly as I wanted it to be, and it is each of you who has brought it to this place, where it is now, and it is still expanding. It is the kind of discussion the inner me has been searching for, for a long, long time. The subject covers both the finite, and the infinite, at once, in a single stroke of the brush.

Is not the 'building of the city' a metaphor itself? While it mentions the building of cities with bricks, does it not also mention the building of human spirit? The song does apply to the building, the collapse, and the re- building of the human spirit. And so, humanity, each person, each living thing in the universe, each city, is subject to this same cycle of birth, growth, collapse, and renewal.

Thanks. If i had the money & room i'd create a library with thousands of books. It's a dream i have - one of a few. i love books & researching that area - there are well over a thousand books on the amazon wish list. There are a vast amount of very rare & obscure books that i'd like to collect as well.

I have read so many books, not all related to spirituality, but, within every book, there is a certain kind of spirituality, in the characters, in the theme, in how the characters respond to their environments. I was able to glean from each book, a sense of truths about life, from ordinary people, what drives them, what conflicts they've experienced, how they've resolved their conflicts, or how they didn't, how they rose above their circumstances, or, were swallowed by them. Sadly, in my state of mental being at the time, I didn't retain the specific names of authors or titles, and, it's unfortunate, because, each is due credit and my gratitude for they way they've helped me understand the nature of the human spirit.

i see it that we currently exist in the lower Worlds, of form & matter - & that there are non-physical higher Worlds, for want of better terms. Everything in these Worlds of form are just that - forms - representations..

I see it that way too, that presently, we are living in the world of material objects, but, that there is a side to us, a window if you will, that we can see outward from, to this other realm that you've described, and, from that other realm, through the window, the truths, laws, and mysteries, can come into us, in the now, in the present. We are living in more than one existence and in more than one time dimension, at the same time.

Language is symbolic & a form

And, language is limiting. These other realms can only be understood with emotional language. How sad it is that in so many ways we are discouraged from experiencing our emotions. Emotions are our spirit.

It is actually a pure non-religious spiritual song. It was not in the original Broadway show. It was added for the motion picture. It really has no connection to a God or religion.

Thank you for clearing that up Indie. I had read that the original version was not included in the original Broadway production but I didn't connect that it existed separately and apart from any theater production before it was added. The original lyrics make no reference to God, or to religion.

Religion is mans attempt to explain and connect to the spiritual.
Spirituality is eternal and unchanging. It is reality.
It turns out that spirituality is Love.
Love as far as we are concerned is the state of Wholeness and Unity.

I can see that. Every emotion we experience is in the range of complete love, on one side, and the least degree of love, on the other side. What is 'like', if not a lesser degree of love? What is 'dislike', if not a lesser degree of complete love? How would we feel and understand hate, if we had no understanding of love, and what is apathy, if not the temporary inability to feel love?

Complete Love is the unifying factor. You've mentioned as much before, in your other posts, that, the degree that we are separated from complete love, is the degree that ourselves, and others, will suffer. This is a truth I have arrived at as well, separately, and independently, and it is good, no, it is great, to connect with others on that level.

The pain I cause to you, is the pain I cause to myself.

So how do we become whole? How do we unite?

I have some ideas on that, but, this is where I need the collective. It is not right, and possibly not possible, that only one person should answer this question for everyone.

Could you clarify the question first though? How do you mean 'we' in this sentence? Do you mean 'we', as in the group of us, or 'we', as in each individual person within the group? I think the answer will be the same in either scenario, but, I'd like your clarification please.

Thank you so much alchemy. I appreciated your comparison of the peas and corn.

When I say we, I mean all humans.

When I say,
"So how do we become whole? How do we unite?
That is what we are in the process of doing, (Whether we know it or not)"

I am saying that becoming whole people and uniting together is a natural process and it will happen.
It matters not whether anybody in this forum believes this or not.
As I have said before, we should not take other people's word on such matters.
We need to prove things to ourselves.

I appreciate everybody on this site and everybody on the planet for that matter.
I can see clearly the path I am on.
I wish you all the joy and peace that I have.
I do what I can to try to impart what I have attained and I will continue to attain more.

“Everything turns out alright in the end…if it’s not alright, then it’s not the end”

So we find that Love is the answer, but what is Love?
Love is an understanding.
Love is a state of being...
Love is seeing and accepting things as they are; not as we want them to be.
To love, we must become wise, and as we live, we become wiser everyday.
We find that to love, we must first have a desire to love.

We find that to love, we can have no fear:

To have no fear, one must become wise and see things as they are.
How does one become wise?

When you become wise, you will know the answer.

The answer is Love.
But what is Love?