Defining personal spirituality might be an impossible task. The word “personal” implies as many definitions as there are people to define it. Consider this: throughout history, man has had a need to believe in something greater than himself, chasing after everything from gods and spirits to dragons and fairies.

One way to distinguish personal spirituality is to tell you what it is not. It’s not religion. In fact, a religious person may or may not be spiritual. There are many examples of those to go mosques, temples, churches, or other religious institutions and mouth the words, never letting the underlying spirituality impact them internally.

This isn’t the truth for everyone, though. On the contrary, many attend places of worship because their personal spirituality is in tune with the religious institution and the acts practiced therein. Continue reading →

Religion and Spirituality are the same, right?

There’s some confusion going on regarding these two concepts. It’s easy to see why this would be the case, simply because you’re going to find there’s overlap in the definitions. Let’s take this apart and see if we can make more sense of things.

Religion, by definition, is a collection of beliefs set out with specific patterns and symbols that define how it is practiced. This can become extremely diverse and reflect an entire world of beliefs. There are thousands of different religions in the world today.

Religion might be easier to understand if you think of it as an outward expression of your faith journey. It has more to do with what you’re doing to express your beliefs and tends to involve contemplation or worship in unison with others. Continue reading →