Hello and welcome and today's word is a profound word of spirituality.
Do you ever feel a deep sense of connection to something greater than yourself?
Do you seek meaning beyond the material world?
Or do you perhaps feel an unexplicable emptiness within yourself?
Spirituality is really not about religion at all.
It's about seeking purpose,
Inner peace and connection from somewhere within yourself and beyond yourself all at the same time.
It's about exploring the deeper questions in life.
Why am I here?
What is my purpose?
How can I align with my higher self?
And when we go even deeper than that,
Spirituality becomes just about being in the present moment.
Spirituality can be of course practiced through religion,
Meditation,
Nature,
Service to the community or personal reflection.
And it's the journey of seeking wisdom,
Living with intention and finding peace within that draws many people to this idea of spirituality.
Now the Dalai Lama of course is a symbol of peace and wisdom and he teaches that true spirituality is about compassion,
Mindfulness and self-awareness.
And his philosophy emphasizes that happiness comes from within,
Not from external success.
Rumi,
The 13th century Persian poet and Sufi mystic,
Used poetry to express deep spiritual truths.
His writings remind us that love,
Unity and self-discovery are at the heart of spirituality.
Albert Einstein,
Though a scientist,
Had a deeply spiritual outlook.
He believed in the interconnectedness of the universe and famously said,
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.
It is the source of all true art and all science.
Now studies show that people who engage in spiritual practices such as meditation or prayer experience lower stress levels and improved mental health.
And spirituality has also been linked to greater life satisfaction in general as it helps people find meaning beyond material success.
But not only find meaning in the mind but feel meaning in their bodies.
And in fact Steve Jobs traveled to India in search of spiritual enlightenment before founding Apple.
His experiences influenced his minimalist design philosophy and focus on intuition.
Spirituality is of course an incredibly personal journey.
I personally think of spirituality as an essence that I will experience most strongly when I quieten my mind.
And it has the interesting journey from going within and bringing me within and then going actually far beyond my human existence out into the universe and back again.
And understanding that those two parts are absolutely connected.
One is moving through the other and that for me is spirituality.
But our journeys are all different and whatever spirituality means to you is what's important.
So three things that I'm going to suggest for today.
The first one,
Create a daily reflection practice.
Spend a few moments meditating praying or journaling about life's deeper questions.
And sometimes spirituality can be so simple.
Which brings us to number two which is about connecting with nature.
Spending time in nature to experience the beauty and the interconnectedness of the universe,
Of all animals,
All living beings and plants.
It's just so magnificent.
We can learn so much by paying closer attention to nature.
Number three,
Practice compassion and kindness.
Spirituality is not just about personal growth.
It really is about how you treat others.
And a good place to start can be showing compassion and kindness to yourself.
Today we end on a quotation by Rumi.
You are not a drop in the ocean.
You are the entire ocean in a drop.
