What Does It Mean To Be a Spiritual Person?
Learning that values and actions trump ideologies
I used to seek out relationships based on having a similar ideology to the other person. If I met someone who had heard about Human Design or astrology, who had some of the same views as I do on health and wellness, or who was into some kind of spiritual practice of their own, I thought that automatically I would have a lot in common with this person. In the past few months, this lesson has come full circle for me and I’m realizing that the basis I want for my relationships is not ideas, but rather values and actions.
When I lived in the Rocky Mountains, I noticed that there were a lot of people who were escaping from something (myself included, although I didn’t necessarily have a ton of awareness about that at the time!). Many were living an “alternative” lifestyle with more emphasis on adventure and less emphasis on work, making money, and trying to get ahead. At first glance, that seems great! Valuing time and enjoyment over money and status is a choice many mountain-town dwellers make, and there is nothing inherently wrong with that.
When you look a little deeper however, you see that the rat race mountain adventurer types say they are avoiding has simply shape-shifted into a different form. What epic adventure did YOU go on today? Who summited the most peaks this year? Who skied the coolest line? Who has the fastest times on Strava? How many races did you run this year? What was your time in this race? Any day spent not adventuring in the mountains could feel like a day wasted. Any activity not on Strava “didn’t really happen” (😅😂). A new rat race was created: One where the currencies are fitness, mountain skills, and endurance instead of money, status, and power… but it is a rat race none the less!
I feel that this same shape-shifting phenomenon also happens within the “spiritual” community. I put the word “spiritual” in quotations because I believe every single person who is alive on this planet is a spiritual person with a vibrant inner light and beautiful gifts to share. There is no one alive who is not spiritual in their own unique way. By putting “spiritual” in quotation marks, I am referring to people who are into things like yoga, mediation, crystals, sound healing, breath work, astrology, Human Design, ancient civilizations, aliens, psychic gifts, holistic health, etc. Again, similar to the mountain town example, there is definitely nothing inherently wrong with being into these modalities and exploring them with openness, curiosity, and self-sovereignty. Just like how I love and see benefits in my life from adventure, mountains, hiking, and spending time outdoors, I also love and see benefits from Human Design (of course!), astrology, meditation, holistic health, etc. The problems only starts creeping in and the plot is only lost when a sense of hierarchy is formed; When a sense of superiority and inferiority creeps in; When a group of people or a single person start(s) to believe they are better or worse than others. In the “spiritual” community, it can show up in a really nauseating way in an attitude of “I’m enlightened and you’re not, therefore I am better than you.” It becomes a rat race in its own right: A competition for who is the most enlightened, who has been studying for the longest, who has studied with a certain teacher, who knows the most about a certain topic, who is more “healed”, etc.
Through my own trials and tribulations with this topic, I’ve learned the hard way a few times that just because I share some of the same ideas, opinions, and interests as someone doesn’t mean that we are on the same page with our values.