Spirituality and/or Religion

Are you finding yourself to become more spiritual than religious? Or maybe you question the differences between the two? The debate over spirituality and religion can become unintentionally and unnecessarily complexed. Let us examine a few things in a sincere effort to dissolve these complexities. 

Google defines the two very simplistically as, 

Religion: This is a specific set of organized beliefs and practices, usually shared by a community or group.

Spirituality: This is more of an individual practice, and has to do with having a sense of peace and purpose.

In my humblest opinion this is a massive over simplification of the topic since it doesn’t fully compare and contrast the two. For example If religion is a set of organized beliefs and practices and spirituality is individual based, what then occurs when two or more individuals whom are considered spiritual have shared beliefs? Are they now members of a newly found religion? Maybe they have created a new denomination of a religion? Though google didn’t quite solve the entire mystery it does however give us the perfect place to begin.

It is my belief that while religion and spirituality can be dichotomous they can also in fact be synonymous. In other words Religion and Spirituality don’t have to be separate they can be related, coexist, and can even be used interchangeably! 

It is our human nature to seek to understand the world around us thus classifying and putting things into boxes comes naturally to us. But what if we purposely didn’t place spirituality into a box? What implications does that have for how we view spirituality and religion? I actually believe it opens up the idea for more possibilities. 
I am of the mindset that you can indeed be an individual spiritualist while also being a member of a religion. Furthermore I believe you can also be an active participant of a religion and have no sense of true spirituality!  The question shouldn’t be spirituality vs religion. I believe the true question is do you feel spiritually aligned at all? If the answer is no, then that is alright. In fact many people share that frustration which is the reason for very question that prompted this blog post. 

The answer to the question of spirituality vs religion is quite simple to me. One should always work inward in an effort to outwardly manifest. In other words work on the individual spiritual aspects that align with you at your core. Once you start to develop your inner self and inner spirituality you will see outwardly manifestations emerge!