I may have been baptized Catholic, but I don’t fancy myself a religious person.  At their cores, most religions are more similar than you think, so I’ve become pretty fluid with forming my own beliefs. I have a pretty cross in my bedroom, a buddha in my living room, a wiccan fairy lamp in my kitchen, crystals in nightstand, and a photo of Ganesha as my desktop wallpaper. What I connect with in the religions I know about, is, how we are all here to love and help each other and become better people throughout our journey on earth. I don’t believe in strict rules. I don’t believe that there is one almighty being. However, I do believe in something greater than me. I believe that nothing in life is random. I also believe that there are more energies at play than one bearded man in the sky. Yes, I’m one of those California hippies that says they are spiritual… and honestly, I wasn’t always like this. It takes years of soul searching and opening your eyes to the world around you to find enlightenment. So, while I may have icons from different religions in my home, my connection with them is based off of pure, personal spiritual energy.

Why am I talking about this today? A couple weeks ago, I wrote a blog called Hey, Girl! You Can Be Fabulous and Enlightened Simultaneously. Basically, putting on a lipstick doesn’t make you less spiritual than the person next to you. At that time, I was in a bloggers group (I have left all blog support groups, but I’ll save that for another post). I posted my links for the day connected to the blog and like always, there was someone that refused to comment/like. (This was a theme with many of my posts in the support groups… I get too real for mommy bloggers) I was curious as to why, so I asked. I was met with “Your post is about religion. It’s against the rules.” (HOLD UP… Did I black out when I wrote my blog? Pretty sure it doesn’t have an ounce of religious undertone in it.) In the midst of a “please don’t tell me about myself” rage, I tried to explain that she was missing the mark on what It was about and she didn’t understand the definitions of the words that upset her, like “soul”, for instance. It honestly turned into this giant, grown women coming at each other type of internet brawl, but what upset me was her inability and incapacity to learn. She was wrong and unwilling to learn, which is a damn shame, but guess what… she’s not my audience.

BUT, I did want to circle back to this unfortunate misunderstanding because I think it’s important to really find understanding in the unfamiliar and/or change your views for the better. For some reason, the words spirituality, soul, and enlightened rang as religious to this woman. My #soul nearly mad her lose her mind, which made me chuckle because “soul music” isn’t religious, “soul food” isn’t religious… ya feel me?

So, in today’s installment of Nikki Teaches: Spirituality is NOT Religion + Other Words You Don’t Really Understand. Remember how you had to learn words and definitions in English class? Well… here’s your second installment.

Spirituality – the quality of being concerned with the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things.

Soul – the spiritual or immaterial part of a human being or animal, regarded as immortal, the essence or embodiment of a specified quality

Enlightened – having or showing a rational, modern, and well-informed outlook.

Vibration – a person’s emotional state, the atmosphere of a place, or the associations of an object, as communicated to and felt by others.

 

I hope that maybe this has helped those who didn’t quite understand what Spirituality was, as well as the words closely associated with it. Simply, it’s a connection to the self and the world around you. That’s it. No religious figures or church services. So, the next time someone tells you that Spirituality is religion, you can properly explain why it’s not.