How Spiritual Am I?
Stephanie Hernandez
Azusa Pacific University
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to discuss spirituality and how it can influence individuals’ faith and affect their way of prosper in their chosen religion. Spirituality applies a connection with faith; both create confidence and trust in searching for a meaning for life or a superior being, depending on the individual’s chosen religion. The research completed for this paper was determined from the results of Stephen P. Robbins’ self-assessment test IV.A.4: How Spiritual Am I? From the results and conclusion, the self-assessment presented that I have a high spirituality score. Since a child, I was raised to understand my spirituality and use of faith as
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Adding before calculating the score, the self-assessment test explains to first reverse-code statement 8, where one measures at strongly agrees and five measures at strongly disagrees. When finished with the self-assessment test, I calculated my score according to the scoring key. All scores would range between 8 and 40, the higher the score, the higher your spirituality is. I scored a 34, which indicates that my belief in spirituality is high and I am pleased to say I agree with this result. I will provide a few examples for why I agree with my results. Spirituality What is spirituality? Everyone has it however not all understand what it is exactly. Individuals can experience and express spiritually differently. It can be confused with religion or ghosts (Lepherd, 2015). For many years, there have been many definitions and descriptions of spirituality; it is described as the search of the meaning of life, alleviation of suffering, or creating inner peace in an individual. Which explains how spirituality is made useful for meditation and practicing yoga. Each person’s spirituality is different from others because according to his article, ‘Spirituality: Everyone has it, but what is it,’ Laurence Lepherd (2015) explains, “People have [different levels] of depth or intensity of spirituality, from [person to person].” Seeing that the higher my score is determines how more
James Fowler developed his stages of faith after conduction in-depth interviews of 359 people. The sample subjects were predominately white, with equal numbers of males and females and included a wide range of ages, from three and a half to 84 years old. Fowler’s interviews consisted of 30 plus questions regarding the subject’s life experiences, relationships, values, commitments and religion. After analyzing the responses, Fowler placed each subject in one of six faith stages. The responses indicated that as the subject’s age increased, so did their stage of faith (Hutchison, 2015).
According to Mussell (2005) spirituality is a “state that reflects inner peace, personal harmony and balance” (p.122). I believe that I have found inner peace, harmony, and balance. I found it through constant questioning of my purpose on earth and have concluded that I was placed here to help others. Thus, I believe that bettering myself in all these needs is essential before I can help others. Mussell (2005) suggests that intuitiveness should be used to guide us in our everyday lives (p.122). Through trial and error, I have learned that my intuition is usually right and is something that should not be second guessed. Mussell (2005) also suggests that spirituality is valuing “the Great Spirit” (p.122), which is the First Nations God. I do believe that there is a supreme being who choses our destiny, but I am not certain of who it is or what his or her full capabilities are. I was brought up in a Lutheran family, but as I have grown up I more believe in Evolution Theories rather than Creation Theories. Furthermore, I do believe in reincarnation. I feel as though there has to be something more than just this one life. I struggle to understand my spiritual needs and beliefs, but I know through time it will become more
Spirituality gives meaning and purposes to their belief (51). In Reconnecting science and spirituality, Walach defines spirituality as “a way to understand the natural makeup of the world by means of rational methods of inquiry”. This quotes allows the world to have faith in their own beliefs (425). The happenings in Hydesville involving the Fox sisters started to increase the rate of mediums around the world (Walliss 129). Spiritualism started to have a greater influence of people’s lives. People started to go to mediums to communicate with lost love ones. Spiritualism was given closures to people in the world (Walliss
While religion is a complex topic and an ongoing search for answers and explanation, the in-depth class discussions throughout the semester have significantly helped shape my personal understanding of religion. With the thorough reading and, discussions, my knowledge on the different ideas behind multiple religions has expanded. I gained a spiritual awareness of the diverse world of religion and an appreciation for all it has to offer. Now that I possess a better understanding of many different religious ideologies, I have a clearer view of what role “faith,” “religion,” and “critical reason” play in my life. Faith and Critical Reason has shaped my spiritual understating of myself in a positive way.
Spirituality is defined as “of relating to sacred matters”. To many people this has different meanings. In the traditional modernistic western, this can be defined as being sacred to Christianity. In the Christian approach one is believed to be spiritual if they attend church and pray to Jesus and abide by the rules set by the bible. It is a sin to go against the bible and doing so leads to a consequence of praying for forgiveness to Jesus in hope for your eternal salvation of your soul. But to many, this type of church does not exist. To native-Americans, spirituality is defined as something more powerful than the church, stories and rituals is what takes part in fighting
Spirituality is discussed in many of the readings. The Dalai Lama and Herman Hesse both focus on the concept of enlightenment/nirvana. The ultimate goal of being spiritual is to find one’s true purpose and to realize that all is temporary; even one’s own existence. Both Siddhartha and the Dalai Lama’s essay Human Rights and Responsibility express these concepts and goals of spirituality.
Spirituality is an interdependence of an individual to the religion and religious beliefs, such as, visiting to temple, church and other religious buildings and participating on spiritual activities (praying, meditation, worshiping and donation). In my opinion, spirituality is the way of existing in the society and the world because every human being learn to adjust in the society from their religious beliefs and value systems which are unique among various people. Spirituality helps to find the meaning of different circumstances of the individual’s life, which provides better solution of any problem in their life. Similarly, spirituality explains the human boundaries which promotes the safety and belongingness among various people. Also it is the way of understanding the world and their role in the world.
Spirituality does not have one definite definition, it varies depending on who is searching for the meaning. The meaning of spirituality can change within one person, the more they search for answers and find their beliefs. To this writer, spirituality reaches beyond ourselves, it is the connection between ourselves and something greater.
Spirituality and psychology are two complex subjects to discuss and they become even more complicated when you try to relate one to the other. Psychology deals with the processes of sense perception, thinking, learning, cognition, emotions and motivations, and personality, focusing on the behavior of individuals. Spirituality, on the other hand, is all inclusive. "Spirituality is living one's life from the realization that the body/mind/ego personality we have been taught to identify with is just the tip of our iceberg, our little head sticking through the window of the senses into this world, whereas our true body is the universe. It is recognizing that our perceived world is mostly an illusion, a shared dream we are asleep in, and that
Spirituality is defined in several ways as it pertains to different worldviews. Today we will look at the worldview as it relates to Pluralism, Scientism and Postmodernism.
Presented with the task of assessing someone’s faith development required the answers to three essential questions. How has social learning played a part in the individual’s religious development? How has attachment played a part in the individual’s religious development? Upon answering these questions we must then evaluate the stages of faith development in which the individual is in according to James Fowler and David Elkind. After thorough evaluation has occurred the question pertaining to the role of doubt can then be answered. With these questions in mind, the theory that religious beliefs and adherence to spiritual faith are ultimately tested and proved during adolescence was the driving thought throughout the process of interviewing
The two most common types of spirituality are intrinsic and extrinsic, which are ways of measuring spiritual maturity. Extrinsic spirituality is spirituality as a means, whereas intrinsic spirituality is a way to an end. (Content Pages) Both intrinsic and extrinsic spirituality have scales that correspond to how spiritual a person is. These scales are separate from each other but both equally important. (Content Pages) A study was taken of 898 students aged 17 to 26 measuring their intrinsic spirituality level and their mental states. The study found that students with high intrinsic spirituality were less depressed, anxious, and obsessive compulsive, and they generally had higher self-esteem. The researchers found that “intrinsic religiousness, spiritual maturity, and self-transcendence were significantly predictive of better mental health and positive functioning.” (Sanders) Extrinsic spirituality, however, was shown to increase feelings of prejudice towards people and actions. (Content Pages) While both of these types are considered to be separate from each other, most people still have a mixture of intrinsic and extrinsic spirituality. Those that wish to further understand themselves should analyze their spirituality to see whether their spirituality is more intrinsic or
Spirituality and religion beliefs are influencing the people life around the world. Historically the religious practice are determined the humans life in the way they conducted inside the society, how they dress, dietary restriction, health decision, birth and death ritual are some of the aspects that religions practice induced. The author studied the dominant religious groups as Christians, Islam and Hinduism. Particular attention to Baptist group inside the United States will discuss. Spiritual phenomena take relevance in the nursing practice, nurses should be aware the spirituality and religious beliefs of their client because these are related to the delivery of care and influenced the healing outcomes.
What is faith? Faith is something different to everyone. If you asked a hundred different people, it is possible that you would get many diverse answers. Religious faith and non-religious faith are two very distinct terms. Faith holds an extremely complex meaning when discussing it in the context of religion. Faith is a belief. That holds true to every religious and non-religious person. Every faith involves a decision. It is not about what we claim to believe, but what we actually do believe, that is true faith. Throughout this paper, I am going to discuss Christian faith, how it pertains to daily life and Christianity as a whole. I also intend to delve into George W. Forell's discussion of Christian faith and analyze and
What is spirituality? And is it only related to religion? It is hard to answer these questions as there are a lot of definitions of spirituality and what is it related to. For some people, spirituality has no meaning outside the circle of the religion. On the other hand, some people say that spirituality can exist inside the religion and also outside the religion. People should stop relating spirituality to only religion. Instead, people should know the true meaning of spirituality outside the circle of the religion as it will open doors for knowledge and have a butter understanding and better life. In the United States, religion is frequently equated with spirituality or a personal relationship with God