Making It Up As We Go: spirituality with A Lowercase “s”

Photo by Vero Photoart on Unsplash

After a full day of work, you lay on your bed at night, wondering what’s the meaning of all this. You try to remind yourself that your life has a greater purpose, that there is something out there looking out for you. But the reality and the daily hustle-and-bustle life stopped you right on its track, and your focus is pulled back to what’s there in front of you and nothing beyond that. You want to see what else this life has to offer, you’re longing to connect to your own Spirituality. But there’s just so many things you have to do. You don’t have time to read all the books and explore all the practices or all the different paths to Spirituality. What you need is a moment to take a step back. What you need is to approach spirituality with a lowercase “s”.

For most of my life, I have seen spirituality blend in with life since my early childhood. My father is probably the most spiritual person I know. He crafts a life based on the philosophies he has gathered from different sources such as religion, myths, nature, and just plain old common sense. He makes offerings to the deities, but never forces it upon his family or anybody else. When he gives pieces of wisdom, they are always accompanied by real-life, concrete examples that were laced with lessons and philosophical meanings.

To be completely honest, I don’t know why my father does that. I don’t know why he keeps sentimental items and assigns them with different manifestations. I don’t know why he philosophizes every life lesson he has gathered this far. What I know is that to him, every sentimental item and every manifestation has a story, a goal. Every lesson, a meaning. And that everything we do in life, everything we have been through, ultimately, comes down to creating a story, pursuing a goal, and finding a meaning.

There are many paths in spirituality, some of them intertwined with certain religions or practices. Learning from my father, the path we choose should be the one that is the closest to our day-to-day life. This will make spirituality more accessible, practical, and most importantly, makes sense and meaningful to your particular life. That way, spirituality is not something “out there”, out of reach, or complicated. It can be as simple as reading affirmations every morning, stirring your cup of coffee clockwise to attract positive energy, or journaling at the end of your day. It will be a lot easier to understand and less intimidating.

For me, spirituality has no rules. It does not constrict you and limit you, for it is supposed to set you free and expand your understanding of life. My goal with spirituality is to align myself with something bigger than me — be it the universe, god, or simply, my higher self. So for starters, I decided to construct some “spiritual guides” to help me navigate my life in a more spiritual and meaningful way. These are mainly my life philosophies, and since I’m still learning everyday, they are of course subject to change in the future. I aim to review them every once in a while to assess if they are still in alignment with what I want my life to be and the person I want to become.

1. At your service. I intend to navigate day-to-day life with the mindset and purpose to be at service. Be it to your work, to your loved ones, to the planet, or even yourself. It means providing your positive energy and time to cater for their needs, for what you give out, will return back in.
2. The plate. I try to picture life as a three-course meal, and it is time for the main course. You might not like the appetizer, and you’re probably worried that the dessert is not gonna be awesome either. But you’re having the main course now. Focusing your mind on the shitty appetizer or the potentially horrendous dessert will rob you of the opportunity to really savor the food in front of you. There are many things we don’t know and there are many things we wish we could forget. We cannot alter the past and we have no idea what will happen in the future. All that we have right now is a seat at a table, and the plate in front of us. Savor it.
3. The “right” time. We move at different paces, but we are never early and we are never too late. The gift that everything we encounter has for us can only be accessible at the exact moment that they arrive. Anything, and everything, in its own time.
4. Fish out of water. I don’t know why we’re here, I probably will never know for sure. But what I know is that while we’re here, we might as well explore this place and learn all we could learn during our time here. We never know where that might lead us. Remember that one fish that ventured to land? Like a literal fish out of water they might be confused and faced with a great deal of suffering at first. But what do you know, they got us this far.

At the end of the day, we are all trying to figure life out. There is no point in making it all look perfect, and I bet we can always find our “should’ve”s, “could’ve”s, and “would’ve”s. But in reality, how helpful would they be? Other than keeping them in our minds as some data points to try and do better next time, all that we have is the present time and with a blink of an eye, it’s all going to be in the past.

That is how I do spirituality. I wouldn’t want to set myself up for failure by trying to make the “perfect rules” or a “fail-proof” map of life. Remembering that we are a part of something bigger than ourselves helps me to go easier on myself, while also figuring out my own place within it and the meaning of it all. I’m making it up as I go, and I think that’s where all the fun is.