Finding Your Spirituality

Lucy Cunningham

Spirituality doesn’t always have to be burning sage, morning meditation or taking hikes alone in the wilderness. It can take many forms beyond what we stereotypically see as spirituality.

To me, spirituality is the things that make me feel grounded, alive, free and at the complete willingness for powers beyond my understanding to guide me. It is becoming aware of everything you feel from the very core of your body, to the thoughts that pass you by, from the senses at the very tip of your fingers, to the very edge of the universe that you belong in. It is a way of being rather than simple practices to incorporate into your routine. It is peace and love, a timeless motto.

For many, spirituality is something that reveals itself in their worst moments, when they feel they have nothing left to turn to. It can drag people out of slumps they never had hope of escaping, like an unseen path. Although I myself don’t believe I reached a low like this, at some point I realised that I never felt fully achieved, satisfied, let’s call it ‘wholesome’. I feared the unknown, lack of control, and although it is okay to feel like this, I didn’t want to feel vulnerable anymore. I wanted to take control of my mind and body and really feel my place in this crazy world. I wanted to plant my feet in the soil and get to find myself and my surroundings all at once. It takes getting a little lost to find the right direction.

I have never been a religious person, putting all my energy into something that came across as very elusive to me seemed a trap. Dedicating my whole being to something I wasn’t wholeheartedly sure existed seemed like a way of setting myself up to be let down. However, a part of me always wished I could just give myself up to a guiding force, like religion, so that I was lead the right path by something that knew better than me how to live. I pondered for a long time about how to find this energy that would take me where I needed to be, not yet understanding that I believed in creating my own fate. At the same time I felt a sense of divine powers always steering my in the right direction. In my understanding, spirituality is what provides you with that gut instinct, the world’s way of telling you ‘this is right’ ‘this is wrong’. I gave up my anxieties and my worries in life to the profound idea that “everything happens for a reason”, suddenly feeling like I knew how to live. 

What this really opened my eyes to was that I had to always be present in my surroundings and the moment. That listening to my body and the winds would carry me forever upstream to my dreams and goals. That exploring both my own morals and nature together would create the perfect components for freedom and understanding of how to carry myself, how to treat others and how to treat the planet that provides me such a sense of safety and direction. 

I found that I didn’t need to read scripture, go to church, meditate or pray to find a guide in life. The whole time it had been right there, not in front of me, but inside me. It was down to me to set the rules of how to live my life. It was letting everything go instead of finding something.