It is often the case that when people hear the word 'Spirituality', they associate it with a variety of different things, such as Religion or Manifestation.
Join me as I explore the true meaning of Spirituality and what it means to have a personal spiritual practice. In this episode I also explore the existing science that delineates a clear difference between Spirituality and Religion, and highlights some remarkable differences in the role each plays in strengthening our resilience to suffering and adversity.
Be sure to SHARE this episode to anyone you feel may be interested or benefit from this content.
And please don't forget to hit SUBSCRIBE to keep up to date with our episodes and give us a RATING below. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Intro and Outro music: Inspiring Morning by Playsound
Disclaimer: This podcast is intended for educational purposes only. It is not intended to be treated as psychological treatment or to replace the need for psychological treatment.
It is often the case that when people hear the word 'Spirituality', they associate it with a variety of different things, such as Religion or Manifestation.
Join me as I explore the true meaning of Spirituality and what it means to have a personal spiritual practice. In this episode I also explore the existing science that delineates a clear difference between Spirituality and Religion, and highlights some remarkable differences in the role each plays in strengthening our resilience to suffering and adversity.
Be sure to SHARE this episode to anyone you feel may be interested or benefit from this content.
And please don't forget to hit SUBSCRIBE to keep up to date with our episodes and give us a RATING below. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Intro and Outro music: Inspiring Morning by Playsound
Disclaimer: This podcast is intended for educational purposes only. It is not intended to be treated as psychological treatment or to replace the need for psychological treatment.
Tatiana:
Welcome to the Integrated Wisdom Podcast. I am your host, Tatyana Da Silva. Join me as we discuss what it means to live an integrated life and explore ways for you to create a life filled with greater meaning, peace, and connection by integrating the wisdom of spirituality, psychology, Neuroscience, Epigenetics and Energy Psychology are hoped to empower you to create deeper and more loving connections with yourself and others, whilst also paving the way for humanity at large to be reimagined and inspired to become the very best version of itself. Hello and welcome to the integrated wisdom podcast. I am so happy to have you join me for yet another week. Now I've been running this podcast for about nine months now. Just a touch over. And for those of you following me along, or have just recently found the podcast. You'll have noticed that I talk about a variety of different things. But always in the context of spirituality or from a spiritual lens. But what I haven't really done yet, and I think is important for me to do. Is to really start to clarify. What do I mean when I speak about spirituality or when I use the term spirituality. Because for many of us, spirituality can often be. Associated with or looked through the context of religion. Or there are other types of. Concepts or. Frameworks that are still counted under the umbrella of spirituality. And so to avoid confusion and to make sure that. The right context is given to the conversations we're having here. It's really important that I specify. What I mean. When I say spirituality, what it is that I'm actually talking about. And how it links to these various topics that I speak about. week to week. So that's the context of today's episode. It's going to be a short one. I just really wanted to go through. Really. Clarifying what is meant by spirituality in the context that I'm speaking. About it and how it differs from some of the more commonly associated frameworks. that are couched with the label spirituality or that are tied with the idea of spirituality. So with that being said, I think let's start with the most obvious one. Right? When we talk about spirituality, a lot of the time people will do so with the context of religion. And certainly the two things can absolutely go hand in hand. But they do have some significant points of difference. So when we're talking about religion, We're talking about an organized structure or doctrine that attempts to inform or impose sets of beliefs or behavioral standards on those that follow that particular religious doctrine or faith. Right. So it is often couched in rituals in the context of a particular place where you will come to learn these things, So often these teachings are. Delivered within a particular environment. it might be. Church or temple synagogue. Or a mosque. There's a variety of different types of buildings or dwellings where these religious experiences and rituals take place. There's usually. Doctrines or books that are used for reference. And the idea of this religious structure is that. The reason guideline of. beliefs of. Behavioral standards or rules. And certain even ritualistic requirements. That are imposed on. Those that follow that particular faith. So you could say then that. Religion. Is. An outside in. Process. Right. So we will go to our respective. organizations. Of faith. Whether it be a Christian Church or temple or synagogue or mosque. Whatever, whatever the venue may be. And we go there and we have these standards of behavior. We have these rules, these rituals. Taught to us and imposed on us. As a pathway to connect to God. Um, in whichever name or form. That God may take, depending on the. Particular faith lens that we're, we're speaking about. Whereas when we talk about spirituality, Spirituality is the process of the individual connecting with. a source of knowledge, of comfort of power. Of guidance. That is greater. And beyond itself. So for some people. It will still be God. For some people, they will refer to it as the universe. And so. With the spirituality. We're talking more about a persons and then individual, right. And it's an internal process. It's from the inside out. So this internal compass or this internal ability to connect with. Energy with the belief in a higher power, in a higher purpose. Allows the individual to then be able to make sense of and navigate. The, the environment that they're in, the challenges that they face and so forth. And so you can see then how. Within a religious context. There is the possibility for a person to follow the rules, the rituals really closely. And still have this internal. The relationship, if you like. With source with God with the universe. Which is independent from, but co-exists with. the religiosity. Right. Um, Whereas for some people and there's research that shows this. The religiosity exists in the absence of a spiritual practice or a personal spiritual practice. So there's a high level of attachment to. The guidelines and the rules and the rituals. And everything happens within the context of. You know, being a part of that community. Following those principles and guidelines to the absolute letter of the law. But there is not a, a particular. Ability To have an inner knowing or personal knowing. Of this greater source of love, of guidance outside of what is. Prescribed to them. Within the religious context. Um, I guess. I mean, if we want to use some controversial examples here. An example of that, I think is. religious extremism. Right. It's what explains how a person can be so blindly attached to. The dogma. That they've been raised to believe, or that they've been taught to believe. And commit atrocities in the name of that dogma. But that are in complete contradiction with. What we know is. Um, Often taught by those. Those faiths, but also. I guess, I think when we connect with our spiritual essence and it's usually an essence of love. Of compassion of acceptance. Of seeing the value. In all living beings. When you're able to connect with that. And we're able to realize that there is this higher intelligence. That oversees everything. There's less of a need for us. To, to take control of things, right, like we can surrender to this wisdom. That exists. And so I think with people who have, who are religious extremists to the point that they will, where they. Willing and able to. To perform atrocities against other people. They are disconnected completely from that spiritual core. Right they're just following blindly, the dogma that they're taught. Often by other people who are perverting the. The very doctrine that they, they claim to be defending. And. On the new age side of things. A lot of different modalities and perspectives are. Are taught under the guise of spirituality. You know, and there's many that come into mind. Manifestations, obviously one of the most obvious ones it's, it's probably the most spoken about and sought after. so-called spiritual concept that there are. That's out there. Um, There's also. Concepts around. You know, Different types of healing. Energetic modalities. Uh, Which, you know, they all have a purpose. They all have something. Of value to offer. But when we're talking about spirituality, It's particularly when I'm talking about spirituality. I am speaking to. Again, it's that inner knowing. That there is a much bigger. picture. There is a much bigger purpose. There's a much bigger context. Behind everything. that we experience, that we witness, That we struggle with. It's where we talk about. having a relationship or inner trust, or a surrender Surrendering. To a higher wisdom. Right. It's not about being attached to, this is how it needs to be. It's about. Just knowing that there is a higher source. So there's a form of invisible comfort. Available to me. That there, that what I'm experiencing, isn't all there is to know. And to experience. That there are other things in play that there are other factors at play. That's the spirituality that I am talking about here. Right. The context in which life as we know it happens. which gives it purpose. Right. In some of my previous episodes, I've spoken about the meaning of our existence. Being that we're here to learn lessons. That we're as spiritual beings in a process of evolution. Towards becoming pure unconditional love energy. That's our ultimate destination. And that is true for every single one of us. And it's true for all of us irrespective and independent from. What faith. We choose to follow or not follow. What spiritual practices we choose to engage in. Or not. Right. That is the context. That we're all in. And so. When I speak about. All these things. That's what I'm speaking to her. How do we navigate the lessons while we're here? How do we identify the lessons while we're here? Right to make it more. Bearable to make it easier for us to navigate the challenges that we're inevitably going to encounter in life. Right. It's part of it's part of the process. Of being here. And what's most interesting. And quite exciting. Actually, you said there's been a lot of emerging research in the field of spirituality. Where they're starting to look at these things. They're starting to look up why it's important for us to have a spiritual practice. The differences between. A religious attachment and, uh, just having a spiritual context. For navigating things. And. The research is really remarkable in particular. The research that I wanted to talk about today is that of a. leading psychiatrist and epidemiology researcher. Dr. Kenneth Kenler who has very meticulously throughout the course of his studies been able to identify and define the difference between religion and spirituality. And he also started to talk about in his, or he found in his research. How they interact? In terms with, with our ability to navigate life in terms of creating resilience and protections for us to be able to. To deal with challenges to deal with. Mental health issues. And what his research found, which was so remarkable is that again? He's researched choice. What? I've just spoken about that having an attachment, no matter how strong. To a religious doctrine or dogma or text. I had very little correlation. Or didn't necessarily have a relationship to a persons or an individual's relationship with the sense of a higher power. So his research illustrated that these two concepts are actually separate. And in fact can exist independently of each other. And this in his research, he found a variety of combinations, right? That you can, it's not. It's not either or. He, he found that some people can be highly religious, but also have a high degree of spirituality. Some people can have a high degree of religiosity, but low spirituality. Some people can have the opposite. They can have A lot of spirituality, but no religiosity, which I think is the camp that I identify myself with. I did start off my life, within the context of a Christian religious faith. But as I went through her, Growing up and, you know, reading. Various texts and questioning things that we were being taught. In that faith. I came to the conclusion that religion. As an institution. Doesn't resonate for me. But my, my spiritual convictions have never wavered, never once questioned the belief in a higher power, that there is a rhyme and a reason for all the chaos that we live here. Um, and that certainly helped me navigate some of the most challenging things that I've gone through in my life. With greater ease. Notice that I didn't say made it easy. Of course there has still being pain. Of course there's be moments of sorrow. But there hasn't been suffering. Because I've always been able to, to hold on to. To my spiritual convictions. That there is, there is a divine wisdom in everything. That I have lived through and that even if I can't identify the why now. I know that I will. I will understand it when, when it's time to, to understand it. And Dr. Kenler's research actually illustrates this really strongly. Um, he, he found and he studies. That there is actually. A very strong correlation between having this spirituality or this. Belief in a higher power in this idea that there is a source of comfort. And protection available to us at the, even at the worst of times. To create a really strong buffer. Against. Depression. Substance addictions suicidality. It made it diminished. The negative psychological impacts of most stressful life events. Which is remarkable and what's even most interesting. Is that in his research, he also found that. Just a religious practice. In, in and of itself did not have the same effect. Right. So. Uh, spirituality. It's actually significantly more protective. Then a religious practice. No, of course I'm not, not trying to say that people should completely let go of religion altogether, I think we find different ways to. To practice this or to connect with. These concepts that feels aligned. And authentic to us. You know, there's certainly a lot of positive things that can come from belonging to a religious institution. Namely, you know, the sense of community that you often get from. From these organizations and. A sense of belonging that we all deeply crave. But what the research has shown me very strongly is that this sense of spirituality, this idea that there is a higher power, that there is. A higher wisdom that governs uh, I guess. All of the moving pieces that we don't make sense of while we're here. Is one of the strongest predictors of resilience and ability to navigate. Challenging life situations. With ease. And minimal adverse impacts. And so you noticed that when we're talking about this. We're talking about. My relationship or the individual's relationship with source or with. The universe or with God, whatever word feels comfortable for you. I think, I like to think that all these different words are speaking to the same phenomena. But it's unique and different from talking about different things that we can do to manifest the life we want and different from following religious dogma and texts really closely. Um, it's really about how do I, myself, I have the ability to access. Some of that wisdom. I have the ability to, to know. And feel the presence of the protection that's available to me. The wisdom that's available to me. Not to shirk away. Any challenges or to excuse myself from any challenging situations that I need to live through. But really finding a way to anchor myself in that. In that wisdom and in that comfort to be able to challenge, to navigate those situations. With greater ease. And so. I wanted to give this clarity because I know I, everything that I speak to her. Is couched in this understanding. And so I hope that by giving you that. That context. It helps to. Uh, to understand a little bit more. The topics that we're talking about here and. Y I couch it in these terms. But why it's also I'm um, most of my focus and what I feel like. I feel called to do is to really like lead people and invite people to start to create that personal. practice. And then find access to their own spirituality. Outside the context of all these other things. And so then, I mean, I said it was going to be a short one. And I lied because here we go again. We've got another house. Another half hour episode, but I do hope that. You have found this interesting that it has been clarifying for your. As always, I welcome your questions, your comments, your feedback. You can always find me. On Instagram at integrated underscore wisdom, feel free to DM me there. But you can also email me if you have any questions on hello at integrated wisdom. com.au Hello at integrated wisdom.com.au you are welcome your emails, your comments, your feedback, your requests for topics. And if you are enjoying what we're talking about here, I really would love to have your feedback via a rating and a review. When you give the podcast a rating and a review. It tells the algorithm. That this content can be of value to other people and it pushes it out. To even more people who helped me fulfill this mission that I feel called to fulfill. And that is to reach as many people as possible. And I'm them with the tools to navigate what is currently one of the most challenging periods. That we have been living through in modern times. And. Similarly, if you haven't subscribed to the podcast yet I invite you to subscribe and also share it with anyone in your life that you feel could benefit from some of these conversations. I thank you yet again for your support and for listening this far today. And I hope have a lovely week. And I will see you all next time. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Integrated Wisdom. It is my sincere wish that today's episode may have intrigued and inspired you to reclaim your power and step into becoming more fully integrated spiritual beings. New episodes are published every Wednesday. And I hope you'll continue to join us as we dive deeper into what it means to live an integrated life. So if it feels aligned to you, I invite you to hit subscribe and share it with others who you feel may benefit too. You may also find me on Instagram at integrated underscore wisdom. Remember, each moment is an opportunity to embrace your divine potential and create a world that is more frequently inspired. So for now, stay connected, stay inspired and keep shining your light. Into the world.
