What is spiritual health is asked by those seeking to grow in character and find a higher calling and direction for their lives. There is one obvious obstacle to finding unbiased answers to this important inquiry. Everyone and everything offering their insight into matters of spirituality has an agenda. That means biased. They all are selling something or some religious view that in the end benefits them. It is unlikely the one asking is as important to them as the benefit to them for you becoming their believer.
We sell nothing here and are not even set up to receive donations. We share freely all the comforting insight we have learned over seven decades of emotional, therefore spiritual experience. Now that we have got that matter cleared up, let us lay out a few other details others will not want you to understand, because this confusion benefits them, if we are not careful.
When we use the word spiritual and spirituality, others want you to make the connection to religion and usually Christianity as well. Others want you to believe that religion and spirituality are the same. Others want you to believe that the way to perceive and grow spiritually, being spiritually healthy is only if you are very religious. Moreover, if that is the case you must also find the right religion, because there is only one right religion. And all religions argue that theirs is the only way of truth.
Let us lay out the landscape for you to save you years of wasted time. Spirituality and religion are not the same. Religion is only one culture’s view of spirituality. Nomadic cultures see spirituality through religions worshiping nature. Organized highly structured permanent cultures such as Northern Europeans all see spirituality through highly authoritarian religions. These religious views demand conformity through fear, shame, guilt, and punishment as their perspective. To be spiritually healthy according to them, you must obey their demands by seeing things through their eyes, and not your own. Individuality is out and conformity and obedience to their monastic view is required. In other words, to get to God you need to go through them in their religion to get there.
The truth is you do not need to go into any religion to get to God and become spiritually healthy. You may find that going into a religious setting completes you and that may be spiritually healthy for you, but you must find it inside your heart first for it to be right for you. Sound confusing? It is not.
We New Age Christians define spiritual health as expressed by love, character, and virtue of personhood and nothing more. The sources of these three sacred characteristics are The Common Man and Motherhood, both of which have been present in all of Humankind since the first day. They have been teaching and showing by example these characteristics in every culture and nationality long before anyone ever started the first religion. Religion as a social institution does not necessarily bring in character, love and virtue of personhood alone as it claims. In fact, religious practice is only an expression of the character, honor, and virtue of personhood that is already present in the local community in which it exists. It does not necessarily cause it; it only shows it if it is already there.
So, what is spiritual health anyway? Put simply, spiritual health is the amount of character, honor, and virtue of personhood attained by someone through what they have learned in life in general, not necessarily taught by religion. Theology does not bring character out in a person, nurturing by those in positions and roles of The Common Man and Motherhood uniquely does. You can earn multiple Masters and Doctor of Divinity degrees in the Catholic, Mormon, and Jesuit religions and still not have acquired one bit of character. Being close to God with all those degrees does not make you spiritually healthy, in fact it infects you with righteousness, godliness and judgmental views of looking down at your fellow man. Who is your fellow man upon which you look down on them with all your righteousness? The Common Man and Motherhood. They are the very sources of the spiritual health which you seek.
Spiritual health is not getting close to God through religion so you can be better than your fellow man. Spiritual health is getting close to yourself and your gifts which makes you different from everyone else. Being your authentic self is what spiritual health is exactly about. That cuts out all theology and religion entirely. Spiritual health is finding and being the beautiful unique person that you were created to be, no religion needed. When God made you different with some gift, talent or passion to pursue all your life, your layout was finished. He created you in a certain place, time, and setting for which you were to go to work finding your unique self and then spending the rest of your life living it out. Everything around you was organized to help you do this.
Look into your past at The Common Man and Motherhood roles others played for you in loving and nurturing you. If there were some roles that were missing, that was not because you did not deserve it, but because you deserve it deeply. That which was missing was to teach you the value of it when you do find it, which you will. The nurturing missing from your childhood can be found later in adulthood.
Spiritual health is simply character in all its forms expressed to you and by you to others. Do not confuse spiritual health and character as only in those in the highest stations in life. Those in the highest states of achievement socially, financially and physically usually have no spiritual health, and those in the lowest stations in life oftentimes have the highest character and spiritual health. That is because God places them in the places of greatest need of their character, that others can see and be nurtured by them. It is as if God asked them, ‘would you volunteer to be born where those who need you most could be loved and nurtured by you, because without you they will not make it?’ And they gave up a place of blessing so that they could help others who deeply need it, and they said, ‘Yes, I will go.’ That is character and spiritual health.
What does love, nurturing and character in others toward you bring out within you? The answer is your seven spiritual birthrights. They are:
Seeing things through your own eyes (and not someone else’s or an organization’s eyes).
Feeling your own feelings (and not someone else’s feelings).
Thinking your own thoughts.
Making your own choices (and being fully responsible for them).
Turning inward and focusing on God’s will and plan for you already within your heart:
Finding your own dreams, talent, gift to Humankind.
Building your own dream, talent and gift throughout your life.
Lastly, Joyously sharing your gift, talent, or dream achieved with all Humankind making both you and Humankind complete.
Just for the record, this is an emotional and spiritual encouragement ministry. We are selling nothing here and are not at the present time even set up to take donations, and probably never will. Your healed life is our reward enough, and we are very pleased with that. If you want to, please share your strength with others in your future so our nurturing can live on.