As many people are, I was raised from a young age in the religion of my family.
Everyone around me had the same beliefs, and from as early as I can remember, I was in Sunday school and church with my family. It was always a place I looked forward to being. The people were always nice to me. I felt like I was doing the right thing by being there. I made good friends and there were always donuts between services. There were a lot of things that I loved about going to church, many of them involving the sense of community.
Around the age of eleven I went with my parents to a big live show at a local church, and I left terrified of the possibility that even if I did everything right and did my best, I may end up going someplace scary and dark after I died. As a child, I chose my beliefs based out of the fear of never being perfect or God forgetting about me, and I did my best to make sure I would end up in the good place. As I grew, that fear remained, but was accompanied by the things I enjoyed about engaging with my spiritual community. I was active in the youth group, made really good friends, and really enjoyed the sense of family and community that brought all of us together. I knew this community was something that I needed in my life.
One of the things I always loved most was the music. I have always loved music in general, but spiritual music has always touched the deepest part of my heart. To this day a spiritual song can easily bring me to tears of joy, accompanied by immense gratitude, love, and an inner feeling of connectedness to something higher than myself. In these moments of connectedness, a piece of my soul was touched by something unexplainable, something so beautiful that I couldn’t deny that there was something more to this life than what I could see.
As an young adult, I found that I agreed with many of the basic concepts and ideas of many of the world’s different spiritual systems. That love is the basis of everything, to try and be kind and compassionate to our fellow human, the basics of right and wrong. But there were many other aspects that did not sit right with me. So I began to struggle with identifying what I believed, feeling as though I needed to fit myself into a box and ‘pick’ a religion or spiritual system as if I was shopping at Walmart. But this mentality only made me feel stuck and conflicted. This confusion continued on for many years until I was forced to dig deep within myself.
When I was 23, my life as I knew it fell apart. Everything that I believed I needed left, my closest relationships fell apart, and my entire life became unfamiliar to me. Spirituality became the only leg I had to stand on, so with the help of a friend, I began spiritual counseling with my (now) dear friend, Sally High. This process helped me to define spirituality on my own terms, sifting and sorting through my beliefs and experiences in order to build my spiritual foundation around what felt right with my innermost being, in turn helping me to get in touch with my authentic core being. Going through the spiritual counseling process gave me a profound inner peace and sense of knowing that no matter what life throws my way, I will thrive and that there is a higher purpose and unconditionally loving power that is always leading me to my highest good, through trials, lessons, and the most beautiful experiences that life has to offer. Defining my own belief structure and needs through spiritual coaching has allowed me to fully embrace my beliefs, release doubt and fear, maintain inner peace, find my spiritual community, and sense a deep connection to something higher in my daily life.
If you are looking to define your spiritual path or deepen your existing beliefs, I am here for you, email me! You don’t have to fit in a box, and you are not alone.
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