Recovery / Spirituality

FAITH

I know I keep saying this – but I have awesome friends. Beautiful, caring, supportive, empathetic people who choose to be in my world. I love them all to bits!

Some don’t believe in God. Some believe in a Higher Power, Angels, or the Universe. Many have no specific spiritual faith at all.

My personal spiritual beliefs have no basis in religion, I don’t believe in a God or Higher Powers or organised religion, but I do believe in Angels and the Universe. This is the beauty of Faith – no evidence required. Just a personal belief there is “something” and that something provides comfort and a guiding hand. It is fascinating to hear discussions on God. Or the Universe. Higher Powers. Angels. And to hear references to intuition and instinct.

It seems to me, we are all talking about the same thing.

I have always felt deeply intuitive. I get a really strong feeling deep in my gut that I should, or shouldn’t, do something. It is a tangible, powerful feeling, buried in my core.

When my second child was born, I could not bring myself to vaccinate him on schedule. My maternal instinct was screaming, No! Don’t do it! Just wait! And so I did. I waited until he was six months old and then instead of vaccines that protected against three diseases simultaneously, I insisted he was vaccinated one disease at a time. He reacted to every one. Not terribly – just a little sick each time. He was fully vaccinated and on schedule by the time he was three, but my intuition screamed he was too sensitive to cope with multiple vaccines at six weeks of age. I still believe that intuition was correct.

I can’t prove it – that is what faith is.

If I had a strong belief in God, I am sure I would say God had spoken and led me to delay those injections. If I believed in Higher Powers, I’m sure I would attribute the instinct to a guiding hand. Instead I believe in intuition and instinct, and deep in my gut I knew what to do.

What is the difference? When a friend says God spoke to her, and that God’s word guides her decisions, I believe her. I think we both feel the same thing but give it a different name.

Do we all have a sixth sense that guides us? Some call that sense God, others call it intuition.

This sense has nothing to do with religion. Nothing whatsoever. Organised religion incorporates faith and a belief in God, with rules, guidelines and structured beliefs that may or may not support instinct. Organised religion involves an external force guiding actions and beliefs. This is neither good nor bad – it simply is. But it does open up the possibility for abuse of power. Of all the people that guide members in religious faiths around the world, I’m sure the vast majority are beautiful, kind, intelligent, respectful individuals, and unfortunately it is the small minority who abuse power that make it to news headlines and viral internet memes.

Religion and spirituality can be two completely different things.

I have met deeply religious people with no sense of spirituality. I have met deeply spiritual people with no sense of religion.

Religion is a person sitting in church thinking about kayaking.

Spirituality is a person in a kayak thinking about God.

So true huh?! The two are not mutually exclusive. Religious individuals can be deeply spiritual. These musings are not meant to cast aspersions upon anyone with strong religious beliefs. There are non-religious people with no spirituality. I firmly believe however, we all have a voice of intuition, and that voice may be called God, Higher Power, Universe, Angels or any name we might choose to give it.

We all have so much more in common than most of us believe. I feel it in my gut. God, Higher Powers, Angels and the Universe are all telling me so.

Perhaps the inner voice that guides our hand is universally the same, but individually we have attributed a different name to it. Perhaps – we are all the same.