How to find spirituality in the ordinary (Meaningful Newsletter Feb 23)

In the audio version of the February Creative Change Meaningful Newsletter, Jeremy Deeds shares the results of their research study. The study found that spirituality surpassed money as the most popular aspiration among participants. Creative Change is already dedicated to personal growth and development, but they will also focus on helping individuals achieve greater spirituality. Deeds defines spirituality as finding transcendence in the day-to-day, and plans to incorporate the concept of grounded spirituality into future programs. He discusses different routes to grounded spirituality, including spirituality of religion, healing and compassion, suffering and problem-solving, love and sexuality, connection, money, music, integrity, and letting go. Deeds also mentions that he has started adding audio recordings to his written insights and will continue to do so in the future. Hello, it's Jeremy Deeds here with the audio version of the February Creative Change Meaningful Newsletter. Thank you to everyone who completed the Creative Change Research Study last month. We asked about your aspirations and the areas you might like more help with. Spirituality. Surprisingly, it surpassed money as the most popular answer. Personal growth and development came next, along with achieving greater resilience. It goes without saying that Creative Change is already dedicated to personal growth and development. Our mission to help people achieve meaning by creating change to make a difference is precisely that. Resilience, incorporating financial strength, is also a vital element of Creative Change. Providing further help in this arena is already on the agenda, with a more comprehensive resilience self-assessment and a course already in the pipeline. Grounded spirituality. However, the demand for help in achieving greater spirituality is something that I can and will fulfil. We all have different ideas about the meaning of spirituality. When you or I talk about spirituality we mean, I think, finding transcendence in the day-to-day, the ordinary. I term this grounded spirituality. Whilst I respect those who seek spirituality through more esoteric means, I don't intend to go down this route. Indeed, my experience is that spirituality is available everywhere and it will incorporate the concept of grounded spirituality into future Creative Change programmes. In response to the research results, I explored my experiences and those of other spiritual leaders and came up with a number of routes to grounded spirituality. Spirituality of religion. A belief in something higher than us, something intangible, is a crucial element of the Abrahamic religions, along with ritual and compassion, as argued by author, historian and one-time nun Karen Armstrong. I know several deeply religious people who are blessed with a spiritual strength that helps them surmount life's daily obstacles. Spirituality of healing and compassion. Compassion, showing the painful intensity of another, is the antithesis of egotism, which is centred on the self. I see compassion in full flow in Lourdes. I am deeply aware of the spirituality this brings to the group, especially when we share the work, the problems, the solutions and the experiences. Indeed, the spiritual experience of Lourdes is the main reason I return each year. Spirituality of suffering and problem-solving. Life is difficult, for most of us anyway. However, accepting that life is difficult helps us rise above the mundane and leads to a more spiritual life. It becomes easier to do this if we see life's difficulties as challenges and become adept at problem-solving, as proposed by Scott Peck. Indeed, problem-solving is a form of spirituality in its own right. Spirituality of love and sexuality. Love is finding joy and fulfilment in a giving relationship. Genuine love is a form of spirituality because it focuses on another, not you. And there is a profound sacredness in spirituality when that love is consummated through sex for intimacy, which may be less present in sex simply for procreation or recreation. Spirituality of connection. Brené Brown defines spirituality as recognising and celebrating that we are all inextricably connected to each other by a power greater than all of us, and that our connection to that power and to one another is grounded in love and compassion. Practising spirituality brings a sense of perspective, meaning and purpose to our lives. Spirituality of money. An earlier mentor, Daniel Nelth, once described money as a great spiritual teacher. I understand that she meant that money is often a problem of the mind, not money itself. Therefore, if we overcome the obstacles within us about money, then in so doing we achieve a form of spirituality. Spirituality of music. Music has long been a tool for rising above the mundane. Whether at a concert or festival or listening to inspirational music at home, it can lead us to a more spiritual state. Spirituality of integrity. Spirituality and integrity are used interchangeably and one can understand why. Spirituality is about understanding and dealing with the truth about ourselves and the world we act in. When we work on ourselves and develop personal integrity, we become problem solvers and rise above the daily ground of life. We do away with those gut-wrenching feelings that we are not correctly aligned with ourselves and can live a life of spirituality and freedom. Spirituality of letting go. We will always have a choice, hold on to something and be bound by it, or let it go and find freedom. When we exercise choice in favour of letting go, we experience a sense of spirituality. The Greeks thought the concept so important they had a word for it, kenosis. William Blake excelled at using poetry to explain what can be difficult to put into words. In this case, he who binds to himself a joy does the winged life destroy, but he who kisses a joy as it flies lives in eternity's sunrise. Attaining spirituality. As I hope I have demonstrated, spirituality is finding a way to rise above, or at least accept, the mundane and the day-to-day. It is about letting go, solving problems, connection and compassion, and exercising choice. The examples above are just a few ways we can attain a sense of spirituality in the ordinary. This is grounded spirituality, it is not about meditation, yoga or Zen Buddhism, though these are important powerful practices. Indeed my focus on future programmes will lie in achieving spirituality through our daily activities to find meaning by creating change. The written and spoken word. Many respondents to our research ask also that I add the spoken word to my written word. I have already started to do this, and my Wednesday Creative Change Insight emails now contain a link to an audio recording. If you wish to read and listen simultaneously, please go to www.creativechange.com or post this year, have and will be supported by audio, and I will be adding audio to earlier insights in the coming months. You can find references and ideas on where to take this further in the main text of the email.