10 Alternative Words for “Spiritual”

I owe this one to @JamesAltucher. I heard a podcast where he said "Spirituality is just gratitude," and it stuck with me. I couldn't refute it. Gratitude is an amazing feeling, but where does it go? Sometimes good things just happen. I feel incredibly grateful, but there's no person to be grateful toward. And sometimes nothing happens but I STILL feel gratitude.

I suppose that's when things can jump to God or Luck or the Universe. I don't know about those things, but I know that gratitude is one of life's best feelings, and it's something I want to continue to grow and develop.

Spirituality has an aura of magic about it, and so does creativity. If magic exists, it exists as creativity. When I sit down to draw, or write, or compose a song -- I don't know what's going to happen. But somehow, in some way, something is created from essentially nothing.

I can't pull a rabbit out of an empty hat, but I CAN pull a poem out of an empty mind. And unlike the stage magician, I'm just as surprised as everyone else.

Creativity does feel like it comes from a special place. It's faith-based by its very nature. You have to have faith that the inspiration will come. And if it doesn't, you can will it into being.

That's amazing.

Modern spirituality can get bogged down by the "outside" world -- astrology and spirit guides and what not.

I think of spirituality as being more about the "inner" world -- the places science will never be able to touch. Science has not (and will never) be able to map the interiority of the human experience. It's too profound.

Self-discovery is subjective. I can't tell someone the lessons they should learn from X, Y, and Z. That must be done on their own.

That's Self-discovery.

Mystical is a badass word. I love the sound of it. BUT... it does contain the same woo-woo connotations as "spiritual".

To me, every artist is a mystic, as is every writer. Every act of creation is a mystical act. Sure, not every writer says a prayer to the muse or lights some candles in a pattern of sacred geometry, but each goes about their art in their own unique way.

"I'm not religious, but I'm mystical."

That would be fun to say out loud.

Another badass word.

To be transcendental means to reach a state that exists beyond the physical -- beyond the realm of science.

To transcend is to exist within a realm of knowing/feeling/being beyond anything that can be measured.

If something isn't matter-based, it's faith based.

If it's faith-based, it's spiritual.

In India, there's an entire branch of yoga (Bhakti Yoga) that's devoted to... well, devotion.

You can devote yourself to anything. Look at how people treat their pets. So many of us dote on them endlessly, not because of anything specific that they do -- simply because it feels so good to love.

Loving is difficult. It opens us up to pain. The thing we love might disappear. It might abandon us. It might die or change over time.

But loving unconditionally is its own reward, and that's the nature of devotion.

Bliss is one of my favorite words.

Bliss is the opposite of anxiety. Anxiety is tension, pain, and stress. Anxiety sucks.

Bliss is harmony, beauty, and peace. It's experiencing the beauty life in life rather than turmoil.

This is difficult to do. That's why it's an act of faith.

Two friends of mine once argued over whether I was spiritual or philosophical. I didn't say anything, because I'm both.

But one of the friends has a STRONG aversion to the word spiritual, and he didn't want to lump me into that category.

I think about deep things. That's a part of spirituality.

I ask questions that I know can never be answered, but regardless, I try to answer them to the best of my ability.

That's philosophy.

"Metaphysics" was a termed designed to mean "the science of the inward and essential nature of things."

But of course, the inward nature of things cannot be measured by science. It's personal. It's subjective.

It's spiritual.

I always wanted to find a good word that wouldn't carry the religious connotations of "God" or the New Age connotations of the "Universe."

I chose the "Unknown."

The Unknown is infinite. It's omnipresent. It will never go away.

It's something we have to accept. How many times has life placed me in an unknown situation? Countless. And I know it will place me in countless more. That's what life does. Again and again and again.

To have faith in the Unknown means to have faith in yourself, because the outside world is always changing. You have to trust yourself.

You have to make peace with the Unknown.