Beginning this month, I will be publishing a new post every other month that will focus on a topic of interest to most of my clientele. I suspect each subject will be portioned out in more than one email, ideally taking only 3-5 minutes to read. This first post is background and introduction to a practical, very important, and often confusing topic of Spirituality and Religion. I hope you find this information easy to read, interesting, and helpful. I welcome your comments, and suggestions for future topics.

We need to cover some basic concepts to better understand the distinctions between Spirituality and Religion. To begin with, we are eternal energy beings. We do not truly die, only bodies die. Our soul lives on and on and we continue to reincarnate in different bodies. Our soul is our Source of God connection, headquartered in the solar plexus (1 ½” above the navel). It is called the solar plexus because it holds God’s Light! If you think of God as an ocean, then we are each a drop of water. We have within us our portion of this essence of God (or Light or Source, or whatever word you are comfortable with.) This soul base has all of the inherent attributes from God that we deeply desire in our life. Some of these attributes are peace, unconditional love, wisdom, compassion, living in unity, free from judgment, and other expressions of God. Our challenge is that these attributes are not readily accessible in daily life because of energy blocks, karma, and very limited conscious spiritual understanding and processing.

Energy blocks develop when there is unclear understanding or emotions in everyday life. When we merely manage our life, everything else that is being stimulated but not cleared remains and energetically collects somewhere in our system. As this debris grows, the energy ante escalates, and life feels heavier, more burdened and confusing, and we notice more fatigue, drag, hopelessness, and depression. These low energies add to the barriers limiting our access to God’s attributes.

Karma is unreleased and unresolved emotions (and thoughts, belief systems, experiences, vows, etc.) from past lives. Because we heal through our emotions, we usually refer to karma as unreleased and unresolved emotions from past lives. Our souls selected certain karmic issues to address and hopefully clear in this present lifetime. Until we learn how this invisible but powerfully limiting system works, we are primarily left managing rather than creating our lives.

Limited conscious spiritual understanding and processing occurs because we are living everyday life from the least evolved portion of our brain, which generically I refer to as the left-brain. It holds our intelligence, is conscious, rational, factual, limited, and fear based. We refer to this part as the ego: our conscious identity. Over 90% of its thoughts are meaningless, negative, and redundant. It processes information at about 8 bits of data a second. Relatively, spiritually, and energetically, it works at a preschool level. The right brain on the other hand, is not conscious, and is primarily spiritual and creative. It processes about 8 BILLION bits of data a second. We are struggling to live exclusively rational lives when our goal is to live with whole brained processing. Our usual operating is not wrong, but is significantly limiting to our empowerment. Religion is based on left-brained functioning and conclusions, and Spirituality evolves from right-brain inspiration.

The next post will cover judgment, beliefs, and the Bible. The final episode will contrast the distinctions of religion and spirituality.

More specific and complete information about these ideas can be found in my book, LIFE’S HEALING SETUPS: Guidance to transform struggles into peace and live beyond your ego.

Many Blessings to you in this New Year!

D’Ann