I have often written about my problem with the word spiritual. The word is loaded. It confuses people, especially in the self help movement. For some, it carries beauty and mystery. For others, it feels like a barrier, alienating them from doing the actual work of inner healing, work like processing trauma, dismantling negative messaging, and discarding ignorant concepts about the nature of reality. If someone does not resonate with metaphysical or mystical ideas, they may walk away from practices that could transform their life. That is a tragedy.
There is a valid instinct in people who are turned off by excessive spiritual language. They sense that many seekers spend more time fantasizing about invisible realms than doing the hard, measurable work of this realm, the one we live in. And they are right. It is delightful to speculate about life after death, cosmic forces of creation, or invisible dimensions of energy. Those conversations have their place. But if they distract us from character development, nervous system regulation, therapy, journaling, and the daily disciplines of growth, then they become another bypass. They prevent us from digging into what truly heals.
This is why I hesitate to call my work “spiritual.” If you want to use that label, that is fine, but let us be clear, the work itself is tangible. It is explainable. It is predictable. It is quantifiable. When we address anxiety, addiction, or obsessive thinking, we are using methods that are intellectual, emotional, and physiological. Writing about resentment, learning to breathe consciously, processing trauma in therapy, what is metaphysical about that? Perhaps I am missing something, but I see it as intelligent human work, not mystical intervention.
Take relationships for example. People often say, “I have a spiritual connection with this person.” But what does that actually mean? If the connection is real, it is emotional, physical, psychological, human. These things are extraordinary enough without stretching them into the metaphysical. Connection can be measured in the nervous system, hormones, memory, and empathy. Why cloud it with vague mysticism? To me, calling it what it is makes it more profound, not less.
So I refrain from using the word spiritual in my work. I prefer to speak of ethics, compassion, kindness, and non harm as intelligent ways to live. To live ethically is not mystical, it is practical. To develop maturity is not a spiritual achievement, it is an achievement of character and the intelligent use of free will.
A Fair Description Of Spirituality
All of that said, I recognize that for many people, spirituality means something different, and it is important to describe that perspective fairly. From the point of view of metaphysical or religious traditions, spirituality refers to the dimension of human experience that reaches beyond the measurable and material. It is the recognition, or the faith, that there are realities existing beyond ordinary perception, and that these realities hold meaning, identity, and even destiny.
Key aspects of spirituality, when defined this way, include:
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Connection To A Higher Reality
Spirituality often implies the existence of a realm beyond the physical, a spiritual plane, a divine order, a universal consciousness, or a sacred intelligence guiding existence. This can be called God, the Absolute, or simply “that which transcends the senses.” -
Inner Journey And Perception
This dimension is not accessed through microscopes or brain scans. It is pursued through meditation, prayer, contemplation, mystical experiences, or altered states of consciousness. Traditions teach that the “spiritual senses” must awaken to perceive it. -
Meaning And Purpose
Spirituality here is not just about what exists, but why we exist. It frames life within a larger cosmic or divine order, asking us to align ourselves with something eternal, something greater than the cycle of birth and death. -
moral and transformative quality
Spirituality is also about how we live. It emphasizes purity, compassion, service, and self transcendence as ways to resonate with that higher order. -
Universality And Diversity
Different cultures describe the unseen world differently: -
Christian mystics speak of heaven, angels, and union with God.
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Hinduism and Buddhism describe higher realms of consciousness, liberation, or subtle bodies.
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Esoteric traditions speak of astral planes, etheric energies, and the evolution of the soul.
From this vantage point, spirituality is essentially the pursuit of realities beyond the visible world.
Bringing It Together
For me, the essential question is this: does calling our work spiritual help us, or does it confuse us?
If the word inspires someone to live with more compassion, then I welcome it. But if it becomes a fantasy that distracts from the difficult and beautiful labor of emotional healing, then it has outlived its usefulness. Meditation, therapy, breathwork, character development, these are not metaphysical. They are human, and they are enough.
Perhaps in the end, what we call it does not matter. The work matters. The healing matters. The breath we take today, the forgiveness we practice, the compassion we extend, those things do not require labels. They require only our presence, our effort, and our willingness to grow.