How Becoming Spiritual, Not Religious, Helped Me Find My Inner Power

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In my religious days, religious beliefs played a central role in pretty much everything I did. And that means those beliefs played a huge role in the way I saw myself. And based on my interpretation of religious teachings, I was supposed to see myself as being small and lacking in power.

I no longer consider myself religious, though. Instead, I choose to see myself as spiritual. I believe in a Higher Power—one I refer to by different names, like “the universe”—but I don’t think that Power requires us to stick to any strict rules or rituals to please or appease it. I think that just existing is enough for this Power to be pleased with us and to love us.

But I also think that one of the goals of life is for us to keep growing and moving forward. This is something my old beliefs weren’t really allowing me to do.

My Understanding of Religious Teachings

Something I discovered as I started revisiting song lyrics I wrote when I was still religious was that there was a theme of waiting for someone else to come save me. Sometimes I was referring to my Higher Power, but sometimes I was referring to a partner. And when I really think about it, it makes sense.

In the forms of Christianity I used to practice, people are waiting for their savior to return. And so, it was a natural connection to make that I had to wait for a savior in other aspects of my life, too.

For the longest time, I thought I couldn’t really do anything to change my own life. When I was still religious, my interpretation of the religious teachings I learned was that, if you were unclear about what you were supposed to do next, you had to wait for God to tell you. You had to wait for Him to give you instructions or wait for Him to reveal the plan. And so, for years I waited and waited and didn’t make real efforts to move my life forward.

After several years, when I finally started to realize that things weren’t going to just happen on their own, I started trying to do things to move forward. But when I did, I still had this sense of wondering, “Is this part of the plan?”

While I do believe in there being a bigger picture, I’m still not very clear on whether or not there is a plan per se. But I do think that life is more than just waiting for someone to come and change things for you or improve your life. And I think religion can contribute to this sense of waiting for someone to come to the rescue.

My understanding of religious teachings I learned was that we were reliant on an outside force to do pretty much everything for us. We were just like chess pieces in a giant chess game, and all we could do was wait to be told what our role would be. Or maybe a more apt metaphor is that we were like helpless children, and we had to rely on a parent-like Higher Power to give us permission to do things or even tell us what to do and where to go.

My life has been a reflection of that. As a result, while I have found ways to pass the time while I waited for the big plan to be revealed, I’m not where I want to be yet. But I feel I’ve made progress.

Shifting from Religious to Spiritual

One thing I’ve started doing is changing some of my song lyrics to match my new beliefs. With the new lyrics, I’m switching from a sense of waiting for an outside force to rescue me to relying on my own inner power. While I do believe that the universe is at work in my life and everyone else’s, I don’t think life is about waiting for the universe to do everything for us. I believe we work together, and that means we humans have a role to play in things like moving our lives forward and getting ourselves unstuck when we feel stuck.

Although I still have ways to go before my life looks like the vision I have in my mind, I do now have a sense that it’s up to me to change things. And because I now see myself as spiritual, not religious, I see myself as having the power to change things.

I no longer believe that an outside force has all the power and all the answers and that my only role is to wait to be told what to do. I believe I’m powerful and that I do have the ability to transform my life. And I’m free to take the steps I feel are necessary to do that. I know I’ll make mistakes along the way, but that’s all part of the learning process.

Before, I didn’t even think I could make mistakes. I thought I had to have a clear understanding of the plan before I could take real steps forward. But now I understand and accept that making mistakes is part of the journey.

Final Thoughts

Again, I believe the universe works in our lives, and I believe the universe is at work in my life. But I also believe that the universe takes its cues from us. If we’re insistent on just waiting for things to happen, then the universe will grant us that waiting. But if we insist on taking action, then I believe the universe will help us with our new endeavors.

I do also believe, though, that sometimes the changes we’re trying to make are so far beyond where we’ve been that we have to do some deep, internal work before we can see those changes reflected in the real world.

~ Ashley C.

P.S. If you’re currently religious but would like to make the transition from being religious to being spiritual, I offer spiritual coaching services that you might be interested in. Feel free to click here to learn more.