Spiritual

In terms of spirituality we have recently passed through a time which must, by any interpretation of the word, be one of the most spiritual events of the year.  But what does spiritual mean?  It is fast becoming one of the most overused words in the common language of any country. The word is used to sell perfumes, food, even cars.  The word is used to describe the right way to live, to think, to bring up children, to work. Bookshops are full of books and magazines telling us how to be more spiritual or how to move onto our spiritual path as if life itself was not a spiritual path. We are advised how to be more spiritual in our lives by most religious leaders. But the advice varies depending on the belief system of the writer or reader. No one attempts to tell us what spiritual really means or define the word in depth, we are left to decide for ourselves.  According to my thesaurus spiritual can mean, psychic, divine, religious, pious, priestly. It can mean spiritualism and a spiritualist can be involved in the occult, good and bad. To others it will mean fluffy clouds and angles, seeing aura’s, talking about chakras or believing in reincarnation  and going on courses. To some the word spiritual means the world of God and the light of love and goodness. In fact the word spiritual is used in so many different ways that its true meaning, if ever it had one, has become lost.  I am not saying that any definitions is wrong but they are all so different.

So what does the word spiritual mean for you?  Take a few moments before reading further and write down exactly what your understanding of the word Spiritual really means.


I think there will be as many definitions as there are people. It does after all relate to the way we understand the world, and our place in it. We view the universe and our awareness of it from our own experience of life, from our expectations of being able to experience something greater than that already experienced. This of course is my understanding of the word spiritual. I can give no other understanding of what the word means for me and I believe that unless I have given serious consideration to my understanding of the word I am not qualified to use what I believe is a Holy word.

There, I have said it, Spiritual means Holy. But how do I define Holy? Here we go again, using words that we don’t fully understand or feel and here I think is the challenge. To ‘feel’ the word as an emotion, to be aware of a change in us when we say or think about such words as Spiritual, Holy, God, Love.  We use the word love so often that we have forgotten how to ‘feel’ it or what it really means. If we don’t ‘feel’ the important words we use we are no more aware than a computer.  We are human and these special words should be an expression of how we feel as we say them. Words are meant to express feeling and when we say ‘Spiritual’ a special energy, emotion, feeling should flow through us as we become the word we have chosen to express in the thought of the moment.  That does not mean that we should be in a continual state of the holiness just because we used the word to express a deeper thought but we should at least have some understanding of the meaning of the word as we use it. It is the same with the word Love, this is another Holy word but has come more to mean an expression of affection or worse. friendliness, rather than a word representing power for good and acceptance of another persons point of view.  

This is my understanding of the word spiritual. It is not a word, it is a state of awareness expressed as a word. Something to be personally felt and experienced at the moment it is spoken.

This only becomes possible when we experience or ‘feel’ the words we use. Learn how to feel the word ‘spiritual’, Holy, and especially Love and allow them to become more than words allow them to become an expression of who you are.

Feel the expression of Spiritual in your soul, become an expression of the word when you use it.


Malcolm Southwood



Southwood Healing Centre
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