As an older American, you can do all kinds of things to get more in tune with your spiritual core. And by doing activities that promote a deeper sense of connection, wholeness, meaning, and purpose, you can awaken new perceptions that renew your outlook and give you inner strength for the rest of your human journey.
Every religion offers spiritual practices that are designed to bring you closer to a sense of the divine. They include activities like praying, chanting, fasting, taking part in rituals, celebrating special milestones, and many other practices. But you don’t necessarily need to follow any particular religious practices in order to enliven your spirituality. Anything that you love doing, that makes you feel whole or truly alive, or that gives you a feeling of deeper connection to the world can be considered a spiritual activity. For example, consider pursuits such as:
- Volunteering: Providing your time and efforts to a worthy cause can generate many positive emotions that feel deeply rooted in your spiritual core.
- Spending time with nature: The world is full of natural wonders, big and small, that can help you sustain an inspiring enchantment with life. Activities can be as simple as watching the night sky, sitting under a large tree, planting some flowers, walking through a garden, listening to ocean waves, or watching or playing with animals.
- Meditating: In the Pew Research Center survey referenced earlier, about 53 percent of seniors over 65 said they meditate at least once a week. Among several other benefits, meditation can increase your self-awareness as well as your ability to accept aspects of life that may be out of your control.
- Participating in prayer groups: Praying with other people provides a great opportunity for social engagement. But it can also help you stay encouraged and hopeful since you get to witness and be part of a collective spiritual effort.
- Sharing stories: Talking about good memories with other people can help you feel more grounded and interconnected.
- Playing or listening to music: It’s called a universal language for a reason. Music has the power to make almost anybody feel more in tune with the world, especially since it draws people into the present moment. In addition, favorite songs from your past can reawaken positive memories, provide comfort, and renew your spirit.
- Getting a massage: Human touch and physical pleasure can strip away your worries and immerse you deeply in the present moment, which is often a good way to experience a sense of unity with the world.
- Dancing: Moving in rhythm to stirring music can make you feel one with the universe. And when you dance with other people, that feeling of unity can become even more intense and expansive.
- Yoga: Beyond its many physical benefits, the practice of yoga can help you achieve a higher state of consciousness since it requires strong attention to what’s happening in the current moment.
- Reading or writing: Words often have a lot of transformative power. Reading the thoughts or stories of good writers can open new pathways for your spiritual core to make itself known. And writing down your own words, as part of your personal reflection or storytelling, can enable you to learn more about yourself, your beliefs, your place in the universe, and what gives you meaning.
- Arts and crafts: What could be more spiritual than the act of creation? Making something that has never existed before can generate an energizing sense of harmony and possibility. Drawing, painting, sculpting, and many other kinds of arts and crafts offer the chance to experience meditative and transcendent acts of creation.
- Holding hands or gazing into someone’s eyes: Simple yet intimate acts of interpersonal connection offer the chance to feel unified with the spiritual cores of other people.
- Doing absolutely nothing: By freeing yourself of distractions and sitting alone, in silence, you can pay closer attention to your thoughts and feelings, which can provide clues to where your spiritual core may be hiding.
Ultimately, no matter what you believe in, the activities that you enjoy most, or that bring you closer to other people or make a positive difference in the world, are the ones that are likely to feel most spiritual to you. So, play, laugh, love, create, and remember that almost everyone, regardless of age, shares the same fundamental questions about the deep mysteries of life.