Defining Spirituality
What is spirituality? Spirituality is very difficult to define because it means so many different things. Spirituality is about experiences, sensations, relief, and cleansing. It is an essential part of human contentment and survival. Spirituality is also very closely linked to nature and the wilderness experience. There are also religious forms of spirituality involving deities and other spirits, but the type of spirituality I will focus on is that of the personal human spirit and how it relates to the natural environment.
Human life is no longer simply about survival. "We search for purpose beyond mere subsistence."(McDonald and Schreyer, 181) (1) Human society is a complicated web of interactions with others. Individuals are no longer self-sustaining. There are people who make clothes, people who grow food, and people who make mobile phone ornaments and everyone is dependent on each other. It is a brilliant, complicated system which allows time for leisure and luxury, but also stress. It can be quite tiring, too, on both our mind and body. We bath and eat to keep our physical half clean and functioning, but what about our mental side, our spirit? Spiritual escape . . . this is the chemical that cleanses our soul.
Spiritual experiences are different for everyone. "People even have spiritual experiences and do not interpret them as such."(McDonald and Schreyer, 181) (1) Examples may be rowers, silently pushing themselves physically while escaping the bustle of the city on the banks around them, or it can be as simple as stopping for moment to gaze out the office window and watch the world move. Yes, you do get interrupted by that phone call or you do eventually have to put the boat away, but for that hour, minute, or even moment, you are refreshed. You will be more productive, more enthused. I personally find things like my walk home from uni everyday a spiritual experience. I have no worries, nothing to concentrate on, just time to think . . . and let my spirit free.
What I'm trying to say is that you do not need to climb Mount Everest or for that matter even leave the city to find nature and experience spirituality. Getting away, though, and doing things like climbing mountains or sleeping under the stars can be the ultimate in spiritual liberation. You will not have that phone call to interrupt you; you won't have to put the boat away. It is about healing, healing being defined as process involving physical, emotional, and spiritual dimensions.(Dickinson, 1) (2) Again, it depends on the person but we all need at times to find that state of consciousness where space and time become insignificant and the person's identity becomes merged with action and attainment of a greater sense of whole.(McDonald and Schreyer, 182-183) (1) Some people do find this feeling at the top of a mountain but others may only require a wave and a surfboard, a playground swing, or even a good book and hammock. However it is reached, it is this sensation, this cleansing, which brings about satisfaction in life. You will simply function better. Spiritual experience does to humans what cleaning and oiling does to a bicycle. It will just run so much smoother and last so much longer.
"Spiritual experience is not however synonymous with religious experience, [as is commonly thought]. A general definition might suggest an individuals attempt to understand his/her "place" in the universe."(McDonald and Schreyer, 179) (1) It is about pausing, taking in, and appreciating the world around you, then wondering about it. Organized religion, I feel, is a means of setting aside time to do this. Often deities and other figures are introduced to the process as means of personifying the experience. Some people need this kind of vision and/or the formality of actions like prayer, but many don't, and ultimately the outcome is the same.
As you can see, the wilderness experience is the epitome of finding spirituality. When you think about it, though, "the" wilderness experience is not something you can define either. "It is a function of what people are seeking, what they perceive, and it is colored by our meanings, symbols, and needs."(Knopf, Stankey, and Schreyer) (3) Spirituality is something we do have some control over. Initial attitude towards and expectations of the wilderness will directly dictate the quality of the experience. In other words, if a person is searching out or anticipating a spiritual or transcendent experience, then what is encountered may be more likely to catalyze that happpening.(McDonald and Schreyer, 184). (1)
Certain events in ones life can deeply affect their spirituality and relationship with nature. Things like death of loved ones, near death experiences (war, accidents), or happy memories associated with place (winning a race, childhood stomping grounds) are all examples. I will elaborate with a few personal examples. My brother was killed nearly two years ago at the age of 16 in a car accident. I had never really had anyone close to me die and quickly found out how many complicated and difficult emotions are involved with death and I found spiritual relief an absolute necessity. My spiritual experiences began to require solitude. Alone in nature was the only place I could grieve. When I was around other people I felt the need to comfort them and help them and could not find spiritual manumission for myself. The activities I used to partake with my brother, like snowboarding, tennis, and swimming, became very fundamental to my spiritual needs. I gained a new appreciation for life, as well. I remember distinctly an instance last summer when a butterfly landed on me when I was sitting by a lake. Three years ago my reaction would probably have been to brush it away but this time I just watched it explore my arm. I do not know how to explain it but it just means so much more.
"As spiritual experience implies a freedom from the normal constraints of life, it may allow for a greater degree of personal expression"(McDonald and Schreyer, 189). (1) Spirituality is a root of creativity. Artists of all forms rely on spirituality in their work. Spirituality can be synonymous with inspiration. Music is another example. Performing, writing, even listening to music can be spiritually gratifying. There is an endless list of the benefits of spiritual experience.
Have you ever wondered why people jump off bridges, kayak over waterfalls, or twist and flip on snowboards at ridiculous heights above earth? Is it really insanity that drives people to do this? Or is it really pleasurable for these people to subject themselves to such danger? I think most outsiders are satisfied believing in the insanity idea. I beg to differ. Try replacing the word pleasurable with the word spiritual in the above question and I think you may find an answer. It has been suggested that there is a specific and possibly even chemical reason why people who engage in risk action sports experience unusual exhilaration (4) but for the most part it because a spiritual utopia has been achieved. It is like a high . . . the same sort of high people who use drugs try to achieve. I have heard people call the sport of skateboarding the "healthy drug." Spiritual experiences, especially the ones associated with these high adrenaline sports, are also like drugs or even sex in that once you do experience it, you just want more. The first time you snowboard untracked powder, the first time you catch a wave and surf it all the way into the beach, etc., your life becomes a spiritual quest to relive that moment.
There are many risk action sports and leisure sports which combine skilled, controlled movement with the aesthetic experience of landscape. (5) When partaking, you can stop at any moment to enjoy your brilliance of your outdoor surroundings or you can keep going, and exist for the rush. Again it's the freedom that is so spiritually exhilarating. You are moving rapidly, but you are not running from anything and you have no particular destination. It doesn't make sense, and it shouldn't, because it is about fun. Fun is another concept that goes hand in hand with positive spiritual experience. I once read a verse which claimed that laughter is merely our spirits means of communication. I now understand why and couldn't agree more.
It's a shame that not much is known or being studied about spirituality in leisure because it is so crucial to our mental health. McDonald suggests that spirituality is often associated with religion and that since the government mandates the separation of church and state little support is offered. Much leisure research is funded by the government, hence the absence. Also the term spirituality is hard to apply a concrete definition to, as I mentioned earlier, and this fact alone makes it challenging to conduct research in any one direction.
Spirituality is an intuitive and integral element of human health and happiness. It is not well understood and may not need to be as long as we recognize it's benefits. The wilderness experience is the primary curator of the spiritual experience and the combination promotes the ideal mental catharsis.
1. McDonald, Barbara L. and Richard Schreyer. "Spiritual Benefits of Leisure Participation and Leisure Settings"
2. Dickenson, Stewart. "Benefits of Wilderness Experience"
3. Knopf 1983, Stankey and Schredyer 1987. As quoted in source 1.
4. Nettleton, Brian. "Outdoor Education: a View from the Past"
5. Appleton, J. "The Experience of Landscape," Chapter 6
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