0

Spiritufobia

There’s a great many people who suffer from spiritufobia. Tonight, for example, we had friends over, and we started talking about the AA’s 12-step program, which, when you look at it, is pretty darn spiritual in nature. “That’s not for us”, was the instinctive reaction.



And when I tell some friends and family members about what I do and mention the spiritual angle, and how your startup should be aligned with the purpose of your life, they get visibly uncomfortable and start talking about more practical matters.



There seems to be some spiritufobia going on.



And I can totally relate to that. In fact, I suffered from spiritufobia myself for a very long time. Part of it was that my spiritual role models growing up were all pretty unhappy, so I had equated spirituality with being unhappy. I didn’t have Steve Jobs, Dalai Lama, og Mahatma Gandhi as my role models then.



But the biggest part, probably, was that I had no idea what it meant, other than it sounded pretty “out there”.



Now I know, and now I wear it as a badge, because it’s a great conversation starter. It parts the waters. Some people love it, and some people hate it, but it always gets a reaction.



Spirituality, at its core, means the understanding that we’re all connected. That we’re not little separate selves, but we’re all part of the one life, the one consciousness or awareness.



At a more practical level, it means noticing what is, being the awareness that notices thoughts, feelings, and personality, without being those. That simple but not necessarily easy little trick holds the key to all freedom.



When I first learned this by direct experience, which is the only way to experience it, I knew I’d found the key. In coaching, we tend to look at each belief individually, and do all this work to get to the truth about it, so we can reinforce that truth. Yes, the worst that can happen if you asked your boss for a raise is that he says no. Yes you are okay.



Noticing is a meta-instrument that can kill all limiting beliefs, all negative patterns. Not all at once, but in larger chunks, and with much deeper and more lasting effect.



Spirituality described sounds weird to a modern western ear. Spirituality experienced makes complete and obvious sense. There’s nothing to be fobic about.

6 comments

RasmusJ
 

The discomfort may stem from the threshold where spirituality crosses over from self-development or collective development as an intellectual challenge, and into actual metaphysics or quasi-religious statements about the [exact] nature of existence. While I accept that spirituality to some extent must regard "belief" as a motivational and confidence-critical catalyst, it starts to get tricky when spirituality leads to institutionalised belief systems not grounded in, shall we say, local or individual contexts. When things get "cultish" and require degrees of submission in order to achieve "enlightenment". That threshold is of course individual and ethereal - but I think this is a central issue within your "spiritufobia".
Read more
Read less
  Cancel
Anthony
 

Keep in mind that the "spiritualism" as sold by Jobs and other corporate titans is window dressing. It is nothing more than a facade to disarm people or to help sell a product. I remember sitting in a staff meeting where he had the gall to refer to the staff as part of one big family. He glossed over his recent decision to kill off a few hundred family members via layoffs. On the other hand I suppose that Jim Jones considered himself spiritual as well.
Read more
Read less
  Cancel
Mark Aufflick
 

"Noticing is a meta-instrument that can kill all limiting beliefs, all negative patterns." I love it! Lars this is good stuff.
Read more
Read less
  Cancel
Torben
 

"Yes, the worst that can happen if you asked your boss for a raise is that he says no." That is not true. He can think you are out of your mind. When he say no, he can think, that you will start looking for a new job. Your career in the company can be influenced. Everything you say or do, can have consequences, you can not know about for certain.
Read more
Read less
  Cancel
Lars Pind
 

@Torben: You're absolutely right. You can never know for certain. He might decide to pull up a gun and kill you right on the spot. That wasn't the point, though. I was giving that as an example. The point I was trying to make is that in most cases, the worst that can happen, or will likely happen, is not nearly as bad as you think it'll be before you dig for the truth.
Read more
Read less
  Cancel
Helena
 

Thank you Lars - interesting subject. Looking forward to be following you more closely.
Read more
Read less
  Cancel

Leave a comment