Spirituality – What Does It Actually Mean?

When a Norwegian princess announces her engagement to a spiritual healer, the world is going to sit up and take notice – and that’s precisely what happened when Princess Märtha Louise of Norway and Shaman Durek announced their engagement on social media last week.

“[He’s] the one who makes my heart skip, the one who sees me and acknowledges me from my highest potential, who makes me laugh and who I can be vulnerable with,” Martha declared on social media. And while initially they seem an unlikely pairing, it is anything but: the happy couple, who met in 2019, bonded over their love of new age spirituality – Princess Märtha Louise opened a school for alternative therapies in 2007, while Durek is a spiritual wellness guru to the stars, counting A-listers such as Gwyneth Paltrow and singer Kat Graham as fans. 

So what is spiritual wellness? Is it just all La-La Land nonsense or can it actually be of benefit? To answer these questions and more, we asked author Tom Vaughan for his thoughts. Tom’s recently published book, Hope…And The Hedgehog, is a down-to-earth but digestible exploration of the meaning of life in which he aims to take the ‘woo-woo’ out of spirituality.

Tom, can you explain to us what spirituality means?

“Well, some may say that this is spirituality’s biggest problem as it’s such a broad concept and can mean different things to different people – which is why it’s often dismissed as too ‘out there’. From shamans and spiritual healers to yoga gurus and crystal healers, even religious leaders, they all have their own perspective. In a nutshell though, I would say that spirituality is the understanding that your life has a higher purpose – beyond physical and material things. And it may or may not include religion – that is a personal choice every individual must make. 

When we’re going through challenging times like the last two years, thousands have reassessed their purpose and priorities and are looking for answers and guidance. It led to a rise in new age practices such as astrology, tarot, sound baths and Reiki, as opposed to traditional religion.”

Why is spirituality important?

However you choose to embrace it, spirituality can boost mental health by being a huge grounding presence in your life. It can also bring enormous comfort for people experiencing any kind of stress or anxiety – and especially helpful in this day and age when burnout is a very real problem. 

When you open your mind to spirituality it means you have made peace with your life. You look at obstacles and accept that these are just part of your journey; that your destiny is controlled by a higher power or some kind of force. This mindset makes you very resilient, more able to take what curveballs life throws at you. Above all, it makes you fully present in the now so you enjoy life to the full. It’s such a useful tool to have.

And, according to science, it may even help some of us live longer, as a growing raft of evidence has started to find links between religious and spiritual beliefs and practices and physical and psychological health.”

How can we be more spiritual?

“First of all it’s important to understand that spirituality is a way of living, not a one-time fix and you don’t have to spend thousands on new-age retreats, crystal therapy or meditation classes to find it. Boosting your spiritual well being can be done in very simple ways – and it only has to take ten minutes a day. Try one or more of these simple actions:

• Look up at the stars and allow your mind to wonder and wander, without intellectual borders or barriers.  A high proportion of people such as sailors, desert dwellers and travellers, who have observed the magnificence of the deep night sky in remote parts of the globe, have a deep spiritual awareness.
• Open your mind to death – if we stop fearing it, we may come to the conclusion that maybe life doesn’t have an end and that we have been put on this earth for a higher purpose. Hope is a very powerful tool to have in your armoury.
• Remind yourself every day just how short life is – this heightened sense of being fully alive will instantly brush away any negativity clouding your thoughts. 
• Stop to consider that just as many equally intelligent and clever minds, some of the greatest that ever lived, have accepted the stronger likelihood of the presence of a higher power in their lives, giving them a reason to live and a reason to die – even though that reason may not yet be fully known.”

And finally, tell us about your book

“Hope..And The Hedgehog is a little book which will get you thinking about the biggest subject of all: the meaning of life. It explores the idea that humankind faces a binary choice: we can choose to believe that life is a huge, meaningless cosmic accident or, alternatively, that it has meaning. If we choose the latter, and decide that life does have a purpose, then it leaves open the possibility of there being some sort of higher power. By opening up our minds to this, I examine how it can unlock long-lasting happiness and contentment. 

I’ve made the book small because everyone’s too busy to get bogged down in weighty theory. I want people to pick it up and get thinking about life’s three biggest puzzles: Who are we?; How did we get here? and Where are we going? They’re questions people are notoriously reluctant to get their heads round, but they’re so intrinsic to our lives and can change them for the better.”

• Hope..And The Hedgehog is out now, available from Amazon, priced at £9.99.