Learning to improve your life can feel like a full-time job in itself. Sometimes we can look to others who seemingly have it made in terms of their happiness and wonder what they’re doing so well. Sometimes it can be a very simple thing: faith. We can live in a world where religion is not part and parcel of who we are, but that’s not to say we can’t use some of the fundamentals of religion to help us be happier in ourselves. Religion is something that provides meaning to people’s lives, but it can also benefit their health. Perhaps we can benefit from using religion to inform our lives, even if we’re not religious ourselves. Here are some approaches that could benefit you, especially if there’s nothing religious or spiritual about you!
Learning to Be a Kinder Person
We’ve gone further away from the notion of being a Good Samaritan. Even the term “Good Samaritan” is loaded with meaning because it comes from the Bible. However, the fact is that we could all benefit from being a bit kinder in this ever-busy world, and we can look to religion as a signpost for this. Even the most important Christian values are rooted in things like being patient and kind but we all can feel that if we’re too nice we get left behind, but there is a difference between being kind and being a pushover.
Certainly, there are plenty of religious people who seemingly appear like they are malleable individuals, but this is not always the case. There are plenty of examples throughout history of those who wore religion on their sleeves but were incredibly tough. Whether it’s Richard the Lionheart or Muhammad Ali, there are people who were inherently kind but also assertive.
Using Meditation
We can’t have a discussion about religion without talking about meditation in some way. These days, meditation is more associated with mindfulness and doing it to benefit one’s health. Meditation is something that is deeply rooted in prayer, and someone who doesn’t have a spiritual bone in their body can benefit from using meditation to benefit their mental and physical health. There are a number of benefits to meditation, such as lowered blood pressure and increased happiness, and when we look at those people who engage in prayer once or twice a day, they are taking the opportunity to sit, relax, and fully engage with their senses. We can all benefit from doing this.
Something as simple as a body scan meditation can bring about great health benefits, even when it’s done just once! Meditation is a part of religion, but it can also be a part of our lives. As stressed-out parents, we could all use the benefit of unwinding in some way to feel more in tune with ourselves. People who speak to God through prayer are engaging in meditation every day, and therefore, the belief that God is speaking to them makes them feel more secure in who they are. But we can also feel secure in ourselves, even if we don’t believe in an almighty power.
Embracing Simplicity
It can be easy to categorize overly religious people as blind or ignorant, but we can use the teachings of religion to be better in ourselves by simply embracing simplicity. While there are many people who follow the word of the Bible to the letter, and we can view them as individuals who are actively disconnecting themselves from the modern world, there’s a lot to be said for the power of embracing simplicity in a world full of distractions. For example, people of the Muslim faith undergo Ramadan every year, fasting for spiritual reasons, but it also provides them with a greater understanding of simplicity in terms of consumption.
We live in a world where food is abundant, and there are many religions where fasting is central to their faith. Many people are now embracing simplicity in terms of food through various diets or approaches to intermittent fasting. Whether it’s the Warrior diet that advocates having one meal a day or 16/8 fasting, where you eat only within an eight-hour window, simplicity can make life easier, and it’s something we can all benefit from without embracing religion.
There are those who have a connection to their God, but there are also those who consider it a pointless endeavor. However, it needs to be said that there are many ways we can use religious teachings to inform our lives without necessarily being religious ourselves.