Religious Activities - Obsession With Religion, Religious Addiction
There are thousands of religions, mainstream or otherwise, all made up by human beings, each religion has its institutions, own agenda, beliefs. Most religions state that God is beyond religious comprehension. Many people have a religious belief/faith, follow recognised religious beliefs, worship through prayer, rituals, religious practices, experienced as healing, and putting faith and belief in a higher power, God or Goddess (see also Beliefs, Concepts Of "God"), holding hope, faith and unconditional love can enrich our life. Our religion can give us solace and a structure for life, while also connected to our own structure - that our full sense of self remains. Many enjoy living a healthy religious life and their personal relationship with God, with their full range of emotions, including vulnerability, sexuality, intellect, free will, and are able to function independently in how we practice our religion. In our religious faith we may continue to respect the humanity of us and others, including peoples mistakes, fears, emotional pain, suffering, love, humour. We may nourish our religious faith from a trusting place, where relationships are at a heart, people are encouraged to independently think, in a non-defensive, non-judgemental way and our heart is open.
Alienation Some turn to religion, follow orders, doctrines (see also Spiritual Principles & Connection To Spiritual Faith, Religious Faith) to avoid self-responsibility, accountability and may become dependent on an external set of rules or out of an overwhelming need to be loved and find their worth (see also Addictive Element To Certain Attachment Styles), yet things may have become unbalanced (see also Fleeing Towards Spiritual Enlightenment - Spiritual Bypass, Spiritual Smugness), as we experience an identity crisis. Our alienation may point to a belief from our wounded self, who is invested in suffering, because it may have been taught that god wants us to suffer. We may not only have neglected our self - autonomy, our passions, pleasures, full range of personality, but also others, including our relationship or marriage. Alienated inside, we may struggle with nurturing loving relationships with others. We may allow our religion to dominate our life so much so, that other issues (especially those closer to home) are ignored or put into the background. We can become so devoted that we can sacrifice our family, friends, work, economic security, even our physical and mental health. We may have blocked out, shut down things inside. Fearing the unknown, disconnected, empty, alone or lonely inside, we may struggle to face and take responsibility for our real feelings about us and our life. We may begin to devalue our family and friends - sometimes as if they are outcasts (who in some cases aren't sanctioned by our religious leaders), as if others' hopes, dreams and values are always somehow less than ours, creating an "us versus them" scenario. (Richard Rohr writes "Everyone is in heaven when he or she have plenty of room for communion and no need for exclusion. The more room you have to include, the bigger your heaven will be.") How we are with others can have an emotional toll on us and people around us, including our partner. Pointing towards a religion addiction, we may have not only alienated others, but alienated our self, not being all of who we are. Religion can help us being tuned to our true self and it may be important that we are inclusive of others, choose freely, practice the right rituals, believe in the right things, hold any creative tension, so we don't give ourself away or end up being alienated from our divine nature or own religion.
Righteousness About Our Personal Religious Beliefs We may appreciate, be passionate about our religious faith, practice and may want to push others - which can be counter productive and may not be received as spiritually loving of the other. We may become unaccepting, intolerant of others, who have their own religious faith, ambivalence, ambiguity, if their strong or different beliefs are not in line with those of our own. We may have developed selective listening and beliefs, fundamental modes of thinking, that we are certain our way is the only way (and our religion is the only valid religion), and others should and ought to think and practice the same way and measure up (see also Magical Beliefs). We may struggle to bear the unknown, uncertainty, especially if we have guarantees about an afterlife. Some people can become so righteous that others (or those who don't belong to our own faith) can often be seen as a threat. We may have started labelling or persecuting others, no longer seeing them. We may have begun to think in extremes, becoming very hard on others, disregarding them (and indeed us), lacking compassion, love. Prioritising our religion over us and everything else, we may believe we are special, and that we must always follow the authority of our religion without question. Our faith may have become a blind faith. Valuing, seeking and obeying the call of god, we may have become accountable only to god and our religion, yet at the expense of acknowledging any of our own free will, ability to choose a response or taking any of our own personal responsibility. We may exhibit insincere composure that we must hold on to. Being authentic, having faith in who we are may be a challenge. Dependent on our religion, we may have what's been called "religious addiction", as if our moods are altered, our soul is restless, and we have regressed as a person. We may have become fear-based, disempowered, lost personal control, abandoned ourselves, have a sense of meaninglessness or become depressed. Spirit is Loving, as is the innocence of our inner child, which may have been lost in us, yet we may have become judgemental to others, who don't share our religious beliefs, which has nothing to do with love. (Studying religious literature we may have great knowledge of our mind, yet little of our heart and actually loving.) This may point to our wounded self being in charge (a place we live from to avoid pain, feel safe), convincing us that our prayers, religion, is our sole motivation. Yet without learning about loving ourself and others, the way we live our religious life can become just another form of control, hoping to get what we want if we believe the "right" thing. Underneath we may simply want to belong. Our actions may no longer have become spiritually loving and have become invasive. Certain aspects of us (e.g. how we respond to our sexual needs, frustrations), being a loving human being may have been denied, repressed, suppressed or cut off. We may want to flourish, be in touch with our vitality and find a way to live a fully rounded life within our religious practice, and the therapy can support you with this.
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- Religious Activities - Obsession With Religion, Religious Addiction
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