This document discusses the concepts of spirituality and religiosity. It defines spirituality as a person's search for meaning and purpose beyond physical realities through their connections to others, nature, and the sacred or divine. The definitions presented emphasize that spirituality involves transcending material aspects of life and relating to something higher. Religiosity is defined as adherence to the beliefs, values, and practices of a particular religious tradition, including specific community participation. However, as one ages, their questions may go beyond their religious orientation to a more individual spiritual search for meaning. While religiosity is communal, spirituality is described as an individual experience.

1. Section 1:
The Inner Soul

2. Spirituality
 The concept of the “whole person” is usually associated to the idea of
human beings as having physical ans psychological aspects. However,
there is third aspect of being human that is as important as the 2
precedents: the spiritual aspect.
 Highlighting the mind-body-spirit connection, the spiritual self is an
ongoing, personal life journey, contextualizer by the belief in a higher
being, culture, relationships, nature, and the discovery of meaning in
one’s life.

3. Several definitions that have been
formulated regarding spirituality.
 Puchalski (2014), spirituality is the aspect of tbe self that is associated to
an individual’s process of seeking and expressiny meaning and how he or
she is connected to the self, to others, to the moment and to everything
else that composes his/her environment, including the sacred and
significant.
 Beauregard and O’Leary (2007), spirituality is any experience that is
thought to bring the experiencer in contact with the divine; it is not just
any experience that feels meaningful.
 Sinnott (2002), spirituality is also posited as the indivudual’s personal
relation to the sacred or transcendent, a relation that then informs other
relationships and the meaning of one’s own life.
 Myers and his colleagues (2000), spirituality is the “personal and private
beliefs that transcend the material aspects of life and give a deep sense of

4. What do these definitions have in
common with regard to spirituality?
 Spirituality talks about meaning and purpose that go beyond the physical
realities of life. Going through development, people are inevitably
programmed to make realizations about life, and those insights are not
always about observable phenomena or environmental experiences.
 Spirituality is focused on a person’s connections to different aspects of
his/her existence: to other people, to nature, and to sacredness and
divinity. In the pursuit of and applying meaning to one’s life, relationships
are created and sustained not only with people but with other life forms
or with a higher being.
 Spirituality talks about the sacred and transcendent. It is a general belief
that in this vast universe, there is a force higher than the self.

5. Religiosity
 Defined as the adherence to a belief system and practices associated with
a tradition in which there is agreement about what is believed and
practiced. It is a formal attachment to the set of beliefs, values, and
practices of a particular religious sect. It includes specific practices,
proscriptions (what should not be done and avoided), and participation in
a specific community that shares the same beliefs and practices.
 However, as one grows older, he/she begins to form questions that are
rooted in religious orientations, slowly making realizations and insights
until his/her search for meaning and transcendence goes beyond his/her
religious orientation.

6. Religiosity vs. Spirituality
 If religiosity is communal, then spirituality is individual.
 In religiosity, beliefs and practices are within religious groups, and
religious commitment, conservatism, and skepticism are manifested.
Spiritual attributes include the need for spiritual quest, ecumenical
worldviews, compassion, service, and inner peace.A person can possess
spirituality even his/she doed not subscribe to any religion. Spiritual
models are present everywhere. They function for respondents as
exemplars or spiritual qualities, such as compassion, self-control, or faith.
Thus, q person can be spiritual without being religious.