Moving Beyond Yoga and Meditation: What Does Spirituality Really Encompass and How Does It Impact Daily Life?

As I mentioned many years ago, I began practicing yoga. At that time, this was something very uncommon; there were no yoga centers like there are now, much less teachers. So, through a friend, I found a teacher, but with her, we not only practiced yoga, but we also had meetings once a week to meditate. We were a group of people who met every Friday night and had these sessions. Of course, my family viewed this as something strange, but with curiosity. As for my circle of friends, it changed as I became more involved in these things. Only those who truly accepted me and were good friends remained. But as time went by, people began to have the concept that I was someone spiritual, which always seemed funny to me, and I didn't understand why. One day, when I was returning from work, a friend asked me, "What is spirituality?" He told me that no one had been able to answer that question. He had read books, but none of them specifically said what this was. I tried to explain to him in a thousand words what it was, but I really couldn't even understand it myself. With each answer I gave, he became less satisfied, and I alluded to the fact that he wasn't "ready to hear certain things," not that I didn't know. It was undoubtedly my ego that made me think this; the reality was that I didn't know how to answer that question. Years have passed, and I finally feel ready to answer from my personal experience. I've come to understand that spirituality is something so subjective; each person experiences it differently, from different perspectives, etc. Because it's subjective, it becomes so different for each person that it becomes impossible to give it a specific concept. But if there is a way to make it real, to make it visible, it is through our actions. The way you dress, your eating habits, whether you meditate, practice yoga, study your philosophy of life, or your religion—none of these make you a spiritual being unless you manifest the qualities of Love in your daily life, which are respect, tolerance, compassion, self-love, and so on. One day, from my window, I watched a woman who worked for the municipality cleaning the city. She did her job with total dedication and commitment, cleaning every corner of that street. My mother couldn't think of a better idea than to give her a small basket of seasonal produce for the Christmas holidays in gratitude for her work. Couldn't there be anything more spiritual than this? The display of gratitude my mother showed and the committed work of this woman taught us all a lesson. My practice today has changed a lot. I don't think I'm so interested in achieving enlightenment now, but I am interested in staying grounded, trying to be a better person every day through my actions. So I can now say that being spiritual means being a good person and making that happen through your actions, inspiring others. No matter how small, these will always be the seeds that will bear fruit at some point; and only then can we contribute to the great change humanity needs right now.