What Inspired Your Spiritual Walk?

Someone once asked me, “What inspired you to become such a spiritual person? What caused you to develop a sense of connection to something bigger than yourself? What led you to do a soul search for meaning in life?”

To be honest, I didn’t grow up considering myself to be a devout spiritual person. I grew up primarily with a Christian background and remember praying fixed prayers, but outside of that, I don’t recall intentionally acknowledging a higher being or pursuing a deeper meaning in life. The only “energy force”, “spirit guide”, or “vibration” I acknowledged was that of my own consciousness, which was shaped and influenced by the morals of my parents and culture. And even then, when my conscious convicted me of right and wrong, I would still do whatever I wanted to do–despite feeling guilty about it. God was the last thing on my mind, literally. My devotion in life was to drawing, listening to music, watching wrestling, building legos, and playing video games.

My journey to seek spirituality began when I was 18 in the 12th grade, when a stranger walked up to me at school one day and asked me, “Where do you believe you would go when you die?”

Up until that point, I had never thought about that. Who lives their life thinking or worrying about the “afterlife”? To me, I was invincible. I didn’t think I was going to die, at least not any time soon. In fact, I would plan my next day as if tomorrow was promised to me. I had places to go, people to meet and things to do.

But after being asked that question, I got curious. Is there such thing as life after death? And if so, where would I go? Heaven? Hell? Back to the dust of the ground? Will I reincarnate? My curiosity about the afterlife, and fear of the unknown led me to pursue spirituality. If there was a consequence in the next life depending on how I lived my current life, I wanted to know so I could figure out what I needed to do to prepare for it and so I could secure a favorable outcome. That’s when I left for college and pursued Religious Studies as my area of concentration. I wanted to compare and contrast different religious beliefs to see if I could discover absolute truth about my origins, identity, purpose and ultimately, my destiny.