Or I could title this post, “You and Your Spirituality.” I’m going to talk about “spiritual practices” and, in particular, LDS spiritual practices, for which Wikipedia offers the following general definition: “A spiritual practice or spiritual discipline (often including spiritual exercises) is the regular or full-time performance of actions and activities undertaken for the purpose of inducing spiritual experiences and cultivating spiritual development.” And I’m going to do so by pulling some quotes from a fascination Pew Research Center study titled “Spirituality Among Americans,” which I will proceed to liken unto us Mormons.
First, an LDS disclaimer. There is a lot of what I call “Spirit talk” in the Church, largely ungrounded talk and advice about how to bring “the Spirit” into your meeting or your life. Then there is more largely ungrounded talk about how to become “more spiritual,” whatever that means. In the wider world of Christianity, the term “spiritual practices” appears, but that term isn’t used in the Church, in talks or lessons. There are, however, four or five things Mormons are regularly urged to do that would qualify as spiritual practices: personal prayers, read the scriptures, attend weekly worship services, attend the temple regularly. And there are many spiritual practices that appear in other denominations and religions that Mormons don’t do: meditation, mindfulness, affirmations, nature walks. For most people who are into personal spirituality, it’s a very individual and almost idiosyncratic thing. Hey, if spending an hour outside gardening or an hour in the kitchen whipping up a nice dinner treat brings you closer to God or the Great Beyond, who’s to argue with you?
Let’s see what the Pew study has to say. I’m just going to pull short quotes, then add comments.
In recent decades, Americans have become less likely to identify with an organized religion. Yet a new Pew Research Center survey shows that belief in spirits or a spiritual realm beyond this world is widespread, even among those who don’t consider themselves religious.
Well, Mormons (or at least LDS doctrine) score 110 on “belief in spirits.” Interestingly, while official LDS counsel is very big on urging Mormons to become more spiritual, there is pretty much zero advice on getting in touch with dead relatives or any of the other zillions of spirits either zipping around us on planet Earth or out there somewhere in the spirit world. In terms of folk doctrine, lots of LDS people claim some sort of communication from departed loved ones. But there is no counsel to make a dedicated effort along those lines. Nothing like, “This month I am using my meditation and prayer time trying to get in touch with Aunt Martha, who passed away ten years ago.” You might say that the quest of LDS spirituality is very unfocused.
Some news articles have speculated that young Americans may be turning away from organized religion and replacing it with their own mix of spiritual elements drawn from many sources, including Asian religions and Native American traditions, as well as New Age beliefs about crystals, tarot cards and the like. Media coverage has often focused, in particular, on people who describe themselves as “spiritual but not religious.”
Here’s a strange thing: while many Mormons somehow think of “spiritual” and “religious” as very similar terms or even the same thing, they are in fact quite distinct. One can be dutifully religious the way we often talk about being a “fully active member of the Church,” but not very spiritual at all. And others can be very spiritual but not interested in organized religion at all. The “spiritual but not religious” (which the Pew survey abbreviates as SBNR) category is growing fast.
Some kinds of spiritual experiences seem to be relatively common. For example, 46% of U.S. adults say that at least once or twice a month they feel a deep sense of wonder about the universe. A similar share (44%) say they feel a deep sense of spiritual peace and well-being that often.
You don’t hear very many Mormons describe their spiritual experiences as “a deep sense of wonder about the universe” or “a deep sense of spiritual peace.” If someone gets the mic in testimony meeting and starts out “I had a spiritual experience last week,” it’s a rather more pedestrian experience they are going to relate, not generally a transcendent one. I guess you could say Mormons tend to aim for and relate to a rather down-to-Earth type of spirituality, like finding the car keys or enjoying a meeting, rather than communing with the Great Beyond.
To measure some common spiritual practices, we asked survey respondents how often they pursue five activities: looking inward or centering themselves, meditating, doing yoga, exercising and spending time in nature.
Those may be common spiritual practices, but only one of them would ring the bell for most Mormons, “looking inward or centering themselves,” which might happen during prayer or maybe during the weekly passing of the sacrament. Exercising as a spiritual practice? Probably not the 45 minutes you spend at the gym, but yoga does it for a lot of people. Again, looking at these five listed items, strange that Mormon ideas about spiritual practices (things you do to “feel the Spirit”) are so different and disconnected from standard ideas about spiritual practices.
Okay, here’s a quote that will sound a little odd to most Mormons:
More than one-third of U.S. adults say they have a cross for spiritual purposes, and 19% say they have some jewelry (which could also be a cross) that serves a spiritual purpose.
Also, 15% of Americans say they maintain a shrine, altar or icon in their home; 12% possess crystals for spiritual purposes; and 9% have a tattoo or piercing for a spiritual purpose.
Mormons are not into spiritual icons or mementos. Don’t do crosses. No family shrines (although it’s a fascinating idea). Senior LDS leaders would recoil in pious horror at the suggestion that a tattoo could be a spiritual icon. Once upon a time, having a set of printed scriptures or a copy of the Ensign displayed on the coffee table might serve that purpose, but with everything online now that doesn’t work. Maybe now it is having a temple photo or three hanging on the wall in the house and a framed copy of the Family Proclamation hanging somewhere in the kitchen or family room. Which makes me think that in LDS rhetoric, somehow “the temple” and “spirituality” have a lot of overlap. Which is a little odd, given that for a lot of LDS going through the motions of temple attendance is mostly dutiful and routine, not spiritual at all.
There is a lot more to read in the Pew survey. Imagine how different a tailored LDS survey and discussion would be. I have come up with my own spiritual practice: take one chapter of scripture and really take a deep dive in it during the month. First up, Mark 1 (maybe I’ll post on it next week). Adult Gospel Doctrine class takes a much different approach, glossing over five or ten chapters every week. In a lot of other denominations, adult Sunday School takes just one book of scripture and studies it for six months or a year.
So tell me what your thinking on this is, and what spiritual practices, if any, work for you.
- Name something on the list of “LDS spiritual practices” that I didn’t think of (I listed prayer, scripture reading, temple attendance). Keeping a daily journal might be such an item. It used to be a really big thing in the Church, but it sort of quietly went away, didn’t it?
- Why do standard “spiritual practices” like the ones noted above have so little traction in the LDS tradition?
- Do you know anyone, friend of family member, from a different religious tradition that does a focused and regular set of “spiritual practices”? What does that look like for a Catholic or a Buddhist or a SBNR person?
- To take an odd example (see image at the top of the post): Some people find total eclipses to be very moving, a deeply spiritual thing, but for others it’s a no big deal thing. I think that holds almost every spiritual practice or experience, it’s a very hit or miss affair. And for some people there are no spiritual practices or experiences at all.
- Any personal spiritual practices that work for you?
Wheat & Tares 
I recently heard (I think on a Faith Matters podcast, but not an LDS guest?) of how saying the rosary prayers grounded that man’s spiritual life. We lack the proscribed tactile devotional practices from other faiths. Personally I would add sacred music and meditation to your list
I think it came up in Relief Society sometimes that a small group of women essentially practiced “working meditation” as part of their “home-making”. It was always like 1-2 sisters and it would come up about 1x a year. I was usually one of those women during my time attending Relief Society, but I didn’t get the side-eye of alienation when I talked about it.
The Church has a fantastic opportunity to utilize its temples to develop spiritual experiences among its most active and devoted members. But they won’t take advantage of these buildings as expensive and under-utilized as they are.
Nowhere in the scriptures does it say that temples can only be used for A, B, C, and D (the saving ordinances). Temples could be used in other ways too. I’m not suggesting that LDS temples be converted into some kind of super Mormon recreation center. I am suggesting that LDS temples are a very visible, expensive, and apparently important gathering spot for the most active members. And yet the temple experience is among the most boring and redundant (no offense to you temple-loving TBMs) LDS activities I ever engaged in.
We are losing are youth. We are losing our 20-somethings. Maybe consider utilizing the temples to make LDS life more engaging and spiritual (as opposed to ritualistic Masonry). All it takes for this kind of change is some kind of RMN “revelation”.
I’m pretty sure that all it would take is for Church leaders to start encouraging some of these other standard spiritual practices, and many members would start doing them. In fact, we might still be hearing members talking about all this revolutionary new “ponderizing” spiritual practice they are engaging in if the plans to benefit financially from this ponderizing trend hadn’t been leaked so close to when the GC talk that introduced this concept was given. The question then becomes why don’t Church leaders encourage these other practices?
Yoga–Church leaders probably fear that yoga’s connection to other religions (Hindiusm and Buddhism, in particular) might lead some members away from the Church. There’s also not really much scriptural or traditional support in Christianity/Mormonism for yoga. I have been thinking about adding yoga to my routine, mostly for the physical benefits, but also for the potential spiritual benefits as well.
Exercising/getting into nature–Church leaders probably don’t want people substituting exercising or walks in nature for attending Sunday meetings or the temple. There’s also not too much scriptural or traditional support for these practices. I personally usually find much spirituality while exercising and getting into nature (I typically do them both at the same time).
Meditation–I’m not really sure why the Church doesn’t emphasize meditation more other than it not really being a part of the Church’s traditional practices. Perhaps the Church doesn’t really see much difference between meditation and prayer–or, to borrow from some well-known Mormon terminology–that prayer is the “true order of meditation”, so it’s not worth talking about other types of meditation practices. I have personally developed a few very simple forms of meditation that I find quite helpful and beneficial.
The Church might also not explicitly encourage other spiritual practices because they already ask Church members to do so many things that they simply don’t want to break members by asking them to do even more.
I think that there is a case to be made for temple garments, vials of consecrated oil, CTR rings, and young women medallions to be instances of spiritual icons or mementos for some Mormons.
Timely post. I’m now at a point where pretty much zero LDS spiritual practices work for me. I used to pray, go to the temple semi-regularly, read the scriptures, etc., but none of that really provided me with any deeply meaningful experiences. I initially thought that I was the problem, but I gradually realized that a lot of the stuff the church teaches about spiritual practice isn’t really designed to foster what i’m looking for, which is really just friendship and community. YMMV, of course, but I’ve experienced a lot of alienation at church, I think partly because, at least in the wards I’ve been in, lots of folks seem more interested in conforming and projecting righteousness than they are in having real conversations about their struggles, their fears, their hopes, etc. I wish my culture (both American and LDS) wasn’t so afraid of expressing emotions other than the institutionally approved ones (crying during one’s testimony, e.g.). And I wish church were a place where one could say, “I’m not sure I believe most of this stuff and I’m scared about what that might mean” and not just get the rote responses about “doubt your doubts” or “pray harder”, etc. I think that’s why I still long for the communal; church just doesn’t do it for me. These days, most of what I’d call my “communal practices” consist of attending live music events, discussing ideas with my students, and getting together with friends. I also do love nature; I used to fly fish a lot when I lived in Utah, and that was a deeply centering and peace-bringing experience, mainly because standing in a river reminds you that everything is temporary and that you don’t matter one bit and that the important thing is to connect as much as you can with the world around you in the brief time you have on earth. That might freak some people out, but I actually found such realizations to be calming.
And I second josh h’s comments on the temple. As he said, no offense to the folks who get a lot out of it, but it’s the most mind-numbingly boring and infantilizing “spiritual” experience I’ve ever had. I’ve seen a good number of people over the years fall asleep during the endowment session and I absolutely do not blame them. Just because people insist something is deeply spiritual doesn’t mean it is for everyone. It’s an entirely subjective deal.
I think one LDS spiritual practice not on your original list is fasting, at least when it is done with the intent to increase closeness to God and/or plead for the welfare of another.
“Why do standard “spiritual practices like the ones noted above have so little traction in the LDS tradition? “* One reason, just my opinion: it seems that the Church has been on a “branding” mission for the last 50 years. This is what a “Mormon” looks and acts like – grooming and dress standards. Endlessly cheerful, with lots of kids. So much on appearance in order to advertise our unique brand. Individual spiritual practices are not as visible. This may sound jaded, but when I think back about how much time and focus has been spent on skirt lengths, earrings, mustaches, beards, marry young and procreate frequently, it is obvious the focus has not been on personal spiritual practices but on “looking the part.”
I work in the garden or take a walk. The repetitive motion is a kind of meditation for me. The growing things around me feel connected to God. I feel very connected with God through the repetitive motions of walking or gardening .I raise my thoughts up in prayer at these times. Sometimes I listen to discussions of spiritual concepts and ponder these as I work or walk.
I feel a strong spiritual connection to God when I look at the horizon, where the mountains meet the sky. I can’t really explain it fully. It’s a sense of awe.
Sometimes when I am reading (doesn’t have to be scriptures, could be fiction), I feel a sense of beautiful truth about certain passages. I write them down on 3 by 5 cards and post them where I will see them repeatedly.
BrotherSky, I’m right there with you, and share many of the same experiences and sentiments. I don’t consider myself to be a very spiritual person by nature, but only in recent years have I given myself permission be OK with that. Appeals to the supernatural simply don’t resonate with me. Perhaps there may be a neurodiversity component to that aspect of me; I’m not sure, but it would make sense. If others find deep spiritual significance in religious worship, more power to them; I’ll find someplace else to be.
On occasion, I’ve undertaken such practices as yoga, mindfulness/meditation and tai chi, and still do occasionally. I find value in the mind/body awareness aspects, but whenever an instructor/facilitator drifts too far into spirituality, they lose me. I’m not looking for a new set of religious beliefs, I just want to improve my physical/mental health.
Several years ago during sacrament meeting, it occurred to me that the chapel in my ward meetinghouse has no windows to the outside, not even a frosted skylight or any source of natural lighting. The artificial lighting inside the standardized Church building makes the bland interior ambience exactly the same regardless of the time of day. On top of that, I was wearing an uncomfortable business suit (who was I really trying to impress?) in a climate-controlled environment. This reminded me of Vegas casinos, which are well-known for having no windows, no wall clocks, and disorienting floor plans in order to keep patrons from wanting to leave, or from realizing how beautiful and refreshing the outside world is. Then Covid came, and I fully embraced Sunday mornings as the best time for “spiritual” (using the term very loosely) activities, like walks or bike rides with my family, or even just by myself. Going back to church after that then made me realize even more how draining church is; the exact opposite of the renewing experience it purports to be.
And since the OP mentioned eclipses, I remember experiencing the 2017 solar eclipse within the zone of totality, and being deeply awestruck by that experience, as a reminder of the vastness of the universe and how truly insignificant I am within it, and even got a little euphoric buzz from the sense of wonder. I felt similar feelings when each of my kids were born. If that eclipse happened 5-10 years earlier, when I was in a more TBM frame of mind, I would have attributed that feeling to “the spirit”. But I never get such awestruck feelings from anything specifically Church related, ever, especially not the temple.
I find the spirit in art, including music, writing. If I consider the whole of creation, the earth, all its life forms, as an ongoing artistic expression, it helps me think about what God could mean, what humanity means, and how we relate to God. Today, Schubert lieder sung by Christa Ludwig.
I wish our church leaders were more aesthetically and intellectually inclined, encouraging more of the arts in our worship. If we are gods in embryo, we are creators, and must develop our creative powers.
So is the photo illustrating “occultation,” or is it important that it is an “annular” ecclipse (from anus, “ring”)?
I strongly second the above comments regarding the importance of music. The adage that ‘music is the purest form of worship’ is true. Unfortunately, Mormonism’s adherence to rigid correlation limits the musical repertoire allowed in meetings. How many times will LDS church congregations drone out ‘Come Come Ye Saints’ in the next four weeks?
The church misses a golden opportunity to develop increased spirituality by not allowing qualified organists and choir directors to be paid for their services. A recognized concert pianist and music professor who resides in my ward directed amazing choirs, taught the youth how to sing in ensembles, and performed gorgeous classical works in Sacrament meetings. She eventually burned out and is now inactive. What a loss.
In addition to making the works of classical non-Mormon composers permissible, the church misses out by not allowing talks referencing great philosophers and teachers. I once based on a sacrament meeting talk on Socrates’ famous quote: “The unexamined life is not worth living”. While the topic fits well with Mormon theology, the HC in attendance complained to the SP and I was issued a cease-and-desist order.
I ask you, what source material has greater influence: Bednar/Oaks or Socrates?
I am like lws329, in that for me, nature, gardening, and insights from reading are things that feel spiritual to me. Nature can be anything from being out in the forrest or desert, to watching an eclipse or seeing the stars, or just looking at the horizon. The ocean is always inspiring. Gardening is its own form of growing nature. At our cabin above Bear Lake Idaho, I have been digging up the fill the builders put in around the cabin and staining rocks out and it is about 50% rocks. My husband wonders why I am bothering with all that hard work, as it takes a pickax to even get started. And it is hard to explain that it is fun, well, not fun at all, but satisfying and spiritual Yeah, he doesn’t get it. At. All.
Another way that sometimes I have experienced a spiritual moment is through human connection. Especially when it is a deeper appreciation of life. An often described spiritual feeling is seeing a newborn baby, or experiencing a birth, and that is the kind of deeper connection that I am talking about. It is more than just connecting, but the wonder involved in life. Being with my mother when she passed was spiritual. Sad, but beautiful in a way. Or other times just sharing a meaningful experience with someone special, or talking about important things, can give a deeper sense of being connected.
But all the typical church things, nope, nothing spiritual about them at all. I used to wonder what was wrong with me, that all the Mormon “spiritual experiences” left me flat, but the grand cathedrals of Europe were very inspiring. The Mormon temples are just pretty buildings with expensive materials, and nothing at all compared to the Cathedrals of Europe that took hundreds of years to build. And art museums. Yup, very spiritual. Most Mormon art is really trite. Jesus as blue eyed white guy….just doesn’t do anything for me. But actually seeing a Rembrandt ….wow. In person they glow from underneath and they are so alive. I saw some paintings in several museums that spoke to me in ways that the overdone Mormon “favorites” just don’t. I will just pick one as an example. It is St. Joseph and a boy Jesus working in the carpenter’s shop, and Jesus is holding a candle. So, not the usual depiction of adult Jesus in long robes.
There was a recent episode of the At Last She Said It podcast in which they talked about the fact that “spirituality” seems to be very defined by the male experience, not the “female” experience. What they meant is that, at least if you go by stereotypical gender roles, women often find daily routines and caregiving in the home to be spiritual practices. Men, if they work in a career, don’t find their days filled with these same types of routines and caregiving that are spiritually grounding, so the spiritual is a separate sphere that happens elsewhere, at church, at the temple, through ritualized activities. But this stuff isn’t really necessary to women whose lives tend to be more integrated, with community woven in, so the things the church prescribes are often just an additional burden to women that doesn’t yield a benefit. That’s my paraphrase, and I’m not sure I got them totally right, but I thought it was an interesting point.
Growing up, my parents used to do a walk around the property on Sundays after church, noting the progress of the plants and trees, seeing birds’ nests, etc. My own yard is much smaller, but this is a practice I’ve always found to fill me with peace and wonder, a spiritual practice. I also find preparing dinner, folding laundry (there are limits), and even doing puzzles to be a type of calming spiritual practice. My daily bike rides often feel like a spiritual practice as well, noticing my lungs filling with air, the sun on my skin, the wind going past me, seeing happy people in the park. Contemplating art or literature is another spiritual practice for me.
I’m with Brother Sky, though, that what the church prescribes as spiritual practice does nothing for me. It’s all very superficial and only asks questions it has a specific required answer to. The thinking is not only done (because only the brethren are allowed to have thoughts), but it’s not welcome.
Hawk, what you said about women finding housework to be spiritually fulfilling reminded me of something. Way way back in the dark ages when women had “homemaking” lessons in Relief Society, we had one lesson where the teacher was saying how satisfying getting a job done was for her. She finished cleaning, say the kitchen and looked around and felt so happy. It looked SO nice all clean and shinny. I thought to myself, “what the hell?” I get finished and all that I feel is, “how fast can I get outside?” The only “satisfaction” is escaping. All the other women were nodding and even used the word “spiritual” and all I can think is, “are we done yet?”
So, there really is something to the idea of spirituality is individual.
Another thing I remembered from the “old days” is back when groups were allowed to hold sacrament away from ward meeting houses we could do things like our family reunion held a sacrament meeting with worth of fast and testimony about family. We camped up in the mountains above Provo (because common ancestor settled Provo and was first mayor) but something that came up every time was how much more spiritual to hold sacrament meeting in the canyon, out in nature. And just before they made the rule outlawing such sacrament meetings, our ward had a camp out with sacrament meeting held in the canyon as well as one for those not camping at the ward chapel. Everyone who bore testimony that day said how much more spiritual to be out in God’s creation to enjoy the Sabbath, often adding the caveat that as long as it doesn’t rain on us, because the sky was threatening.
So, many Mormons feel free to say that nature makes them feel spiritual, or at least they were before the church big bosses forbade the practice of having sacrament meetings in nature.
Anna: Yes, I do think it’s very individualized, for sure. Personally, I really enjoy doing a spreadsheet, but I’m not sure I have to apply the label “spiritual” to it. It does scratch an itch in my soul, though. Something about creating something of beauty, order from chaos.
I just wanted to 2nd or 3rd the comments about music. I play the organ and piano and I can sing soprano, alto, and tenor. I love singing in a choir and blending our voices, and finding a way to make our tiny singing groups come together.There’s something amazing and worshipful about it. I love singing in the congregation even. I enjoy switching parts and trying to learn new things. I don’t agree with all the words anymore, but so far, I don’t mind singing them and I love the feeling singing brings (accompanying is something I can do, but it does stress me out).
Like Anna I feel something very special in just listening to another person and fully hearing them where they are at today. That feels very close to God to me, in a way it’s an opportunity to stand in for Christ and share his love without a single word. At least that is how I feel about it.
I find it interesting that, while Latter-day Saints believe in a super-enchanted cosmos, we tend to be a rather down-to-earth, hardworking, pragmatic people. We often seek the influence of the spirit to help us solve problems or make important decisions or what-have-you. I think this is the way it should be for the most part–especially when much of our problem-solving and decision-making has to do with the welfare of others. Even so, I think we need an occasional reminder that the temple is a place of learning–that the Lord will teach his people the mysteries of the Kingdom as fast as we’re able to receive them. That’s not to say that the saints are not seeking sacred knowledge. It’s just that life’s concern’s have tendency to get in the way of the pursuit of the sacred because of their expediency. And so it’s not always easy to find enough time and space to ponder on the things of eternity as much as we would like.
And there’s another practice I’d add to the list: ponder. Though pondering overlaps with meditation–it differs slightly in that, for the Latter-day Saint at least, it usually has to do with thinking with a prayerful attitude about a specific problem or precept.
Things satisfying to my soul would be participating in a music ensemble of some sort; I joined the local community orchestra a while back. There’s just something about making music with other people that feels very healing. The other thing would be completing a sewing project. Be it a costume for my daughter, or something as mundane as pillow cases for a nonstandard pillow from a carefully selected fabric.