Reason # 18
Spiritual Disconnection
Religion and spirituality go hand-in-hand, but the two are very different. Religion can be defined as: “A personal or institutionalized system from a basis in such beliefs.” I have found spirituality can be defined many different ways. Webster defines spirituality as “the quality or state of being spiritual; heavenly-mindedness.” I heard someone once say that spirituality is simply following your heart. I happen to believe spirituality enhances one’s ability to discover beauty in things, recognize things that are good, and to recognize truth. Personally speaking, spiritual growth is dependant upon increasing my conscious contact and the continuous search of the will of whom I believe to be God. From my own personal experience, I can state with confidence there are different stages of spirituality in relation to spiritual growth.
I have also found that the different stages of spirituality are also accompanied with spiritual highs and spiritual lows. I like to say that I have a “spiritual bank account”. When I put forth a conscious effort into increasing my sense of spirituality, I am “depositing” into my spiritual bank account. When I go long periods of time without “depositing” into my spiritual bank account, I automatically start to “withdraw” from my spiritual bank account.
What does all of this have to do with getting drunk? In reference to the “spiritual bank account”, heavy alcohol intoxication results in “rapid withdraw”. When in a state of drunkenness, one tends to become spiritually “disconnected”. As a matter of fact, alcohol at times has been referred to as a demon. You may have heard of the term “demon alcohol”. This would imply alcohol has a reverse effect on one’s spirituality (not necessarily in a literal sense).
Having a sense of spirituality also gives us personal moral codes in which we live by. Since we have a tendency to become spiritually disconnected when we get drunk, these personal morals that we live by often get compromised. When we compromise our personal morals, normally the end result is having a feeling of shame, guilt, or regret.
No matter what your personal religious beliefs are, most people will agree that having some sense of spirituality is key in achieving a sense of inner peace. Furthermore, most people will also agree that spiritual bankruptcy results in a sense of discontentment or a feeling of being unfulfilled. I’ve mentioned several times previously that we drink for one of two reasons, and one of those reasons is “to alter our state of consciousness”. Subconsciously, one reason we may drink to alter our state of consciousness is to fill an emptiness or void which is caused by a lack of spirituality in our personal lives. I use the word “subconsciously” here because I have never met a person who consciously said, “I’m going to the bar and I’m going to have a few drinks to alter my state of consciousness in an attempt to fill a void in my life caused by lack of spirituality.”
I believe most of us want to live life to the fullest and a good percentage of us have a thirst to maximize our potential. A lot of us may rely on our spirituality to seek out what our true purpose in life really is. A lot of us may use our spirituality to try to make sense of all of the things we see taking place around us day by day that doesn’t make sense to us. Spirituality is a very important and personal aspect of one’s life. No matter what spiritual stage in life you may happen to be in, drunkenness has a tendency to disconnect us spiritually. This is a very good reason to stay sober.