standing on a mountain with the wind blowing through your hair,
and the feeling of being free.”
—Teenage girl, South Africa
What Does Spirituality Mean? Young People Speak Out
At the Center for Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence, our studies would not be complete and grounded in young people’s lived experience without including young people themselves in the dialogue.
One core part of our multifaceted research was to do focus group discussions during 2006-2007 with young people all over the world, asking them for their ideas, thoughts, and feelings about what it means to be spiritual.
The 171 young people interviewed ranged in age from 12 to 19, lived in 13 different countries, and represented wide diversity in tradition, culture, and circumstances. Here we share with you some of their eloquence, their doubts and struggles, their understandings and their growth. This selection of quotations is grouped by themes that seem to resonate across many of the world’s youth. The eight themes are:
- The Capacity for Spirituality is Natural
- Being Actively Spiritual Is a Choice.
- Active Spirituality Shapes a Purposeful Orientation to Life
- Spiritual Development Is not Dependent upon Age but Is Affected by Other Dimensions of Human Development
- Spiritual Development Is Mediated by the Dynamics of Interpersonal Relationships and Social Contexts
- Spirituality Is Seen as Different from, and More Expansive than, Religion and Religious Observance
- Spirituality is Commonly Experienced as a Source of Protection and/or Comfort, Especially during Troubling Times
- Spirituality is Rooted in a Special Connection
