Practical Spirituality   http://learntruehealth.com/spirituality/ Practical Spirituality, Life Purpose & MeditationHow to implement practical spirituality into your daily experience? I have an exceptional guest on the show today. Dr. Richard Loren Held is an advocate of practical spirituality which I think is so spiritual and powerful. Spiritual Background Held has always had a passion for the spiritual arena and writing. So he went to complete a doctorate in Divinity and become a senior leader in a church since 2013. He doesn't believe in having just one life path but Held started in 1985 working in a 'new thought' church. It blossomed from there and awakened by a passion for the pursuit of Truth. Held's work in platform ministry came years later. It unfolded quite organically and beautifully. Consequently, he was already associated with the community when the job became available. Practical Spirituality I had experience with Sunday school essays because I grew up in an Anglican Church. It is a lot like Protestant. I also used to go to Sunday school and had a lot of questions that made me curious. On the other hand, Held was raised in a positive, Methodist environment. He likewise had questions on spirituality, but although he was not punished for that, it certainly wasn't explored. "And that doesn't make us feel very spiritual since we end up going to church just for the act of it," Held said. "And the merely going through the act of going to church doesn't feed the soul. It just feels like belonging to a club." Held also says that soul unfoldment can be inaugurated, inspired and formed on a Sunday morning but that's only where it starts. And by no means is it completed there. Unity Church Held says that regardless of the teachings of other religions, the Divine is the same. In Unity, people consider themselves devout Jews, Catholics, Christians, Atheists and many others. "Everybody embraces each other with genuine curiosity and profound respect. I don't think religion needs to be separated from one another," said Held. "We all experience something different. So no one is right or wrong." Personal Ideology Held's current ordination is an Interfaith Minister. He believes humans explore, experience and seek to describe the Divine through lenses of geography, culture, era and more. While these "lenses" are necessarily unique, Held says that the Divine which we seek to explore, experience and describe is One. So it is that an appropriate understanding of "religion as the lens" frees us to engage each other and our respective traditions with genuine respect and authentic curiosity. Addiction To Factuality Held also believes that we're made in the image of God, but it doesn't make sense to give God a gender when He's the Infinite and the Creator. How could we possibly put a limitation or boundary on that? My husband and I found each other online. And we instantly connected. After three emails to each other, we realized we had the same spiritual beliefs and the same values. We both quickly agreed that God is love and He's everywhere. That's when I told myself that he's the man for me. "This allows us to mature in matters of spiritual understanding. This addiction to factuality is relatively new," explains Held. "It's a post-enlightenment dynamic." Furthermore, Held explains that in the culture of the Judeo-Christian Bible, during the time of the Rabbi Jesus, his listeners would not have expected his teaching parables to be factual. They would have sought the truth of the story completely regardless of the factuality. "It doesn't matter when Jesus was born. For us to mature spiritually, we must evolve beyond this addiction to factuality," Held said.Pursuing One's Spiritual Truth Spiritual Truth According to Held, personal value comes from an individual pursuit of Truth. Unity's core teaching is God is the highest reality of existence. God is non-opposable. "The only place where we can experience the Divine is in our own heart," sai