Being spiritual and mentally stable at the same time?

Some people subscribe to one specific brand of religion or another as spirituality.  Others can’t define their spirituality in terms of language, which is okay, too.  Can we be mentally stable and spiritual at the same time, though?  Or do we need to be spiritual to be mentally stable?  Are they mutually exclusive or must they exist together?  What’s the best combination?  Or can they be combined?

I really think that it depends on your personality and experiences, as well as your current situation.  Some people need something to hold onto, such as spirituality in the form of religion, in order to be stable mentally.  It relieves stress for them and gives them structure and purpose.  Other people need less structure and find spirituality in other ways, such as nature or adrenaline rushes, or the combination of the two.  People of this type may or may not also practice a religion proper.  Another group may deny spirituality altogether and their mental stability maintains itself just fine.

There are people who greatly benefit from spirituality an those who don’t.  For some people, spirituality, and more specifically religion, plagues and torments them with guilt and makes them less mentally stable.  They end up in therapy and on psychotropic medications over questions of the afterlife and can’t even live the lives they have right now happily.  They often end up either hopelessly trapped in their beliefs or they abandon them in favor of mental stability and become happier for it.  Then there are people who are the exact opposite of this scenario – if you take their spirituality, and again more specifically religion, from them, would be lost and without hope or mental stability.  This is where an elusive quality comes in, and it’s called “faith”.  This “faith”, for those who are already deeply spiritual, actually reinforces and strengthens their mental stability and their resolve to practice and hold onto their spirituality.  “Faith” can be found in those with spirituality that doesn’t involve religion, as well.  It is a powerful entity in the mental stability of those who endorse spirituality, whether religious in nature or not.  Those who have mental stability without spirituality can have “faith” in things as well.  I don’t know if it is the same quality of “faith”, but it can be quite strong in all cases.

To answer our question, then, I would say that spirituality offers more mental stability than not, and that most people practice (perhaps unbeknownst to themselves) some type of spirituality or system of beliefs that strengthens their mental stability.  There are those for whom the spirituality we know as “religion” is actually mentally destabilizing, and these are cases in which an alternate spirituality could be found or offered to alleviate that disturbance.  For example, it might not be appropriate for them to practice a religion proper, but instead to enjoy the outdoors and summits of mountains, feeling mental stability and spirituality on that level.  Most climbers have a variety of spirituality that is tied to their climbing and is mentally stabilizing.  Think about that.  Seriously.  Think about that…