Hi Everybody. I'm a spiritual athiest, and have been for a few years now. I am a recovering Catholic, so I've been away from the church for a few years. I'm currently dating a fella who it may get serious with in a while. He is a life long athiest. Sometimes he kinda knocks the fact that I'm spiritual, even though my practice in yoga and reiki make me feel very centered and empowered. I was married till about 13 months ago, so this is the first I'm really wanting to date someone long term since I realized I was an atheist.
How do I ask him to be respectful of my spirituality? It's not left over from my religious days, but something I've discovered for myself.
Being an atheist that does daily yoga and meditation, I am of the opinion that the issue between yourself and your partner is semantical. The word “spiritual” is not a part of my vocab because, to me, it belongs with nonsense words such as “prayer”, “sin”, and “soul”. When I meditate and do yoga it is not in the least bit “spiritual” to me, it is me applying relaxation methods to my brain processes and strength training my body. Nothing more. Every time that you use a word such as “spiritual” around your partner, I am guessing he loses a tiny particle of respect for your intellect because he thought that you are better than investing in and saying nonsense words. Instead of communicating this to you, he ribs you about it, hoping somewhere inside that you also realize that there are more intellectually honest descriptors for the activities that you do. Reiki is also nonsense.
i wouldn't even touch a person with a 6foot pole if he deems it childishly funny to ridicule anything i live. i'd rather stay single.
The problem could be stated like this: You have a problem when the how he acts about your spiritual tuality, so, perhaps, you should work to get over your problem.
I don't understand the he should respect everything about you thought. What if you were bulimic or a heroin addict?
And you ain't gotta dump him for your issue.
He should absolutely be respectful and not make fun of her for her spirituality even if he disagrees with her.
So it's not a "HER" issue or problem, it's a "THEY" issue.
Nice try, though.