If so, you’re not alone. Recent surveys show that an increasing number of adults in North America now identify as “spiritual but not religious.”

Being spiritual but not religious isn’t about rejecting organized faith or choosing a “smorgasbord” approach to spirituality. It’s about cultivating a direct, personal relationship with something bigger than yourself without requiring institutional intermediaries.

As I’ve walked this path myself, over time, I began to notice something.

Even though spiritual paths look different on the surface, they tend to point toward the same deeper truths.

A quiet knowing that we’re part of something bigger than ourselves.

A recognition that we’re not as separate as we think we are… that our lives are more interconnected than we’ve been taught to believe.

A natural unfolding of qualities like compassion, forgiveness, and presence, not as ideas, but as ways of being.

And a longing to live with meaning and purpose that goes beyond simply achieving or accumulating.

And yet, for many of us, the path to that connection doesn’t begin by looking outward or upward. It begins by coming home to ourselves.

My Journey: From “Something Missing” to Spiritual Discovery

Like many people, I wasn’t someone who left organized religion. I simply never had it. I went to church maybe a handful of times growing up, and when I married in a church, I felt like an imposter.

My spiritual seeking began when my soul felt saturated with material things. I had retired from nursing, my kids were launched, and I was living what everyone considered “the dream.” But inside, I was asking: “Is this all there is? What’s the meaning and purpose of my life? Who am I beyond all these roles that define me?”

That’s when soul hunger drew me into curiosity about the mystery of life, the universe, and how I could be of service. The “something missing” feeling was actually my compass pointing toward deeper meaning.

Two Spiritual Paths: Surface vs. Depth

As I continued on this path, I began to notice something else.

Not everyone who identifies as spiritual but not religious is walking in the same direction.

There’s a version of spirituality that stays at the surface.

It leans toward feeling good, thinking positively, and surrounding ourselves with things that feel uplifting. And while there’s nothing wrong with that, it can sometimes keep us from touching the deeper layers of who we are.

And then there’s another path.

One that asks more of us.

One that gently, and sometimes not so gently, invites us to look at the parts of ourselves we’ve avoided… to sit with discomfort… to grow in ways that aren’t always easy.

That path doesn’t just lift us, it takes us deeper.

But here’s what I’ve come to understand and what took me years to see clearly. Most of us try to reach for something greater before we’ve come home to ourselves. We seek transcendence while bypassing the very ground we need to stand on.

The irony of the spiritual path is that the doorway to something bigger than yourself runs directly through yourself. You have to quiet the noise, settle the nervous system, and begin to know your own inner landscape before that deeper connection becomes truly accessible. Not as a rule, but as a lived reality I’ve witnessed again and again, in my own journey and in the people I work with.

My own hunger for depth that honored both my humanity and spirituality is what led me to develop the 4 Keys to Inner Peace framework— an integrated path for building the inner foundation that makes this kind of connection possible. If you’re curious about what that looks like in practice, that’s a good place to start.

If you’re curious about what that path looks like in practice, the Four Keys are a good place to start.

A New Vision of Spirituality is Emerging

I believe we’re at a time when old religious institutions are breaking down—much like in any dark night of the soul, things that confine us must be dismantled for something new to emerge.

This new spirituality brings forth the best of ancient wisdom while creating something that honors our direct connection to the divine. You don’t need to go through a priest or ask someone else for forgiveness—you go directly to the source.

This isn’t about rejecting religion but about recognizing that for many of us, the institutional containers have become too small for our expanding spiritual understanding.

If you identify as spiritual but not religious, know that your seeking is valid and valuable. The hunger for something deeper, the sense that something is missing, the curiosity about life’s bigger questions—these aren’t flaws to fix but invitations to grow.

Whether you’re just beginning to explore spirituality or you’re deep in your own spiritual unraveling, the longing you feel is real, and it’s pointing somewhere true.

But if the connection to something greater still feels distant or fleeting, it may not mean you’re doing something wrong. It may simply mean the inner ground hasn’t been prepared yet — that the nervous system is still too noisy, or the relationship with yourself still too thin, to hold what’s trying to come through. That inner work isn’t a detour from the spiritual path. It is the path.

If you’re somewhere on this path — just beginning, deep in the unraveling, or quietly wondering if there’s more, trust what you’re feeling. That longing isn’t leading you astray; it’s leading you home.