It is very easy to talk about spirituality and being spiritual. You can go to yoga, to church, to temple every week, or even every day, but this doesn’t make you a spiritual person. True spirituality is about how you behave, how you treat others, and how you treat this earth.

To me, spirituality is about being aware of my thoughts, aware of my words, aware of my actions, and bringing good to other begins, and this planet. I try to live in my best way everyday. That is a spiritual life.

This is a very Balinese way of thinking about spirituality. Here, the emphasis is on living spirituality, and having spirituality as a part of your life rather than something separate. The Balinese don’t talk about spirituality very much but we are all very spiritual. It is a part of our lives.

Before eating anything, we make an offering to be thankful for the food. Before harvesting, we make a ceremony of thanks for the plants. Before planting, we thank the land. Before leaving for a journey we say a prayer for a safe trip. So every part of Balinese life is given a blessing, and we are taught to be thankful for everything that is in our lives from a very early age.

Yet despite this, things have changed so quickly in the last few years that many Balinese now leave rubbish by the side of the roads, and on the land. They don’t see the plastic as being damaging to the landscape, and as harmful to mother earth, yet it is. They spend their time making blessings and offerings for the land but don’t do the one thing they can to protect it. This is something that I try to educate people about in my local area.

When you arrive at your hotel in Bali, you will most likely be taken to the hotel temple. There you will receive a blessing to have a good and safe stay in Bali – we hope that will!

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