To give a simple yet accurate answer to what spirituality is we must first accurately define what spiritual is: A standard milk toast definition of spiritual is "of related to the spirit" which is a lukewarm definition at best. Our personal definition of spiritual is... drumroll.... "full spectrum nature."
If you respect and appreciate nature, you are evolved enough to appreciate the spiritual world. The natural queendom and kingdom, of which human beings are a part. Yet most people in technological first world modernity, and I know this is ironic as we say this from our office with monitors, cameras, computers, and color grading panels, most people have little to NO IDEA about what nature is fully capable of. They associate it only as the natural material world, like one would see from a David Attenborough documentary. Which are only the physical aspects of nature. And while the physical natural world is awesome, yet brutal because being in the food chain is brutal, and material nature is beautiful and amazing and awesome, the vast vast majority of nature is the deeper, higher, larger, greater, more complex "super-natural" aspects of it - from the infinitesimally small to the galactically cosmically large. Including what is beyond the five senses and what science still has much to learn from. So the spiritual world is the full spectrum of nature, from the material to the non-physical.
Since human beings are part of the mammalian queendom kingdom, we are part of nature, and we have mental and physical software and hardware, which, for millions of years, has been designed not just to survive within nature, but to interface with the full spectrum of nature - the spiritual. Because we are absolutely spiritual beings having a human experience, not the other way around.
If we give a very simple modern definition of spirituality one of which would be "related to the human spirit", that then means we must define what the human spirit is. And we'll get more into spirit and soul in future essays and insights... but generally, it refers to matters of the human mind, heart, and will through spirit or soul and their connection to something beyond the physical or material world. The human spirit is the incorporeal part of woman man. What you are, beyond your body. Because we are not exclusively and only the meat suit that is our body. And the fact that we are spiritual beings, with a human spirit, like all lifeforms, that aspect of yourself is what can interface with the more full spectrum of nature, hence,
spirituality is our ability to interface with nature and especially the larger, deeper, higher, greater spectrum of nature. Plane and simple. Any concepts like oneness, awareness, unity, meaning, the divine, god, existence, personal growth, consciousness, searching, as above so below, seeking, moral and ethical guidance, explaining, path walking, etc... all are attempts to interface with a more full spectrum of nature. So the pursuit of a deeper connection or understanding of the self, the universe, and often a higher power or transcendent reality which inevitably involves exploring questions related to the meaning and purpose of life, the nature of existence, and one's relationship with something greater than oneself will lead us back to nature. It's a personal and often subjective journey, and it can encompass a wide range of beliefs, practices, and experiences.
This subject could be a 10,000+ hour conversation, but as we wind this simple summary down, we will say, if a system one is within is heavily removed from nature, and thus not made by nature, then problems and Sturgeon's Law set in. A lot of smart, educated, science appreciating, and intellectual secular people can be turned off by the word spiritual, because they instantly associate it with religion and the problems of religion. And it's been very intentional that we have not included religion in these definitions. Yet, although we need to define religion, and how it differs from organized religion, which we will do in a separate insight, we will say the phrase "spiritual but not religious" has validity, as spirituality may or may not be associated with organized religious systems, many of which, if we are truly honest, have had, for thousands of years, a very very dysfunctional track record. Separate from organized religion, we also have many systems that claim to be separate from organized religion yet spiritual but are in fact... also incredibly dysfunctional, if not outright garbage. One can listen to 100 "spiritual" podcasts or channels and 90 of them will be crap. So regardless of what any system is doing, big or small, organized or not, if it is not leading to deeper interconnectedness with our natural environment IE... the natural world, and is instead replacing those things with other things, we have red flags.
So, on a final note, one of the least corrupt places to look in the modern world for the least corrupt spirituality and spiritual practice, is what the still remaining indigenous cultures throughout the world are doing. As it's not hard to say, that they are much much much more in touch with nature and especially full spectrum nature.