Costa Rica Expat Spirituality

We expats tend to have more time on our hands than regular folk. After all, that’s why we moved here, or at least it’s one of the reasons, right?

The more fortunate expats among us need not worry at this point in their lives about financial well-being. That one is pretty much solved. Even so, there are other aspects of life that could use some work.

I recently wrote a post about Costa Rica expat creativity. That there are many who come here and get very creative in their expat lives.

But what about that overarching idea of well-being that we tend to lump into the singular term, spirituality? How does Costa Rica expat spirituality enter into the mix?

The idea of spirituality has taken on a whole different meaning for me in the course of my almost two decades-long expat experience. Before I arrived, how well I was doing, or not doing, from a spiritual perspective would have been measured in traditional yardsticks like church attendance, tithing, and saying grace before meals. I can’t say that I’ve done any of those things, not even once, over the last 15 years or so.

Nevertheless, Costa Rica expat spirituality has become an integral part of my life here.

How?

Well, let me first delve a little bit into what spirituality means to me now as a Costa Rica expat…

I’ve written quite a bit about spirituality in my other blog, pithily entitled, Revolutionary Misfit. There you can find posts that I’ve written over the years, like the one on being a Non-religious Spiritual Person (or NRSP) and another about Spirituality in the Quest (as opposed to being in definitive answers). Those posts mark a profound paradigm-shift in my thinking about what it means to be spiritual.

These days spirituality means, primarily, being aware of how I am connected with everything else, including all that’s contained in the natural world and indeed the entire physical universe. For those of you more grounded in traditional “religion”, that probably sounds a little too, well, ungrounded. And that’s perfectly OK. I also strongly believe that spirituality is a completely subjective endeavor. It’s whatever it is…to you.

One thing living as an expat will probably do for you (hopefully) is open your mind. You might even let go of certain facets of ancient traditions. That’s not to deny the depth of tradition right here amongst the ticos. My lord, this country is just as religious as what I experienced in the southeastern U.S. Nevertheless, there’s the practical aspect of living in a foreign place that will broaden your horizons. It will force you to see things from a different perspective. In short, it will expand your awareness of how small your traditions are and how big the world (and the universe) is.

An expansion of awareness will usually come with a corresponding awakening of compassion. And with that awakening comes an enhanced feeling of connection. The enlarged ego that you probably brought with you will likely begin to shrink down a little.

Now, none of this is a given. Things could go the other way and for many expats, that’s very much the case. They come here to feel special and to make sure everyone around knows exactly how special they feel that they are! And that’s exactly what they spend their time here doing, i.e., building elaborate monuments to their specialness.

Of course, we are all special. And it’s really not the stuff you bring with you, or accumulate while here, that makes you so. In fact, for me at least, a deeper sense of spirituality began to dawn with the realization that anything I bring into my life, be it possessions or even thoughts, that enhance a feeling of individuality and specialness, or self-worth, tend to diminish a feeling of connection and spirituality. So, I gave up a good while back all lingering ambitions about ever being rich, or famous.

The funny thing about the jungle is that it doesn’t give a rip about all those testaments or monuments to your specialness. Take your eye off them for just a bit and the jungle will claim them. They will disappear into it, never to be found again. I guess that’s nature’s way of telling us that we’re all really one with it.

So, why wait?

Why wait so long to realize the spiritual reality of awareness, compassion, and connection?

Immersing with life here just might help you with similar Costa Rica expat spirituality realizations.

That is, if you keep an open mind and loosen mental grips (or “impact blinders”) that hold tight to traditions that prevent you from doing so.

For anyone interested, I wrote an eBook some time ago on this topic entitled, Expat Mindfulness.