Q: With respect to the topic of spirituality and/or religion could you comment on how these beliefs may have influenced you, members of your family or professionals you have worked with in your rehabilitation process?
I can’t and won’t speak for anyone but myself. But in my eyes spirituality and religion are two completely separate subjects.
For me spirituality is looking inward and recognizing our connections to each other and this planet and therefore respecting our role as an individuals interacting within nature. Which I believe.
Where I see traditional religion’s role is as primarily looking outwardly for influences to shape a persons understanding of purpose while the need for personal responsibility becomes less and less relevant the harder one tends to rely on it. Which I don’t believe.
And as I’ve said before, contrary to the assumption my beliefs may lead you to believe, my views were not shaped by what happened to me. Rather it was a belief, or better still a lack of one that I came to recognize and accept a long time ago, before my accident.
Given this, my beliefs reflect my entire rehabilitation in the sense no-one’s more responsible for what you do or don’t do than one’s own self.