For those of you grew up without spirituality, how did you become spiritual

[Since I'm the mad scientist proclaimed by myself]

I mostly ask because I'm kind of hoping to connect with my own spirituality and have no idea where to start.

[If my soul was made of stone]

I tricked myself into sincerity by disguising it as a deep intellectual and emotional interest that was nonetheless post-ironic and analytical and held at a distance (Zoomer, normal)

[John Dule]

If you’re interested in creating an outlet for your “spiritual” thoughts, might I suggest writing short stories or some other creative pursuit? You can create whole worlds and populate them with whatever mystical claptrap you like. I’ve always felt that my “left brain” interests helped me feel less like I was missing out on this aspect of the human experience (while avoiding the pitfalls of actual belief).

[Since I'm the mad scientist proclaimed by myself]

If you’re interested in creating an outlet for your “spiritual” thoughts, might I suggest writing short stories or some other creative pursuit? You can create whole worlds and populate them with whatever mystical claptrap you like. I’ve always felt that my “left brain” interests helped me feel less like I was missing out on this aspect of the human experience (while avoiding the pitfalls of actual belief).

Genuine thanks for giving sincere advice instead of snark.

[Georg Ebner]

It must be stressed, that real religiosity is a grace, whose cause cannot be explained immanently, neither with a bourgeois psychologism (fear of pain/death/hell, the indocta ignorantia of woMen/peasants/children aso.) nor by a proletarian sociologism (greed of priests/rich): "How i am might be caused by the stars or the blood or my surrounding - but that i am isn't." (GOETHE).
Because real religiosity does not mean to do, what Your mother or priest wants You to do - rather the contrary: It means to be thrown out of animalic life into a merciless conFrontation with Your telos - the only opPonent, who deserves Your attention. I really recommend reading DANTE's "Vita Nuova".
When 10 i was playing with neighbourChildren and while they were fully absorbed by the game i participated only out of politeness, in reality i "stood aside of me" and thought about HIM. In that moment i realized to be different without having myself done anything - i would myself certainly not haven chosen to be a stranger here for ever, a living corpse - and being not able to be among the happy children of this world, qui terrena sapiunt, quorum deus venter, quorum finis peritus est.

[Blue3]

Read a good book on the different religions.

I'm assuming you're from a Western civilization background. If that's the case, try reading something from the East. Find a good translation of the Tao Te Ching (foundational to Taoism, and very short and simple, it's like 80 1-3 page poems). Or the Bhagavad Gita for Hinduism, a short book based on a dialogue that explains most Hindu concepts concisely and directly.

Also just practice breathing, meditation, mindfulness, and yoga.

Explore nature, and appreciate it, even just in the backyard or local park. Watch the birds. Look up for 10 minutes at the stars and just wonder.

Immerse yourself in beautiful art and photography.

Find some good movies, especially on spiritual awakening or the supernatural.

Reflect and journal. Think of your relationships with individuals, with people in general, with art, with nature and the universe. Recognize your simultaneous smallness/simplicity and grandness/complexity in this universe. Think of the innate goodness. Question your definitions of love, goodness, beauty, truth, and what is meant by the good life.

I'd call this a good start.

[sting in the rafters]

I was raised into the Roman Catholic rite unto the Charismatic tradition. For my time as a believer, I was afraid of vice and genuinely believed skipping Sunday Mass or premarital sex or any other grave sin would damn one to eternal hellfire lest one expressz penance. It is only recent I’ve finally reconciled my miserable experiences which forged a belligerent anti-theism. I now feel comfortable espousing more tempered apatheism which substitutes Phanaticism for civic religion as described below, and my only advice to you is to understand spirituality need not be synonymous with guilt nor self-flagellation:

Now it all makes sense.

You bleed for your team, you follow them through thick and thin, you monitor every free-agent signing, you immerse yourself in Draft Day, you purchase the jerseys and caps, you plan your nights around the games ... and there's a little rainbow waiting at the end. You can't see it, but you know it's there. It's there. It has to be there. So you believe. Of course, there's one catch: You might never get there. Every fan's worst fear. All that energy over the years just getting displaced, no release, no satisfaction, nothing. Season after season, no championship ... and then you die. I mean, isn't that what this is all about? Isn't that the nagging fear? That those little moral victories over the years won't make up for that big payoff at the end -- that one moment when everything comes together, when your team keeps winning, when you keep getting the breaks and you just can't lose.

And if none of this makes sense, well ... it does to me. My team just won the Super Bowl.

[Aurelius]

For me it came through reconnecting with my ancestral religion. My religion doesn't seek converts, so I don't really have any advice to give, unfortunately.