G: Many find it challenging to be around people who want to pull us into conversations about politics and current world events, and so it is when the topic turns to religions and metaphysics. A recent column regarding astrology brought discussions about established religions and paths of spiritual exploration that are gaining in popularity. Several readers of this column have inquired how I handle these situations and offered their take on their own practices. My response to someone who initiates a conversation about a particularly personal area will depend on whether or not I see that they want to explore it with me in order to possibly learn new things, or just proselytize.

What I have shared before with countless folks is that I fully accept, and I say this without judgment, that many subscribe to practices/beliefs/rituals/systems that are different from what I do on my path of service and peacemaking. I explain that what I have learned and experienced, and been gifted with, has brought me to the place I reside, where I do not feel a need to seek outside myself for answers.

What was required of me to get to this point in my spiritual expression is not replicable by anyone else. I have seen that no formulas, recipes, scriptures, dogmas, calculations, charts, or genetics exist that will deliver my result. And I suspect this is the case with everyone else who cares to deconstruct their life of learning.

Each of us is on our own unique journey, though we experience similar human traits and events. Like many of my readers, I’ve spent many decades exploring and researching. But I know certain areas of study and inquiry are perhaps not as compelling to others. To those who may be of the “settled science” mindset when it comes to religious indoctrination, there’s no room for looking anywhere else.

For me, going wide and deep – rather than just diving deep into one area – has been the most revealing and rewarding. This expansive approach challenges me to continue sharpening my discernment. That which is someone else’s belief coming from a story handed down for centuries, however strongly argued, is frequently found to be at odds with what I have discovered is a universal truth. I have immersed myself in a slew of approaches, and I have discarded as many, because I have not found them to be relevant to my adventure. Embracing lifelong learning is one way to become wiser.

Whenever you are presented with topics that you prefer not to get into, I think it is necessary to be upfront and clear about this. Even though a quick way for others to truly know one another is through sharing, that does not mean we have to share everything, or do it at times that are less than ideal.

Truth be told, a great many of us are not that interested in hearing about someone else’s rigid belief system. That’s in part because people who talk overly passionately about their way – whether it is a new diet or exercise routine or righteous adherence to higher authorities – tend not to be terribly respectful of the right each of us has to live outside certain societal constraints. It’s a similar unattractive behavior many recovering addicts have, the ones who have given up one vice – whether it be tobacco, alcohol, drugs, promiscuity or gambling – only to have transferred their fixation to another extreme practice. Convinced they have found something that has worked better for them, they are annoyingly compelled to convert others.

My inclination is to let others be and do as they be and do, as I know they are trying to find their own way to wholeness, however misdirected they may or may not be. Regardless of my stance, which is that I consider certain practices/beliefs/rituals/systems a distraction from my main goal of this incarnation – and despite the fact that for eons people have engaged in and swear by them – there are deeply meaningful reasons for why I do not expend any energy on them.

I suggest people consider staying in their own lane, on their own path, and leave space for others to continue on theirs.

Giselle M. Massi is the author of “We are Here for a Purpose: HOW TO FIND YOURS” and the novel “Just Dance the Steps.” Her romantacy “WYNTER’S DREAM” is now available. Giselle was a journalist with The Denver Post for 16 years and writes the newspaper advice column TELL GISELLE. Contact her at www.gisellemassi.com.