Beware of flowery platitudes that sound wise and spiritual, while actually articulating nothing at all. They are generalizations that lack context, and are meant to easily unite people together without the need to provide depth or substance. Spirituality is able to go intellectually, emotionally, and physically deeper, and does so through providing the proper context, it answers a myriad of key questions, and it promotes further questioning—thus spirituality furthers our thinking process. In contrast, platitudes actually assist us in disconnecting from our thoughts, feelings, and experiences, so that we can cope with a reality that we feel woefully incapable of changing. Platitudes allow us to ease into our cognitive dissonance, so that we can stop thinking.
Some Example Platitudes:
- choose love, not fear.
- have faith.
- be forgiving.
- love always wins.
- we’re all one.
- what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
- it is what it is.
- just be present.
- sharing is caring.
- you can be anything you want to be.
- hope and change.
- make America great again.
- a future to believe in.
- let’s agree to disagree.
- united we stand, divided we fall.
