For me personally, when I rejected atheism I had to come to terms with the idea that the whole universe was not in fact, contained within my mind
I think the key factor here is materialism, not atheism.
Some of the world's largest religions are atheist: most sects of Buddhism, Theosophy, Jainism, and about half the sects of Hinduism (like Samkhya or Chavraka Hinduism are both atheist but not materialist).
In Samkhya, we believe in a soul, the consciousness of the universe, the cycle of life, death, rebirth, and hell/heaven, etc, just with the absence of a god.
My entire journey was raised Christian, was heavily involved in the church until my mid 20's, left the church and became
spiritually apathetic, I wouldn't say I was a materialist, but I didnt believe in a creator god anymore (atheist) and I was just apathetic towards spiritualism in general. Then in my early 30s I did a lot of research on consciousness and NDEs. I read
After (2021) by Dr Bruce Greyson (the head of psychiatry from the University of Virginia), and actually moved in directly next to one of nation's top Neurologists, and became convinced that consciousness survives physical death. Did some soul-searching and found I aligned best with Samkhya so here I am. Samkhya is basically buddhism but with the belief in a soul (atman) and animism (that animals have souls). The Buddha start Buddhism from Samkhya.
More of less, just trying to convey that spirituality and atheism are not counter. Spirituality and materialism are.