Growing up spiritually in a world, which is modeled around a material lifestyle including the latest equipment on electronics and gadgets, as well joining the entertainment and media world, is a real challenge. Even the Internet is full of distractions towards physical needs and wants. As a result, our perspectives and concepts of self-realization are buried under the soil of material desires and illusions. So the question arises on how can we balance the material and spiritual aspects of our lives?
Growing up spiritually means to look inward
Observing or reflecting things during a day, week or month is not sufficient. We need a more closer look to our entire perception. This includes our thoughts, beliefs, feelings and motivations. So, the challenge is to periodically examine our experience, our decisions, and relationships. What we experience in the outer world is a mirror of our inner world. So the things you engage in provide useful insights on your life goals, on the good traits you must sustain and the bad traits you have to discard. Moreover, it gives you clues on how to act, react, and conduct yourself in the midst of any situation. Like any skill, introspection can be learned; all it takes is the courage and willingness to seek the truths that lie within you. I give you some pointers for your introspection: be objective, be forgiving of yourself, and focus on your areas for improvement.
Growing up spiritually is to develop your potentials
Traditionally, religion and science share differing views on matters of the human spirit. In the view of religion, people are spiritual beings temporarily living on Earth, while science reduces the spirit as just one dimension of an individual. Self Mastery is a essential theme in both Christian (Western) and Islamic (Eastern) teachings. The needs of the body are recognized but placed under the needs of the spirit. Deeds, Beliefs, values, morality, rules, experiences, and good works are the blueprint to ensure the growth of the spiritual being. For Psychology, self-actualization is to realize ones full potential. Basically we can identify several human needs: physiological, security, belonging, esteem, cognitive, aesthetic, self-actualization, and self-transcendence. These needs can include the main three: material, emotional, and spiritual. Nature dictates, when you have satisfied the basic physiological and emotional needs, spiritual or existential needs come next. Accomplishing each need leads to the total development of the individual. The main difference between religions and psychology is the end of self-development: Christianity and Islam see that self-development is a means toward reaching back to God, while psychology view that self-development is an end by itself.
Growing up spiritually is to search for meaning
Religions that believe in the existence of God assume that the purpose of the human life is to serve the Creator of all things. On the other hand there are theories in psychology that propose that we ultimately give meaning to our lives by ourselves. Whether we believe that life meaning is pre-determined or self-directed, in order to grow in spirit is to realize that we do not merely exist. As we do not know the meaning of our lives at birth, we progressively gain knowledge and wisdom from our interactions with people. Also from our actions and reactions to the situations we are in. Over the period of development, as we discover this meaning, there are certain beliefs and values that we reject and affirm. Pattern are build and our lives finds a purpose. This purpose directs all our physical, emotional, and intellectual potentials and sustains us during trying times. This purpose gives us something to look forward to achieve, a destination to reach in life. If a person has no purpose or meaning he’s like a drifting ship at sea.
Growing up spiritually is to realize interconnections
Most religions stress the concept of our relatedness to all creation, either live and inanimate. As a result religious people call other people brothers and sisters even if there are no direct blood relations. Moreover, deity-centered religions such as Christians speak of the relationship between humans and a higher being, like angels and archangels. On the other hand, science explains our link to other living things through the evolution theory. So, there is definitely an interaction between living and non-living things. In psychology, the highest human need is connectedness, which is a characteristic of self-transcendence. Recognizing your connection to all things makes us more humble and respectful of all beings in nature. It gives us the feeling of appreciation toward things around us. It let us go beyond the comfort zone, reach out to other people, and makes us feel more responsible to all other things around us.
Growing up spiritually is the result of an expanding spiritual consciousness on a day-to-day basis. We are here in this incarnation to learn from experiences, bad and good, and to build the results of these learning experiences in our Being as a whole. Only through this inner awareness, spiritual growth will occur and most important, further consciousness expansion will be possible.
 |
Why We Believe What We Believe: Uncovering Our Biological Need for Meaning, Spirituality, and Truth :: Amazon WHY DO YOU BELIEVE THE THINGS YOU BELIEVE? Do you remember events differently from how they really happened? Where do your superstitions com |
 |
Living An Authentic Life :: Amazon Over the centuries, many books have been written showing the connections between psychology and spirituality. However, never before has anyo |
Popular Topics