To grow spiritually in a world defined by power, money, fame, and influence is a Herculean task.
In today’s world, modern conveniences such as electronic equipments,
gadgets, and tools as well as entertainment through television,
magazines, and the web have predisposed us to confine our attention
mostly to physical needs and wants.
As a result, our concepts of self-worth and self-meaning are muddled.
How can you strike a balance between the material and spiritual aspects of your life?
(1) To grow spiritually is to look inward.
Introspection goes beyond recalling the things that happened in a
day, week, or month. You need to look closely and reflect on your
thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and motivations.
Periodically examining your experiences, the decisions you make, the
relationships you have, and 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.
Here are some pointers when you introspect:
be objective, be forgiving of yourself and of others, and focus on your areas for improvement.
(2) To grow spiritually is to develop your potentials.
Religion and science have differing views on matters of the human
spirit. Religion views people as spiritual beings temporarily living on
Earth, while science views the spirit as just one dimension of an
individual.
Mastery of the self is a recurring theme in both
Christian (Western) and Islamic (Eastern) teachings. The needs of the
body are recognized but placed under the needs of the spirit. Beliefs,
values, morality, rules, experiences, and good works provide the
blueprint to ensure the growth of the
spiritual being. In Psychology,
realizing one’s full potential is to self-actualize.
(3) To grow spiritually is to search for meaning.
Religions that believe in the existence of God such as Christianism,
Judaism, and Islam suppose that the purpose of the human life is to
serve the Creator of all things. Several theories in psychology propose
that we ultimately give meaning to our lives.
Whether we believe that life’s meaning is pre-determined or self-directed,
to grow in spirit is to realize that we do not merely exist.
We do not know the meaning of our lives at birth; but we
gain knowledge and
wisdom from our interactions with people and from our actions and reactions to the situations we are in.
As we discover this meaning, there are certain beliefs and values
that we reject and affirm. Your life has a purpose. This purpose puts
all your physical, emotional, and intellectual potentials into use;
sustains you during trying times; and gives you something to look
forward to – a goal to achieve, a destination to reach. A person without
purpose or meaning is like a drifting ship at sea.
(4) To grow spiritually is to recognize interconnections.
Religions stress the concept of our relatedness to all creation, live
and inanimate. Thus we call other people “brothers and sisters” even if
there are no direct blood relations.
Moreover, some religions speak of the relationship between humans and
a higher being. On the other hand, science expounds on our link to
other living things through the evolution theory.
This relatedness is clearly seen in the concept of ecology, the
interaction between living and non-living things. In psychology,
connectedness is a characteristic of self-transcendence, the highest
human need according to Maslow.
Recognizing your connection to all things makes you
more humble and respectful of people, animals, plants, and things in
nature. It makes you appreciate everything around you.
It moves you to go beyond your comfort zone and reach out to other people, and become stewards of all other things around you.
Growth is a process thus to grow in spirit is a
day-to-day encounter. We win some, we lose some,
but the important thing is that we learn, and from this knowledge, further spiritual growth is made possible.
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