Your Spiritual Growth
To grow spiritually in a world defined by power, money, and influence is a Herculean task. 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. A personal life coach can help you strike a balance between the material and spiritual aspects of your life.
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 focus on your areas for improvement.
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. Maslow identified several human needs: physiological, security, belongingness, esteem, cognitive, aesthetic, self-actualization, and self-transcendence. James earlier categorized these needs into three: material, emotional, and spiritual. When you have satisfied the basic physiological and emotional needs, spiritual or existential needs come next. Achieving each need leads to the total development of the individual. Perhaps the difference between these two religions and psychology is the end of self-development: Christianity and Islam see that self-development is a means toward serving God, while psychology view that self-development is an end by itself.
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. Our lives have purpose. This purpose puts all our physical, emotional, and intellectual potentials into use; sustains us during trying times; and gives us 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.
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, deity-centered religions such as Christianity and Islam 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.
Tags: courage, introspection, life goals, morality, motivation, Personal Life Coach, spiritual aspects, spiritual being, stress, willingnessRelated posts
Personal Life Coach – Build Courage
In the Wizard of Oz, the lion found out at the end that he had courage the whole time. He just didn’t know how to recognize it and use it to his ability. A personal life coach will say that everyone has courage, it’s just a matter of using it.
Having courage helps one improve his/her life. You can’t expect to make changes in your life without courage. What does courage have to do with changing our lives? Everything. To have courage will help you get over your fears, fears of the unknown. Fear can take over your life and paralyze you in everything in your life. Of course there are two different types of fear. Its OK to experience fear at appropriate times. For instance,if you’re in a burning building, you certainly have the right to fear that. That is what you can call healthy fear, but to stand there and scream and do nothing is unhealthy fear. The problem is you have to put healthy fear in its place and unhealthy fear out of your life.
Once you build courage you will have more control of your life. You will learn to accept punishment and rewards gracefully. Courageous people are willing to face blame and responsibility and look at their actions as a learning tool and move forward. In most cases the courageous person is spontaneous. Planning what you will do tomorrow is not really good since no one knows what the day will bring. Think about it. How many times have you planned something all to see it shatter in your face the next day, which is why courageous people are sometimes spontaneous.
A courageous person knows how to roll with the punches. Willing to try new things because the old ones fail to produce the results he/she wanted.
There’s a old saying that inspires me quite often and I find myself saying it at least several times a month.
“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.”
A person who is willing to improve their life will relax. this type of person will relax when the plans fail. To become successful and improve your life you will need to learn how to trust yourself. When we trust ourselves, we can trust others. We need to realize that we live in a world where trust isn’t an easy thing to find, yet when you trust yourself, you can’t blame others when things go wrong.
Do you accept?
Do you accept the things you cannot change? Do you accept the things you have control over? Do you accept other people regardless of how these people act? Do you accept you for who you are? Do you accept the changes that life brings your way?
Acceptance is your key to happiness. When you can learn to accept the good with the bad, you can learn how to live happier and improve your personal life. It takes courage to accept the way things are.
Tags: control, courage, Fear, Personal Life Coach, serenity