Spiritual Growth: the Spiritual Challenge of Todays Times

To grow spiritually in a time defined by power, money, and influence is a monumental task. Todays conveniences such as electronic toys, cool widgets and tools as well as entertainment through television, magazines, and the web have predisposed us to restrict our attention mostly to physical needs and wants. In the end, our concepts of self-worth and self-meaning are clouded How can we strike a balance between the material and spiritual aspects of our lives?

To grow spiritually is to focus inside.

Introspection goes beyond remembering the things that happened in a day, week, or month. You must look closely and examine your thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and motivations. Ocassionally 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 get rid of. Moreover, it gives you ideas 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 look for 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 grow your potentials.

Religion and science have differing views on matters of the human spirit. Religion views people as spiritual beings temporarily existing on Earth, while science views the spirit as just a single dimension of an individual. Mastery of the self is a common theme in both Christian (Western) and Islamic (Eastern) teachings. The needs of the body are known but placed beneath the needs of the spirit. Beliefs, values, morality, rules, experiences, and good works gives us the blueprint to ensure the growth of the spiritual being. In Psychology, realizing one's ultimate potential is to self-actualize. Maslow discovered 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 ultimate development of the person. Maybe the conflict 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 looks at 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. Many theories in psychology propose that we ultimately give meaning to our lives. Whether we believe that life's meaning is already set for us or self-directed, to grow in spirit is to understand that we do not just exist. We do not know the meaning of our lives at birth; but we gain knowledge and wisdom from our dealings with people and from our actions and reactions to the situations we are in. As we learn this meaning, there are certain beliefs and values that we reject and affirm. Our lives have purpose. This purpose takes all our physical, emotional, and intellectual potential into use; sustains us during difficult times; and gives us something to look forward to---a goal to achieve, a destination to look forward to. A person without purpose or meaning is like a boat without an oar.

To grow spiritually is to understand interconnections.

Religions stress the concept of our relatedness to all creation, live and not living. Thus we call other people "brothers and sisters" even when 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 understood in the concept of ecology, the interaction between living and non-living things. In psychology, connectedness is a characteristic of self-transcendence, the biggest human need according to Maslow. Understanding 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 encourages you to go beyond your comfort zone and lend a hand to other people, and become helpers of all other things around you.

Growth is a process. Thus to grow in spirit is a day-to-day process. We win some we lose some, but the important thing is that we learn, and from this understanding, further spiritual growth is made possible.


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Todd Gaster is a trainer of NLP and Hypnosis, a Master Coach of NLP and a Brian Tracy business coach. He is also the creator of Program Your Destiny a free weekly teleseminar series. Get in Now: ==> http://program-your-destiny.com