New-Age-Center

By: david smith
Spiritual Growth: the Spiritual Challenge of Modern Times

 

 

To grow spiritually in a world defined by power, cash, and influence is a Herculean activity. Modern conveniences such as electronic equipments, gadgets, and tools and also entertainment by means of television, magazines, and the web have predisposed us to confine our attention generally to physical requires and wants. As a result, our concepts of self-worth and self-meaning are muddled. How can we strike a balance among the material and spiritual aspects of our lives? 

 

 

To grow spiritually is to look inward.

 

Introspection goes beyond recalling the things that took place in a day, week, or month. You require to look  nearly and recall to mind on your thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and motivations. Periodically examining your experiences, the measures you make, the relationships you have, and the things you engage in provide helpful insights on your life goals, on the good traits you must sustain and the bad traits you have to forget about. Moreover, it gives you clues on how to act, react, and behavior yourself in the midst of any circumstance. Like any capability, introspection could be learned; all it takes is the courage and willingness to seek the truths that lie within you. Here are a couple of pointers when you introspect: be aspiration, be forgiving of yourself, and concentrate on your areas for improvement.

 

To grow spiritually is to achieve 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 requires of the body are recognized but placed under the requires 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 found out several human requires: physiological, safety, belongingness, esteem, cognitive, aesthetic, self-actualization, and self-transcendence. James already categorized these requires into 3: material, emotional, and spiritual. When you have satisfied the simple physiological and emotional requires, spiritual or existential requires come next. Achieving each require leads to the total development of the individual. Maybe the difference between these two religions and psychology is the closing of self-development: Christianity and Islam see that self-development is a signifies 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 Christianity, Judaism, and Islam imagine that the goal of the human life is to serve the author of all things. Many 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 don't merely exist. We don't know the meaning of our lives at birth; but we gain know-how and wisdom from our interactions with people and from our actions and reactions to the cases we are in. As we discover this meaning, there are certain beliefs and values that we reject and affirm.  Our lives have goal. This goal puts all our physical, emotional, and intellectual potentials into use; sustains us throughout trying times; and gives us something to look forward to---a goal to accomplish, a destination to reach. Someone without goal or meaning is such as a drifting ship at sea.

 

To grow spiritually is to identify interconnections.

 

Religions pressure the concept of our relatedness to all creation, live and inanimate. Thus we call other people "brothers and sisters" though 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 by means of the evolution argument. This relatedness is clearly seen in the concept of ecology, the interaction between living and non-living things. In psychology, connectedness is a features of self-transcendence, the highest human need in keeping with Maslow. Recognizing your connection to all things produces you more humble and respectful of people, animals, plants, and things in nature. It produces 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 stumble upon. We win a couple of, we lose a couple of, but the crucial thing is that we learn, and from this know-how, as well spiritual growth is made doable.

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