1-Self-Help.Com

Welcome to 1-Self-Help.Com

Article Improvement Self Submit Article

Spiritual Growth: the Spiritual Challenge of Modern Times


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. How can we strike a balance between the material and spiritual aspects of our lives?

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.

Article Improvement Self Submit Best products

Article Improvement Self Submit News

Health Briefs - Ithaca Journal

The Twin Tiers Regional Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure announces the availability of grant funds for the fiscal year 2009. Applications for breast cancer and breast health programs from non profit organizations, governmental agencies and ...

Life on the scale - Globe and Mail

Dr. Wharton's clinic sells Optifast (an all liquid diet) and it's from the proceeds of those sales that he can pay his staff. If you don't believe me, why not have a peek at Dr. Wharton's comments on RateMDs.com. He's just another guy out to make a ...

Costs were not unknown': Harper - Globe and Mail

Mr. Harper is an able economic manager. But he has yet to meet the test of leadership. That's too bad, because the other guys are downright scary. Stéphane Dion wants to spend an extra $80-billion, which would come from a massive tax experiment that ...

Pelham High School status in jeopardy - Salem Observer

The New England Association of Schools and Colleges is expected to act on an accreditation report of Pelham High School within the next few weeks. According to a preliminary report, the condition of the high school building is inadequate, which could ...

John McCain equal to George Wallace? Barack Obama says ‘no,’ and ... - Atlanta Journal Constitution

Name-calling in the 2008 presidential campaign took a highly serious turn on Saturday morning. By Saturday night, everyone had backed away. It began when, about 11 a.m., U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Atlanta) issued a statement on the recent tone of the ...

Thinking Right - Atlanta Journal Constitution

Not Wrong. Not Left. Right. Common sense conservativism. Read Jim's biography. The Thinking Right blog is often attacked by liberal hackers polishing their hurtful invective on the well-informed, kind and intelligent conservatives who gather here to ...