Spiritual Awakening
Finding Spiritual Enlightenment in a world characterized by power, wealth and influence is a Herculean task. Modern comforts such as electronic equipment, gadgets, and tools as well as entertainment via television, news papers, and the internet have predisposed us to confine our attention largely 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 physical and spiritual facets of our lives?
To awaken spiritually is to take a look within ourselves.
Self-contemplation 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. analysing 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 attributes you must sustain and the bad traits you have to lose. Moreover, it gives you clues on how to act, react, and conduct yourself in the midst of any situation. Like any skill, self-examination can be learned; all it takes is the courage and willingness to seek the truths that lie within you. Here are some indicators when you self-examine: be objective, be tolerant of yourself, and focus on your areas for improvement.
To grow spiritually is to evolve your potential.
Religion and science have varying views on matters of the human spirit. Religions view people as spiritual beings temporarily living on Earth, while science views the spirit as just one dimension of an individual. Command of the self is a recurring theme in both Christian (Western) and Islamic (Eastern) teachings. The needs of the body are recognized but placed beneath 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, understanding our full potential is to self-actualize. Abraham Maslow, the famous psychologist, identified several human needs: physiological, security, belongingness, esteem, cognitive, aesthetic, self-actualization, and self-transcendence. We can further categorize 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 awaken spiritually is to search for meaning.
Religions that believe in the existence of God such as Christianity Judaism and Islam say 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 just exist. We do not know the meaning of our lives when we are born; 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 understand this meaning, there are certain beliefs and values that we decline and affirm. Our lives have purpose. This purpose puts all our physical, emotional, and intellectual possibilities into use; sustains us during trying times; and gives us something to look forward to, a goal to reach a destination to reach. A person without purpose or meaning is like a drifting ship at sea.
To awaken spiritually is to recognize interconnections.
Various religions stress the idea of our connection to all creation, live and inanimate. Hence we call other people “brothers and sisters” even if there are no direct blood relations. What is more, deity-centered religions such as Christianity and Islam, speak of the relationship between humans and a higher being. Alternatively, science expounds on our connection to other living things via the evolution theory. This connection is clearly seen in the idea of ecology, the interaction between living and non-living things. In psychology, connectedness is a feature of self-transcendence, the highest human need according to Abraham 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 custodians of all other things around you.
Spiritual Practice 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 learning, further spiritual awakening is made possible.
Namaste.
Treasure the gift of life..
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