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How Do You Define Spiritual Growth?
Before we get to the steps for spiritual growth it is helpful to determine what spiritual growth is.
Spiritual growth can mean a lot of different things.
For me, it means to live a more fulfilled life. When you grow spiritually your sense of purpose will increase. You will feel more connected to life itself.
You can say that every area of your life will improve. The reason for that is that spiritual growth influences all areas of your life.
The improvement in compassion, gentleness, and understanding will improve your relationships for instance.
Spiritual growth will also bring you more in touch with your inner unchangeable core.
Ultimately, spiritual growth is the best way to a happy and fulfilled life. Spirituality is everything. And when you open yourself up to spiritual growth everything in your life will become a potential source for growing spiritually.
Your First Step for Spiritual Growth
The first step for spiritual growth is the desire for it.
When you realize that external pursues are not enough to make you happy and fulfilled, turning inward will be the next logical step.
You become aware that there is something that cannot be reached by doing and thinking. Suddenly, you’ll have the desire for something greater, deeper, and more meaningful.
You want to have an experience. You want to find meaning that is not shallow and superficial. This is then the moment where you go on a quest to figure out who you truly are.
When you find yourself at this point, congratulations!
Welcome on your journey to spiritual growth!
6 Steps for Spiritual Growth
I want the emphasize that spiritual growth is a subjective experience. And there are many different spiritual practices you can use in your spiritual journey. The following steps to spiritual growth can look different for everyone.
It depends on your beliefs, your circumstances, and what’s important in your life.
Everyone can follow these steps regardless of whether they are religious or not. You don’t have to believe in God. All you have to do is open yourself up to something transpersonal. Something that is beyond your ego-self.
1. Start from Where You Are
Now, this is probably one of the most overlooked steps for spiritual growth.
Your willingness to start from where you are will determine how fast you will grow spiritually. Not that speed is important. But we all like to see some progress in whatever we do.
It takes honesty and humbleness to accept that you are not as far as you’d like to be.
We all like to believe that we are further than we really are. But by accepting and starting from where you are you have already moved beyond pride.
You are now at the level of courage. This is the level of consciousness that first sparks your intention for further personal and spiritual growth.
“Just where you are – that’s the place to start.” – Pema Chödrön
2. Be Honest
Being honest is essential. Many people don’t even realize how damaging lying is not only for other people but for themselves.
Every time you lie you move further away from your true self. The part in ourselves that lies is the smaller self.
The reason for that is pretty simple. Lying always comes from a negative emotional state. You lie because you feel scared, guilty, prideful, or any other negative emotion.
When you lie you push responsibility away. We think we can avoid consequences by lying. But in the end, the consequences will just hit you much harder.
You don’t have to walk around and tell everyone your unfiltered opinion. If you feel like you can’t tell the truth at least don’t lie.
Lying will only poison your being and let’s be honest you feel pretty shitty when you lie.
Being truthful to ourselves and others will liberate us. And the more you are honest the more you will feel its positive effects.
If we’d all stop lying the world would be a radically different place.
3. Practice Forgiveness
The importance of forgiveness is emphasized by many spiritual teachings and teachers.
When you are resentful towards someone your intention is to punish them. But what you really do is punish yourself.
It’s like the Buddha said:
“Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.”
And this is not only true regarding other people but also yourself. We often have more difficulties forgiving ourselves than forgiving others.
By not forgiving you are punishing yourself repeatedly. It’s not like you are in court and get punished for your misbehaving once. We tend to punish ourselves for the same thing over and over again.
But how much punishment is enough? Do you want to suffer your whole life for one mistake you or someone else did?
When you feel anger, resentment, or guilt coming up acknowledge it. Let the emotion come up and be there. And then right at the peak, when the emotion is the most intense, let go.
You can even say out loud “I forgive you.” Or “I forgive myself.”
Repeat this process until the negative emotion is completely let go. As soon as you have experienced the power of forgiveness, forgiving will get easier and easier.
Suddenly, you’ll find yourself in a state of immediate forgiveness. Being able to forgive quickly is an important step to spiritual growth. And will make your life easier, lighter, and more peaceful.
4. Practice Mindfulness
We constantly have things to do. One thing leads to the next thing leads to the next thing leads to the next thing…
This wouldn’t even be a huge problem if we’d focus on the task at hand. But while we are doing one thing, we are already thinking about the next thing we have to do.
This then makes us anxious and stressed. And besides, our performance suffers.
We are at our best when we are present with a task. When we actually focus on the thing we are occupied with.
There is a short story that illustrates my point really well. I couldn’t find the original source but it goes something like this:
One day the pupils approached their master and asked him:
“Master, we have so much to do and feel like we cannot finish all this work, that’s why we feel so stressed out. You on the other hand have even more work than us yet you never seem stressed and get everything done effortlessly. How can we be like you?” The master looked at the students and answered: “When you sit, you walk, when you walk, you arrive and when you arrive, you leave. When I sit, I sit, when I walk, I walk and when I arrive, I arrive.”
Starting a meditation practice is a good way to practice mindfulness. I am an avid supporter of mediation and can recommend it to everyone. Yet, it is not a necessary step for spiritual growth.
When you completely focus on the task at hand everything can become a meditative practice. Eventually, your whole life will become one big meditation.
5. Open to a Higher Source
You don’t have to believe in God but believe in something. You can call it the collective consciousness, the universe, the universal living mind, or anything else you like.
Opening to the belief that there is a greater power can increase your inner feeling of trust and security.
What keeps many people from spiritual growth is the denial of everything that can’t be proven or observed. Some people even think it is foolish to believe in God. This is what you may call the left-brain barrier to divinity.
But believing is not being a fool. Believing is accepting and knowing that there is more than the human senses.
Even science gets closer and closer to the realm of spirituality. Most physicists will agree that there is an infinite energy that underlies everything.
Apart from that is it not more exciting to believe that there are greater mysteries to be uncovered?
“A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, of the manifestations of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty – it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute the truly religious attitude; in this sense, and in this alone, I am a deeply religious man.” – Albert Einstein
6. Surrender and Let Go
Letting go is the most important step for spiritual growth. What this means is not clinging to thoughts, emotions, feelings, situations, people, deeds, desires, and so on. This is the idea of non-attachment.
The concept of letting go became almost perverted. Everyone tells you to just let go but rarely does someone tell you how to let go.
To let go we have to first realize that emotions supplement everything we experience. And it is exactly those emotions we have to let go of. Now, how do you let go of emotions?
Letting go is deceivingly simple. In fact, it is so simple that many people, including myself, get confused when first practicing it.
All you have to do is accept the emotion as it is and feel it. Don’t try to suppress it or escape it by external means. Though most of us do this regularly. When we feel bad, we distract ourselves, by watching TV, eating, doing drugs, and so on.
The next time you have a negative emotion sit with it. Observe it. You don’t even have to label the emotion. Feel the sensations in your body.
With time the energy behind the emotion will run out and you will have let go. This can happen in seconds, minutes, hours, or days (if there is a lot of suppressed emotion).
If you commit to continuously surrendering your emotions and letting them go your life will improve significantly.
And this is not only an important step for spiritual growth but for any other things you want from life. Be it wealth, health, happiness, success, better relationships.
If you want to know more about how to let go and free yourself read this article.
Spiritual Growth is a Process
Although I just outlined steps for spiritual growth you shouldn’t approach this like a goal to check off.
Some days you will feel like you are moving a step backward. Other days you will feel like the Buddha himself.
Be patient, gentle, and compassionate with yourself.
Try to see every experience as an opportunity for spiritual growth. I used to beat myself up when I didn’t act in accordance with my lofty spiritual ideals. This is what you want to avoid.
Remember that you are human. It is normal to have up and downs. But when you are consistent with the steps mentioned your down’s will be less low and your up’s even higher.
Following these steps for spiritual growth will result in higher consciousness. And a higher level of consciousness leads to a better life.
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“You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher, but your own soul.” – Swami Vivekananda
Luka
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