Nurture Your Spirituality
Spirituality is one of the Life Perspectives stressed on this website.
SPIRITUALITY IS UNIVERSAL – There is a spiritual dimension to life that is found in all civilizations and in all generations. It is manifested in all cultures and is endorsed by all world religions. It shows up in the personal values of every individual. Why is this so?
People seem to reach beyond the ordinary routines of daily living in order to seek some greater purpose to life than merely meeting their physical needs, accumulating material things, having some success and happiness, and then dying. Their minds ask, what is the purpose of life and all these endeavors individuals get involved in? They perceive that beyond physical death there is the possibility of life in the hereafter. They ask how can I as one individual get more meaning out of life, plus be better prepared for life in the hereafter? Spirituality addresses both of these concerns. It adds meaning to this life and prepares one for life hereafter.
Why do such yearnings occur in people? It is because every human is both body and spirit. Each individual has a male or female spirit to accompany their male or female body. Just as the body has needs, so does the spirit. Seeking spirituality is the way people strive to satisfy their spiritual needs or the way they feed their spirit. This is the same basic process for every human. The only difference is the way individuals do this. This can vary with the individual, family and cultural traditions, and religious beliefs and practices. Some people seek spirituality more openly and aggressively. Some people do it more effectively. Ultimately, everyone does it to one degree or another in this earth life, and certainly in the next life we will all experience it even more.
EVIDENCES OF SPIRITUALITY – To lend support to the statements above, it’s important to seek some evidences of spirituality. They are all around us and in all aspects of our lives. You can see them if you look for them. Listed below are some common examples.
Nature – Go out into nature and see its beauty and variety. Recognize your dependence on it. Appreciate the order in the universe. This did not come about by chance. There is a grand design in all things. Ponder your little part of the world in which you live. As you do these simple things, your will gain appreciation, perspective and humility. In the process you’ll become a more spiritual being.
Relationships – Make friends and enjoy all types of social relationships with people. Learn to see people as they are and accept them for who they are. This is not the same as accepting all their attitudes, values, or habits. Learn to forgive and forget when others do things you don’t understand nor like. Avoid being too judgmental. Don’t use people solely for your own benefit. Good interaction and relationships with others will increase good feelings and love. This increases spirituality.
Family – Find a person to be your wife or husband and get married. In that marital relationship you have the opportunity to become a unified team who works together for common goals and shares all things in common. There are many ways couples draw close to one another, sacrifice for each other, and share happy times. Marriage increases spirituality in many ways. As a couple, you can then have children. Producing a physical body through pregnancy for a spirit to reside in is not only a physical experience, but a spiritual one as well. When pregnancy is truly understood in this way, it becomes much more of a spiritual experience and this increases spirituality. Parenting too, when done with the right attitude, helps parents and children to grow and develop in various ways and it strengthens parent-child relationships. Spirituality increases via good parenting.
Self-Discipline – Develop greater self-discipline and use this to exercise more self-control over your thoughts, words, and actions. This allows your spirit to more fully control your physical body. When this self-discipline is used for good purposes, it increases your power to do good for yourself and others. You gain spiritual power and increase your spirituality as you use this power in good endeavors.
Gratitude – Think about the things that have gone right in your life. What benefits and blessings do you enjoy at this time? Consider health, freedom, employment, family life, education and many other things. How much have you benefited from the efforts of others? These could be people in previous generations, family members, or friends. If you are truly honest in evaluating your situation, you will come to the conclusion that you have many things to be grateful for today. This is true despite the fact that not everything has been easy in your life, nor is everything going well today. Gratitude that is thought and felt and remembered, periodically, raises spirituality.
Service – Learn to think about others as well as yourself. Be empathetic. Consider their thoughts and feelings when interacting with them. Recognize their needs and help others to fulfil them. Give genuine service to others with good intentions and in the most effective way you can. As you do this, good relationships are developed and strengthened. As friendships develop, love grows. Spirituality will increase.
Knowledge – Seek learning and understanding to help you run your own life in a wise manner and help others to do the same. Wisdom gained through experience in life can be used to guide you. As knowledge and wisdom are utilized, less mistakes are made. There are less accidents, arguments, lawsuits, wars, and other such things. People feel better about themselves and others. Spirituality grows in this type of positive and constructive environment.
Work – Learn to use your time well and work hard. Being productive is stimulating. Don’t be lazy nor expect something for nothing. Remember, you ultimately get out of life what you put into it. If you want more spirituality, put your effort into endeavors that are beneficial for you and others. Such endeavors should be honest, ethical, legal, and uplifting.
Progress – People like to accomplish things. They want to make progress in their endeavors. They want to overcome obstacles and solve problems. This includes giving up bad habits, and replacing negative attitudes with positive ones. As you do these types of things, you gain power over your environment and become more capable of making various types of progress in the future. Experiencing progress and gaining power to make more of it leads to happiness and greater spirituality.
Reformation – This refers to making changes, corrections, or improvements in your life. Everyone makes mistakes and should be willing to correct themselves or their ways. Also, people find better ways to do things and should be willing to adopt these better ways and leave old and less effective ways behind. Reformation is the process you go through to do either of these two things. A religious term for reformation is repentance. In most cases both words can be applied. A person makes a mistake, recognizes it, and then tries to change or improve. If others are involved, he tries to make up for any harm or damage done to them. Both reformation and repentance require effort and perseverance. They are constructive when done with the right attitude. They help you become a more spiritual individual.
Philosophy – Seek to understand the purpose and meaning of life. Where did you come from before birth? Why are you here on this earth? Where are you going after death, and what will be your status there? The answers you have or accept to these basic questions about life will have a big impact on how you manage your affairs over the years. If you get some good answers or truth relative to these questions, this information will help you to seek and obtain higher levels of spirituality.
Prayer – Throughout the ages mankind has utilized various forms of prayer to communicate with God. People thank God for blessings, as well as ask for help in solving problems which they are facing. A person’s effectiveness in reaching up to God depends on his understanding of God’s nature and his relationship to God. If he can understand something about these two things, then he will have some clues about how to approach God and get some answers to prayer. Personal, sincere, and appropriate prayer is a spiritual experience. Getting some answers is even more of a spiritual experience. Both raise spirituality.
Just as there are positive evidences of spirituality in our lives, there are evidences of a lack of spirituality. Usually these are negative things that decrease the amount of spirituality in our lives or they lower the spiritual level we live on. Some common examples of negatives influences are sex outside of heterosexual marriage, committing crime, dishonesty, abuse, arrogance, laziness, too much vanity, negative gossip, unhealthy habits and diet, and hate.
It should be understood that some people are more focused on certain aspects of spirituality. They’re more interested in, or sensitive to, some aspects of spirituality. For example, one person is really tuned into the environment more than most people. Another person may be more tuned into religious worship than most people. How much you are focused into various aspects of spirituality, and what you get out of each one, has a big impact on your level of spirituality.
SPIRITUALITY IS GOVERNED BY LAW – The universal nature of spirituality and many evidences of it support the statement that spirituality is governed by law.
There are universal laws in our physical world. For example everyone must breathe regularly and have a heartbeat or he soon dies. Everyone must have the same nutrients, in order to sustain the health of their bodies. They can vary the specific food items they eat, and the amounts of each type of food, in order to obtain this ideal nutrition. But every human body needs the same nutritional formula to have the best physical health. Likewise, everything physical is subject to the law of gravity. Whenever any of us disobey these basic laws and facts of life, there are serious life threatening results. There are no exceptions to this reality for any individual or group.
There are spiritual laws affecting all of us, just as there are physical laws. Spirituality is not something that is outside of law or outside of order. The basic laws governing it are universal and fixed. These laws apply to everyone, every culture, every religion, and every time period in history. These laws must be obeyed to sustain and increase spirituality. If they are not obeyed, spirituality will not increase or grow in the lives of people. When certain laws relative to spirituality are not obeyed, people actually lose spirituality, or the amount of it in their lives goes down and they live on a lower spiritual plain. When too many people live on a lower spiritual plain, then spirituality in society goes down. In essence there is more sin and less righteousness and the spiritual environment we live in begins to degenerate unless people choose to repent and change things for the better.
SPIRITUALITY IS INFLUENCED BY ENVIRONMENT – People seek a good physical environment. They want to breathe clean air, drink clean water, and have good food for their bodies. They also want safe streets, affordable housing, good schools, and jobs. All these variables provide an environment in which they can live and work and be happy. If any of these things are not satisfactory, people will try to change them to satisfy themselves. In a similar way, most people seek a good environment for spirituality. This means an environment in which spirituality is recognized, encouraged, supported, and strengthened. They will move to a better neighborhood, change schools, join a different church, or associate with different people in order to have a better environment for their spirituality to grow, or for it to grow easier or faster. They want to have good ethics, values, and moral standards in their own lives and those around them. They want some religious beliefs. They want good family life. Spirituality is an integral part of all these things. So people will seek environmental influences that will help them to achieve more spirituality or reinforce the spirituality they already have.
SPIRITUALITY AFFECTS OTHER PERSPECTIVES – Spirituality has a direct impact on the other four perspectives emphasized on this website. More spirituality helps you to be a stronger “inner boss”. It helps you to live your life in a more “effective manner”. It helps you to practice better “stewardship” in all aspects of your life. It helps to strengthen your “character”. In this sense, spirituality is like a fertilizer for these four other perspectives. Through it they all are made clearer and strengthened, and can be better utilized to help you have a more meaningful and happier life.
MORE INFORMATION – A lot of information on this website is provided to help people increase their Spirituality. For more ideas about Spirituality, read the Ideas For Living Articles on this website.