What is “spiritual growth” and how to achieve it. What is "faith"

How to achieve spiritual growth? I have heard recipes like “you need to do spiritual work, and there will be spiritual growth.” Unfortunately, definitions of “spiritual work” are no easier to obtain than “spiritual growth,” but a criterion for the correct performance of spiritual work is still needed.

The second problem is that many authors get carried away and completely leave their subtle bodies from the real world into the astral spheres. Such “growth” raises strong doubts about its adequacy and practical applicability. Other authors claim that the only way to achieve spiritual growth is to become a follower of their teachings. The problem is that the teachings are all different, so some of them are definitely wrong. Still others formulate things in a long, complex and vague manner. Such formulations cause me strong suspicions - those who understand and understand can usually clearly formulate and explain clearly.

I sat down and figured out what spiritual growth is. I can clearly explain what it is and how to achieve it. Sitting in an intricate position and muttering intricate mantras is not necessary. But you will have to work on yourself, because spiritual growth requires a number of practical skills, and skills do not arise by themselves, they need to be developed.

What is "spirituality"

I analyzed a dozen and a half definitions of spirituality, and came to the conclusion that spirituality is understood as a combination of four qualities: faith, peace of mind, unconditional love and awareness.

Spiritual growth is a change in perception, a change in the picture of the world. A spiritual person sees the world, and himself in it, as it is, undistorted. A spiritual person has gained faith in himself, peace of mind, love and compassion for his neighbors. A spiritual person considers serving others as his top priority.

What is "faith"

There are a number of facts that can be verified. For example, if you melt ice, you get water. It makes no sense to believe or not to believe in facts. Such facts also include purely random processes. They are accurately described by statistical laws, and “faith” is also inapplicable to them.

Faith refers mainly to non-obvious and non-random future events that a person can influence. Faith mobilizes the will, i.e. allows you to make decisions and stick to them, and leads to the achievement of results that would not otherwise be achieved.

If you believe in victory, your chances of winning are much higher. If you believe that nothing will work out, then most likely it won’t work out.

People with weak faith adapt to people with stronger faith. Without strong faith, it is impossible to lead people, you can only follow someone.

What is "peace of mind"

Peace of mind is the absence of anxiety, worry, worry, panic, regardless of external circumstances. This is a calm, confident look into the future.

What is "unconditional love"

“Conditional love” is when you love for something, for example, for money. I suspect that this is not love at all. “Unconditional love” is when you love without setting any conditions, you love not for something specific, but you simply love. In other words, you love not “for”, but “in spite of”. In addition to love, when defining spiritual growth, good attitude towards people, sympathy, and empathy are mentioned.

What is "mindfulness"

Living consciously means perceiving yourself, those around you, and the whole world as it is, and not as we would like it to be. Stop deceiving yourself, stop hiding from reality, turning a blind eye to unpleasant facts, living in a fantasy world. Admit to yourself your desires, your weaknesses, your problems, your dreams. Understand yourself.

Why does a person need spirituality?

Spirituality improves quality of life. A person who loves, does not worry, believes in himself, and lives consciously, feels better than a person who hates, is stressed out, is convinced of the failures awaiting him, is trying to hide from reality in a fantasy world, and is trying to convince himself that the best choice for him is .

Spirituality allows you to release energy that was wasted on anxiety, worry, negative emotions, self-deception, and redirect it to constructive goals.

Spirituality allows you to develop, move forward, and lead people, and at the same time help and serve them.

How to develop spirituality

How to achieve spiritual growth? Imagine that you are pulling a sled up a hill through the forest, and it gets caught in the branches. You can pull harder, you can unhook the caught branches, or you can combine these two approaches. It’s the same with spiritual growth. First, let's figure out what's slowing us down and how to unhook it.

What hinders spiritual growth

A person does not believe in himself, is nervous, isolates himself from people and is at enmity with them, hides in a fictional world - not from a good life. We all have psychological problems that largely determine what we think about ourselves and about others. These problems accumulate from childhood and prevent us from growing spiritually.

Self-confidence is hampered by the belief that nothing will come of you, you will make a mistake, only we, parents, can make the right decision for you, and you will make a bad one.

What interferes with peace of mind is the panic of your parents, and the belief that something bad will happen to you if you don’t listen to us, your parents, exactly.

It is certainly difficult to love if in childhood you were “loved” conditionally, in other words, they did not love you, or pretended not to love you, or did not allow you to love yourself - for educational purposes and due to your psychological problems. It's hard to love if you grew up in an atmosphere of anger, hatred, revenge.

Avoiding reality, suppressing one's desires and emotions is the body's defensive reaction. To return to a conscious life, you must first ensure that consciousness does not have a constant need to look for where to hide and what to hide behind.

What to do about these problems? They need to be worked through and treated. Even such a primitive approach as Dianetic auditing helps to greatly weaken them. But it is better to take the help of a professional psychologist, for example, a Gestalt or NLP therapist. Just make sure that this is a real doctor, and not a fashionable showman.

What promotes spiritual growth

Simply understanding what spiritual growth is is already a big step forward. Making the decision to seriously engage in your spiritual growth is the second big step forward.

Spirituality is a set of practical skills. It needs to be trained and developed. The best training is solving complex problems that interfere with the life and development of the people around you and all of Humanity.

Solving problems will give you confidence in yourself, in your abilities, reduce anxiety, bring you closer to people, help you see reality and yourself in it better and more clearly, thanks to the constant testing of theory in practice. All difficulties that arise along the way should be considered as an opportunity for training and development of spirituality. When seemingly earned spiritual growth suddenly fails, rejoice at the opportunity to strengthen a weak point and persistently continue to move forward.

Spiritual growth is the skill of achieving peace of mind, the skill of strengthening unconditional love for people, the skill of restoring and growing self-confidence. It is the skill that is developed through practice that makes spiritual growth sustainable and irreversible - even if something very bad happens that shakes peace of mind, love for people and self-confidence, this skill will allow you to survive and recover.

How to develop faith

Steve Pavlina says that there are beliefs that help and give energy, and there are those that inhibit and take away forces. You need to cultivate the former and get rid of the latter. We are talking about beliefs that are related to reality, and not about self-deception. Let's say, convincing yourself that you are the strongest in the world is most likely self-deception. Convincing yourself that you can achieve success in what you would like to do is an empowering belief.

Don't let other people impose their assessment of you on you. What a person is - only he decides for himself.

How to achieve peace of mind

At first glance, peace of mind is easier to achieve if there is an external force that takes on the worries of the future. Followers of many religions entrust their destiny to God and do not worry about it. But if you look at it, with God’s help or not, you need to be ready to accept everything that tomorrow brings. Whether a person can configure himself this way or not depends only on him.

You need to get used to the fact that it is impossible to gain complete control over the future, so you need to be ready to accept any scenario and not worry in advance.

How to strengthen love

It is impossible to live for people and at the same time not love them. People do ugly things, including towards you, only because they lack spirituality, i.e. because they are afraid, nervous, panic, do not fully understand what they are doing, they are constrained by psychological problems, and they often simply have no other choice. But those same people, if helped to grow spiritually, will be kind, wise and loving.

There is a subtle point here. On the one hand, we need to help people grow spiritually. On the other hand, there is no need to try to remake a person to suit your idea of ​​him, you need to perceive and love him as he is. These two conditions do not contradict each other. Each person grows spiritually in their own way. You need to help him grow in the way that is most convenient for him, and not try to force him to grow your way.

Look at people carefully, try to understand their problems, their motivation, their emotions. Once you understand a person, you will stop being wary of him and will be able to develop sympathy for him.

How to live consciously

Just as you look at others, look at yourself. What do you really want? What do you not allow yourself to dream about? What are you trying not to notice? What are you trying to avoid? What makes you angry? What keeps you up at night? As you grow spiritually, you will be able to deal with many problems. But for now, all the defensive reactions of your psyche are part of you. You know how many fingers you have, what your height and weight are. The characteristics of your psyche are no less important characteristics. Study them, deal with them, have the courage to acknowledge them even if you don't like them.

Conclusion

Is it true that faith taken to the extreme is insane fanaticism, peace of mind is reckless carelessness, and love is the submissive suppression of all grievances? This is a misconception, but it needs to be dealt with in more detail. Love involves forgiveness, but not suppression of self-worth. If people's actions cause you negative emotions, you need to tell them about these emotions. Peace of mind does not mean ignoring problems and dangers, but it prohibits panic and allows you not to be nervous or worry. Faith becomes fanaticism when it is divorced from reality, when it becomes self-deception. In order not to go to extremes, you need to engage in spiritual growth persistently, but gradually, you need to be able to distinguish normal development from going to extremes, and monitor the direction of your spiritual growth. You will be lucky if you find a spiritual guide who can help you with this.

Spiritual growth is an important internal process not only for people who live in remote, secluded places, but also for those who are seeking spiritual awakening. Spiritual growth is of utmost importance for a better, happier and more harmonious life, free from tension, fear and anxiety.

Spiritual growth is the process of letting go of wrong concepts, thoughts and beliefs about who we are and the world in which we live. Through this process we increase awareness of our true essence, true spirit, who we are. It is an internal process of searching, getting rid of illusions and revealing our true essence, which always exists but is hidden by our ego personality.

Why should we be interested in spiritual growth? What are the signs that we are growing spiritually? What are the benefits? The following are several signs and benefits of spiritual development:

We develop detachment, which leads to inner peace.

We gain the ability to rise above those circumstances that affect our mood and state of mind.

We become more patient and tolerant.

We rise above disappointments and negative feelings.

Increasing our inner strength.

The process of spiritual growth leads to a feeling of happiness.

Our intuition becomes sharper.

We become ideal inhabitants of this world.

There is a growing understanding of the inner essence, who we are and why we are here.

How can you grow spiritually? The term “spiritual growth” is not entirely correct. The spirit is perfect and does not have to grow. This term rather describes the process of becoming increasingly aware of our true selves, gaining a higher perspective on our lives and circumstances, and a different point of view on things. It is a process of releasing and limiting negative habits, thoughts and beliefs, and discovering our inner glow.

Imagine the brilliant light of a lamp hidden under layers of different materials. There is no need to strengthen the light or change the lamp. All you need to do is remove the layers that cover this lamp. Removing these layers one by one will cause the light to become more iridescent and decisive.

How to remove those layers that block the light of your inner world? This can be done through positive thinking, reading spiritual literature, reading spiritual quotes, as well as practicing concentration, meditation, etc. On our website you will find a lot of information, tips and instructions for spiritual growth.

Here are some tips to help you get on the path to spiritual growth:

Recognize the fact that you are a spirit with a physical body, not a physical body with a spirit. If you can accept this idea, it will change your attitude towards many things in life.

Look inside yourself and try to find out what makes you feel alive.

Make an effort to think positively. If you find yourself starting to think negatively, focus your mind on something positive. Open the door to positive thoughts and close it to negative ones.

Try to look only on the bright side of life. Your inner world is stronger than your circumstances. Don't let circumstances and situations dictate how you feel and think.

Pay attention to everything you do, don't let your attention take you where it wants you to go.

Start learning and practicing meditation.

Do your best to be tolerant, patient, considerate and considerate.

Thank the Universe for everything you receive.

Spiritual growth is necessary to some extent for every person, especially in our troubled times.

How do followers of Jesus grow spiritually? Spiritual growth can also be expressed by another term - “sanctification.” Sanctification is the supernatural process by which the Holy Spirit, through God's Word, shapes us into the image of Christ.

Perhaps you are already fed up with various spiritual growth seminars and books. Therefore, I hope that the “negative” formulation of the question is five ways NOT to grow spiritually– will encourage you to look differently at the problem of spiritual growth:

1. Don't make spiritual growth your goal.

I'm amazed at how few Christians make spiritual growth their top priority. If you treat church as a hobby, then don’t be surprised if you don’t experience spiritual growth. If you do not seek to gain spiritual knowledge from the Bible and good Christian books, if you do not study the Scriptures and practice spiritual disciplines, you will never grow spiritually. You will remain as you were. If you do not want to grow spiritually, devote only the remainder of your time and energy to it.

One of the ways God lifts us to a higher level of spiritual development is through contact with those who are radically different from us. We live in an overly individualized society, and the older we get, the more willing we are to withdraw into our own little world. This leads to a tendency to associate only with those whose character is similar to ours, or whose opinions always coincide with ours. As a result, our views remain the same as they were five years ago, although some should change. If you don’t want to develop, look only for those friends and acquaintances who will tell you only what you want to hear. Avoid being influenced by other cultures and never talk to those who disagree with you on any issue.

3. Never take risks.

If you have set yourself a goal for five years (or more) to remain the same as you were, avoid any risk. However, I have heard the opinion from many famous ministers that true faith contains an element of risk. Thus, the less faith you have in your life, the less risk there is. And vice versa: the less risk, the less faith. Would Abraham have demonstrated his great faith if he had not taken risks? Yes, he would never have left the borders of Ur of the Chaldeans! If you do NOT want to grow spiritually, always stay in your comfort zone, where everything is familiar and familiar and there is no risk.

4. Consider yourself a great expert.

Praise yourself for having already received all the wisdom and all the knowledge. Reassure yourself that you have nothing more to learn. Many young guys follow this rule. I, too, was so arrogant until I got married and had four children. Then I suddenly realized that I didn’t really understand life, that I was in dire need of God’s wisdom, His guidance. I suddenly realized that the most humble and diligent students of God's Word are those who have the most responsibility.

5. Run after innovations.

If you want to live a fruitless life, run after every new “secret of spiritual life” type book that promises you an easy path to spiritual growth. Easily succumb to every new fashion trend. Don’t believe that true spiritual growth requires a lot of effort—“blood and sweat.” Don’t agree to take the hard path, and you are guaranteed complete spiritual stagnation.

Spiritual growth is a process of inner awakening and awareness of our inner being. This means a growth of consciousness beyond ordinary existence, and the awakening of certain universal truths. It means going beyond the mind and the ego and understanding who you really are.

Spiritual growth is a process of enlightenmentour wrong and unrealistic ideas, thoughts, beliefs and ideas, everything becomes more and more conscious. We are learning more and moreour inner being.

This process opens the inner spirit that is everywherepresent but hidden beyond the ego-personality. Spiritual growth is enormousmeaning for so many, and not only for people seeking spiritual enlightenmentand prefer to live in distant or secluded places.

Spiritual growth is the basis for better andharmonious life for everyone.Will teach you a life that will be free from anxiety, tension and fear. Once we realize who we really are, we will have a different approach to life.

Let's learn not to allow external circumstances to influence our inner being, our state of soul.Let's learn to show calmness and detachment,develop internaland physical strength. All thatare very useful and important tools.

Spiritual growth is not a means of avoiding responsibility, acting strangely, and becoming an impractical person. Spiritual growth makes it possibledevelop and become a stronger, happier and more responsible person.

You can follow the path of spiritual growth, and at the same time live the same life as everyone else. Should not live a solitary life in some remote places. You can start a family, work or run a business, and at the same time engage in practices that lead to inner growth.

A balanced life requires that we take care not only of the needs of the body, feelings and mind, but also of the spirit. This is whatthe role of spiritual growth.

10 tips for spiritual growth:

1. Read spiritual books that lift your spirits. Think about what you read and figure out how you can use the information in your life.

2. Meditate at least15 minutes every day. Ifdon't know how to meditate, it's easy to find books, websites or teachers that will teach you how to meditate.

3. Learn to make your mind calm through concentration and meditation exercises.

4. Recognize the fact that you are not a physical body with a spirit, but a spirit with a physical body. Ifyou can really accept this idea, it will change your attitude towards many situations that occur in your life.

5. Look at yourself more oftenand on your mind and try to figure out what it is, whyfeel conscious and alive.

6. Think positively. IfIf you catch yourself thinking negatively, immediately switch to a positive one thinking. Exercise control over what goes into your mind. Open the doorfor good thoughts and, of course, close it for negative ones.

7. Do happiness is a habit, it always looks on the bright side of your life,and strives to be happy. Happiness comes from within. Don't let your external circumstances decide for you, for your happiness.

8. Frequent exercise strengthens your willpower and decision-making ability. It strengthens and gives control over your mind.

9. Thank you to the Universe for everything we receive.

10. Develop tolerance, patience, tact and respect for others.

Spiritual growth is the inalienable right of every person. This is the key to a happy life and peace of mind, manifestation of the enormous power of the inner spirit. This spiritequally present in the very material of man.

The level of manifestation of spirituality depends on how close the inner spirit is to the surface, and on how hidden it is in thoughts, beliefs and negative habits.

The main thing is to take the first step, and then everything will work out.

What does the phrase “spiritual growth” mean to you?
Have you ever thought about this?
Do you associate this concept with religion or church?
And in general, do you think there is a difference between the Spirit and the soul?

Spiritual growth is when the Soul changes its energy potential - it is transformed, its glow approaches the divine Light - the Source!

Source and depletion are synonyms. Exhaustion means the opposite, reduction or loss of energy potential.

When does loss of energy potential occur?

It would seem at the moment of death. No. The death of the physical body occurs at the moment when the Soul leaves it. And she leaves with the potential that she has developed (changed for the better), and maybe even worked on in her current life. She will come with the same “baggage” to her next incarnation. And so from life to life!

If we improve our energy potential, i.e. quality of the Soul, therefore, we are moving upward along the evolutionary stage of the universe. If, on the contrary, we worsen its qualities, i.e. We accumulate anger, envy and other negative character traits - this means that we are moving down the level of the universe. And so, with the existing “flaws”, the Soul will incarnate until it gets rid of them. And she can purify herself only by going through the experience of her incarnations, in a physical body, on planet Earth!

Now the Creator's tendency is to bring life on Earth according to his original, divine plan - the return of Paradise to Earth, where people will live enjoying, and not suffering.

Therefore, those Souls that will not undergo transformation in favor of developing positive potential will move to other planets for purification and experience (training), since they will not be able to exist in the new high energies of the Earth, they will simply burn out from the high frequency of vibration. And the overly contaminated, essentially defiled, souls will undergo disposal as unyielding or “devilish”, and will never again be able to go through the experience of life.

But you want to live, don’t you? Is it true! But to do this, you need to turn your face to yourself, take care of yourself, and not fulfill or implement other people’s principles and goals. "I live to rejoice and enjoy!"- this principle must be written down in every cell of both the physical and subtle bodies.

How is it to enjoy?

Living a life of enjoyment does not mean leading a carnal lifestyle of excess and pleasure for the body. Living with pleasure, I would say, is living with pleasure for the Soul! But for this, of course, you need to be able to separate these concepts. You need to learn to hear your own mind, and not the pragmatic and cunning mind, which is aimed at momentary pleasure of the body.

Enjoyment of life can only be achieved when you live in the moment “here and now”. Feel, feel your every action, stay in it, catch these moments that will never come back. There may be better ones, but these and those like him will no longer exist. Will the future come, but today it already exists!

Don’t just focus on dreams about the future, like, “I’ll still live, but now it’s somehow impossible!” I run, I do, I do everything automatically - just to do it, just to be in time. Who is this for? Who needs it? Why should I do this if I don’t enjoy it?

As a result, we all chase money and material goods, and this is carnal pleasure, it is fleeting. He ate, slept, put on his clothes, showed up - he seemed to be happy... That's the point, he seemed to be!!!

Some live in the past: "That was life then, and now"... People with such thinking escape from reality and give their already lacking energy to the past, not allowing themselves to live, rejoice, and feel today.

How to live "here and now"

Let's learn together to live in the moment “here and now” and get real pleasure from it - from the fact that I woke up at all today and have the opportunity to contemplate, live, feel life. See the diversity and colors of nature and life. Enjoy what I already have, what I have achieved: use it all. The fact that I have the opportunity to live the way I want.

After all, we each manage our own lives, and its quality is only our merit or contribution to it. After all, what I have today is the fruit of my thoughts and actions. Mine personally, not someone else's! If I succumbed or were seduced by someone’s tips or interests, then this is my choice and only mine!

Increasing the potential of the Soul

The moment “here and now” returns us to the Source, to our true, divine state. It is magnificent, and only in it can you feel, hear and enjoy yourself personally. At such moments you feel timelessness - a true fusion with nature, with the universe. Do you feel that " I am!". What "I really am!"

"I feel. I feel. I am a person!
I am in control. Peace is within me. I'm in nature.
I am the love. I am Happiness!
And in general - It’s happiness that I exist!
I am a gift! Gift from the Universe! God's gift!
God gave me this life, with all its charms and pleasures!
And I am in it!
We are one - the Universe, I, and my life!!!
So Joyful, so Happy, so unique!
And this is how she is, only now!
The way I perceive it now, I feel it.
The way I love her, praise her, approve of her (or not).
If I don’t feel it like that today, then I need
take care of yourself urgently!
Working on yourself, on your inner state,
over the potential of your Soul."

And no matter what condition you have it in today, you can still fix everything. Correct your vision of people and situations. Correct your attitude towards them. This needs to be done not for them, but for yourself personally!

“I live for myself, not for them!

They each have their own lives, and let them take care of themselves.

I was given my destiny, with its lessons; and for them - theirs!

And we were given to each other only so that

go through experiences together and teach each other life lessons.”

How to grow spiritually

If a person did something mean to you, do you understand why? Conclude and thank him for helping you gain this awareness, and therefore helping your Soul to evolve. People and situations do not turn out against us just like that - this is done for the benefit of us, for our evolution. And in no case should you take revenge, hate, or include your entire arsenal of negative qualities - by doing this you will only de-evolve, fall back and erase the experience of possibly many lives that have been lived and what has been gained there. Lives, with all their joys, worries, sorrows, inspirations, in which “I didn’t get confused, didn’t give in, but remained myself”.

Work! Work on yourself!
Love yourself!
Be proud of yourself!
Surprise yourself and develop yourself!!!

This will come back to you a hundredfold and will end up in a good mood, satisfaction from what you are doing. Pleasure, true pleasure from what “I live now and have the opportunity to manage my life myself!”

"I rejoice! I live! I grow!
I am evolving!
This earns me a pass to eternal life,
irresistible, Paradise!!!"

Are you growing spiritually or are you crawling down?