To develop spiritually in a world defined by power, money, and influence is a Herculean task. Advanced conveniences such electronic gears, gadgets, and tools also as entertainment through television, magazines, and the World Wide 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 experiences?

To develop spiritually is to look inward.

Introspection goes beyond recalling the things that happened in a daytime, week, or month. You demand to look closely and reflect on your thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and motives. Periodically examining your experiences, the decisions you make, the relationships you've, 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've to discard. Moreover, it gives you clues on how to act, react, and conduct yourself in the middle 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 center on your areas for advance.

To develop spiritually is to develop your potentials.

Religion and skill have differing views on matters of the individual 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 (easterly) teachings. The needs of the body are recognized but placed under the beggaries of the spirit. Feelings, 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: physiologic, security, belongingness, esteem, cognitive, aesthetic, self-actualization, and self-transcendence. James earlier categorized this needs into three: material, emotional, and spiritual. When you have satisfied the basic physiological and emotional needs, spiritual or existential needs come future. Achieving each need leads to the total developing of the individual. Perhaps the difference between these two religions and psychology is the end of self-development: Christianity and Islamism see that self-development is a means toward serving God, while psychological science view that self-development is an end by itself.




To develop spiritually is to explore for meaning.

Religions that believe in the existence of God such 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 inhabits. Whether we believe that life’s meaning is preset or self-directed, to grow spirit up is to realize that we don't merely exist. We don't know the meaning of our lives at birth; but we gain knowledge and wisdom from our interactions with dwell and from our actions and reactions to the situations we are in. As we discover this signifying, there are certain beliefs and values that we disapprove and affirm. Our lives have purpose. This purpose puts all our physical, emotional, and intellectual potentials into use; sustains us during sampling 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 confused.

To develop spiritually is to recognize interconnections.

Religions stress the concept of our relatedness to all creation, live and inanimate. Thus we call others “brothers and sisters” even if there are no direct cognates. Moreover, deity-centered religions such Christianity and Islam speak of the relationship betwixt 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 clear seen in the concept of ecology, the interaction between living and dead things. In psychology, connectedness is a characteristic of self-transcendence, the highest human need according to Maslow. Picking out 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.

Development 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 development is made potential.