by Bill Urell
Increasing spiritual awareness can be viewed as becoming more connected to ourselves, others and the world around us. The more connections in our lives, the greater the chance of coming into harmony with our surroundings. If addiction is a disease of isolation, becoming spiritually fit is about connection.
There are basically four areas of life, or types of relationships we work toward in becoming connected. Positive spirituality may be viewed as having a healthy relationship and positive self-esteem with yourself, firstly. Secondly there is the relationship you may have or want to develop with whatever form of Higher Power is right for you. It can be God, Nature, a Force of Universe, it is up to you. Please note we are not mixing religion with this idea of spirituality. The third are to develop healthy connections or spirituality is in relationships with family. Lastly is the area which is kind of a catch all, community. This includes casual relationships, work, social situations, etc.
7 Steps To Increase Spiritual Awareness
1. Use personal prayer and/or meditation. This is quiet time to start to develop time for yourself and to assess how things are going in your life.
2. Spend time in groups. This could be attending a worship service, singing in a choir, acting in a play or any group with positive interaction and direction. This enhances our ability to develop relationships with other people.
3. Spend time learning. Grow your mind. This could be taking a few classes at the community college, book study groups, self-help or mental health material.
4. Take time for yourself. Plan a quiet day just for you, away from family and work. Indulge yourself in quiet. There are many retreat areas where you can find peaceful surroundings for recharging yourself.
5. Physical fitness and proper diet. There is a very satisfying feeling that comes from taking care of yourself physically. Get in shape to be the best person you can be.
6. Recreation. Indulge in some activity just for sheer fun. Explore hobbies, sports, whatever floats your boat, but make time for it. Do not plan to ‘get around to it someday’. Just do it.
7. Be of service.
We hope that gave you some ideas about how to improve your relationships with self and others. The key thing is to take action. Today is the first day of the rest of your life. Why not utilize the 7 tips for spiritualty to improve your spiritual connection?
Here are some outstanding blogs and post on spirituality:
Why Relationships in Early Recovery Serve as a Poor Replacement … – A substitute for spiritual growth. Another reason that the new relationship is so dangerous is because they demand so much of our creative energy. Normally this is not a problem, but in early recovery, you need to spend that creative …
The Role of Spirituality in Recovery – The real question is: how does one go from being a self-centered drug addict or alcoholic to living a spiritual life in recovery? You might also want to ask yourself:. 1) Can an addict choose to have a spiritual experience? …
My journey to joyful and healthy – A remarkable account of health restored through the writer’s search for God and for answers to her recovery from an inoperable brain tumor.
Reflection for the Week – June 9th – Further, I believe that one of the crucial elements of recovery will have to be a deep commitment to the reading, study, and appropriation of Scripture. Living the practices embedded in the biblical text is central to Christian …
On Healthy Relationships in Recovery: by Peter S. Lopez aka: Peta – Yet it is also a symptom of deeper spiritual demons or diseases that we must closely examine, medically treat and spiritually heal. A Spiritual Program will naturally help enhance our progressive recovery program. …
{ 1 trackback }
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Great article, i think meditation is the best way to increase spiritual awareness. First a person should know about himself if he wants to explore the world. Normally people think that worshipping and praying would give them more spiritual awareness which is wrong in my opinion.
The seven steps are simple and very easy to follow but sometimes just taking some time for you alone is not easy to access. For there are a lot things to be done as such are the household chores. I’m a working mother and I’m really stressed out with so many things. But sometimes even an hour or so I can manage to take the stress out of my mind by rearranging things at home, doing some simple interior designing at that.
Thank you for submitting your post to the Living by Design Personal Development Carnival – your piece was one of ten selected from over 50 entries.
Hi Bill,
Just visiting from Ananga’s blog carnival — nothing to add to this post’s discussion, but just a quick hi to say you have a great site here, providing a much-needed service.
ari
Ari Koinumas last blog post..Blog Carnival: 10 Posts about Realizing Your Potential — September 2008
Thank You for your comments and support Ananga.
Bill
Thank you Ari,
I hope you become a regular guest.
Bill
This article will help me a lot not only for myself but for my family as well. Prayer and meditation will help me in contemplating with in myself. Being with my friends and relatives can really help me deal with my problems. Spending quality time alone can really make my stress go away. Making yourself healthy by having an exercise routine everyday and helping others are ways that you can really be spiritualy healthy.
Spend time in learing, Take care and take time are the important aspects according to me. Because one should have something in life in which he is interested in doing so. So that he could engage himself in spending time in which he likes. Work not to earn but to learn. So that we will reach great heights. Sky is the limit.
As we read read through these steps, I would have to say there could be so many other things that would increase spiritual awareness in our lives as well. Although I do agree with the steps that are outlined as a basic list, I would include meditation. Some people can do this alone and others would be better in a group environment. But in either case being able to have quality time for you self is very important in this time.
I would like to accept crimson views. One must spend quality time to relieve his stress. I have tried to sleep peacefully to relieve my stress. But again i would have gone nuts getting help. I will get disturbed dreams. Have a regular practice of doing meditation and yoga. They are the best medicines to be taken for the cure.
Very well written, and beside spiritual awareness is very effective if we just let our selves to be part of their activities specially in church, rather than illegal activities than can cause a lot of troubles..
Jackets