Spiritual growth has become more and more relevant as life becomes increasingly fast, noisy and focused primarily on what is material in nature.
In most cases, constant pressure to perform and/or acquire goods creates feelings of alienation and exhaustion.
Spiritual growth provides a level of connection to something larger than the individual. It allows people the opportunity to cultivate inner peace/meaning and live consciously in ways that are beyond the scope of “materialistic” accomplishment.
Technology and productivity are dominating aspects of how individuals experience “modern” living, which does not provide natural opportunities for reflection, nor process of internal awareness to be developed.
Consequently, many of today’s individuals will begin to ask themselves if their only accomplishment is limited to what they have achieved through their materials.
In the subsequent sections of this article, we will explore how spiritual growth is developed in the context of the current relationship of materialism.
Current Understanding of Spiritual Growth in Modern Life
Current Viewpoint of Spiritual Growth and Guidance in Modern Society
For today’s generation, spiritual growth is based on developing a deeper awareness about themselves, connecting with others and fulfilling their purpose as opposed to just achieving external recognition through their “material” efforts.
Thus, the essence of spiritual growth in today’s fast-paced society will be reconnecting with personal values and meaning through living in a context of a rapidly changing world of speed.
Spiritual Growth: A Conscious Relationship with the Modern World
Spiritual growth does not have to be viewed as a rejection of modern life and living but rather it is an evolution of a greater consciousness into an improving relationship with both.
The awareness that comes through reflection and intentional living allows for the development of inner peace in the midst of personal and/or career advancement.
Modern Life: Speed, Productivity, and External Validation vs. Reflection and Stillness
In today’s fast-paced society, most individuals have developed a strong dependence on speed, personal productivity, achievement and recognition of what they do or have achieved through their degree of fame and/or fortune.
This constant bombardment of stimulation does not allow time to reflect and create inner awareness. Thus, the majority of individuals are losing their sense of inner awareness or reflection.
In order for an individual to achieve his/her spiritual growth, the individual must notice the degree of imbalance in their lives that is caused by their current pace of modern living.
The balance created by slowing down mentally allows for the development of accelerated conscious living and an understanding of oneself at a much deeper and genuine level.
Integration of Spiritual Growth and Daily Life
Small acts of Mindfulness lead to meaningful shifts. Every time we balance our responsibilities with an awareness of our inner being, it gives us access to much more peace on the inside and makes it easier to see life as less of a reaction.
How Materialism Creates our Contemporary Priorities
In today’s society, we tend to equate Materialism with Success. That is, success is directly linked to our acquisitions, Status, and Constant consumption, which creates feelings of comparison and discontent. Achieving Inner Peace becomes very difficult when we live in these environments of constant comparison.
Through spiritual Growth, we learn that our emphasis on Materials, aka possessions, often overlaps and overshadows our emotional and spiritual needs. For example, we may find ourselves feeling unsatisfied, Even though we have achieved things (awards, degrees.)
This is an indication that we are beginning a journey of inner inquiry. A broader understanding of this relationship between success and possessions is often discussed within the context of Materialism.
The Emotion of Constant Wanting
Because Materialism places an ongoing demand on us to constantly desire Material things, It maintains the cycle of always wanting without obtaining true satisfaction. We receive temporary pleasure or comfort as a result of our Wants, but receive Nothing Permanent.
As this emotional restlessness grows, So does our potential for spiritual growth. This state of constant wanting becomes a signal that something deeper within us is seeking attention and fulfillment beyond external rewards.
As we create awareness of our habits of wanting and consuming Material goods (Because Wanting will always take precedence): Then we will add more Inner Peace to our lives by reducing our Attachments to Material Excess. Furthermore, practicing Conscious Living replaces our automatic, habitual ways of Consuming with More Conscious (intentional) habits.
The Choice to Choose Meaning Over Excess
Through this process of Spiritual Growth, we have made the Conscious choice to Choose Meaning Over Excess as our priority for obtaining what we need to feel fulfilled, Leading us to choose to Align Our Lives with Our Inner Values.
Simplicity is a Key component to recovery and inner Peace. Therefore, We have moved Towards Living Consciously in today’s world by Choosing Meaning Over Excess.
Because Practicing conscious living Offers Us An Opportunity For Growth As We Move Toward Developing Awareness, We Now Have The Opportunity To Continue Our Spiritual Growth and Develop A Deeper Understanding Of The Importance of Cultivating Inner Peace In A World That Is Constantly Stimulating And Overloading Us Mentally.
Creating Time and Space for Stillness
As We Are Constantly Exposed To Stimulation, Through Alerts, Updates, Sound, and Overload Of Information It Is Difficult To Switch Off And Take The Time To Reflect On Who We Are, What We Feel, And Why We Are Here On Earth.
As A Result Of Our Mental Overload, We Are Prevented From Having Greater Awareness Of Who We Are. Distractions and urgency pull us outward to the opposite of inner peace.
Discontentment with ease is an experience that many find themselves living through a steady state of restlessness. The need for restlessness helps people understand that they need more moments of silence to discover their inner selves.
The Role of Silence in Spiritual Development
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The need to develop spiritually occurs when there is a conscious effort made to give a person space and time for contemplation and silence.
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A moment of silent thought quiets the brain.
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Stillness is what allows a person to turn the mind inwards, focusing on the interior.
Mindfulness Breathing Practices And Simple Observation
Using a method such as mindful breathing for attaining peace of mind does not have to require extreme changes to a person’s life. These moments of stillness allow an individual to gain balance.
Intentional Pauses in Daily Living
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Living a conscious life is best accomplished with the use of intentional short pauses rather than withdrawing from the world in which one lives.
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The importance of mindfulness practices is widely explored in studies related to mindfulness.
Protecting Inner Peace on a Daily Basis
For spiritual development to occur, boundaries for time, energy, and attention must be set, so that individuals prevent their inner peace from being disrupted. It is not necessary to respond immediately to the many demands placed on a person.
Establishing Boundaries for Awareness
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The choice of selective engagement allows for the preservation of the calm.
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When boundaries are established for protecting our personal awareness, our inner peace becomes established and can be maintained much more easily.
Stability as a Foundation for Conscious Living
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An individual has fewer reactive tendencies to an event, as the stability becomes established.
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The stability becomes the foundation for an individual’s spiritual practices of conscious living until a point is reached where one is capable of incorporating the teachings into their spiritual practice.
Understanding Conscious Living for Spiritual Development
Conscious Living implies that a person will use awareness to determine the appropriateness of their actions, rather than being directed by their habitual actions or the expectations placed upon them by society.
Awareness-Based Decision Making
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When individuals develop their spirituality with a conscious choice to act, their daily decisions become guided by their awareness of the values that they hold true.
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The increasing consumption of material things in society causes individuals to think twice before engaging in consuming items or reacting automatically.
This opportunity allows for the potential to be free from the constraints that the materialistic world places on individuals.
This increases the capacity for inner peace, a concept also explored within discussions of meaning and purpose.
Aligning Behavior With Values
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When individuals develop spirituality based upon abiding by the values they have created for themselves, they will experience an increase in levels of comfort and reducing the amount of tension caused by conflicts between the internal/external value system.
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It will be easier to maintain a sense of coherence in life and reducing average levels of discomfort caused by cultural beliefs/pressures.
Reflection and Conscious Choice
Conscious Living encourages the practice of understanding why one is making a choice. This type of reflection develops the consciousness to understand one’s self, therefore increasing levels of inner peace by helping individuals’ behaviours reflect their true self and not the obligation that society has demanded of them.
Experiencing Awareness in Moments
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Once an individual has established a consistent practice of conscious living, it becomes natural.
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Sustained inner peace can only be accomplished through the continuing development of conscious living.
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As spiritual development continues to grow, conscious living evolves with changing dynamics.
Integrating Spiritual Development Within Daily Modern Life
You can live your life spiritually without abandoning your material obligations.
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Individuals can integrate their spiritual teachings into their everyday lives, even within their most complicated everyday routines while being present and productive.
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Integrating the practice of being in the present moment into one’s job, one’s relationships, and one’s daily routines provides the potential for a person to create the most tangible transformations within their spirit.
The process of becoming spiritually developed will feel much more integrated than it will if the individual were to do that by completely removing themselves from society to seek spiritual development.
Navigating Materialism with Consciousness
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The ability to develop spiritually affords individuals the capability to use their possessions consciously rather than by becoming defined by their possessions.
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Those who do not become completely identified by their possessions are far more likely to retain a balanced perspective.
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This type of balance creates an abundance of potential for individuals to develop and grow their inner peace while maintaining a comfortable material life.
Growth Through Time and Patience
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As an individual continues to develop spiritually, there will be steady growth through progressive stages throughout life.
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Patience is a strong indicator of continued progress.
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Awareness grows through time.
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The gentleness of spiritual development within time allows for the establishment of an inner peace that is sustainable.
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Spiritual growth will continue to progress as an individual continues through their life experiences and develop themselves more deeply through growth.
Freedom from Material Possession by Getting Rid of Your Attachments
Examining the Connection Between Your Attachments and Your Life Experience
The beginning stages of your spiritual development will likely include the realization that much of who you believe yourself to be, and where you find your happiness, is heavily dependent upon what you own or how much status you think you have within society.
In this time, it has become very common for society to condemn someone who does not own as much as others, or to push him/her towards purchasing the latest gadget, buying the next new car, or leasing the most expensive apartment, as a way of creating or maintaining their standing in society.
In the process of this, we often lose sight of the importance of developing our inner selves as much as we can attach to things on the outside.
Awareness, Detachment, and Redefining Success
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When you recognize your attachment patterns, you are not being judged, you are merely developing further self-awareness.
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The awareness that you create through this exercise will enable you to see how materialistic tendencies inhibit our ability to be free inside our own minds.
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You will be able to see this clearly now, and attachment will begin to loosen naturally through the insight, rather than by force.
As we progress through our spiritual journey, we begin to re-define our concept of success.
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Success will no longer be dependent on how much money we make, how well-known we have become, or how much we have accumulated.
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Rather, our definition of success will become much more aligned with who we are, as our sense of inner peace grows.
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No longer will we feel the desire to compare ourselves to others all the time.
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Once we have created our own sense of success, we will be under less pressure to perform.
Simplification and Inner Freedom
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As we create a sense of authentic living and inner peace, we will no longer allow other people or places to dictate our self-worth.
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One of the most surprising experiences as you go through the process of simplifying your lifestyle, is how much of a sense of freedom you will feel.
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Your spiritual growth will also benefit from your simplified living lifestyle, as you will experience fewer distractions.
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The absence of all the distractions allows us to access inner peace more readily and allows us to be ready for further stages of developing deeper levels of self-awareness.
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As one’s reactions become less intense, spiritual growth continues to deepen.
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The shift from an emotionally reactive way of living (impulsivity) to a conscious way of living allows for greater inner peace on a consistent basis throughout one’s day-to-day life.
Consistency and Awareness Growth
Consistency (simple practices) produces much faster growth in one’s awareness than intensity of practice.
Consistently reflecting upon one’s emotions, thoughts and actions will create familiarity with oneself; therefore, the ability to see one’s self grow remains a steady process. By accepting the unpredictability of one’s life, the individual will experience a great increase in his/her inner peace.
A conscious way of living will support the ability to adapt to change in a more flexible manner. The unpredictability of life becomes less threatening and much more manageable.
The ability to remain grounded while facing emotional or practical challenges is strengthened through spiritual development. With the ability to maintain awareness, one will always have a means in which to focus on what is important rather than being completely overwhelmed by the feelings of fear or anxiety.
Grounded Responses and Inner Peace
By responding grounded, the individual is able to maintain his/her inner peace. The individual is able to experience the material concerns of his/her life without the emotional attachment of fear; therefore, calmness will be carried out through actions taken in times of stress rather than distressed reactions.
Spiritual development occurs over time and does not take place instantaneously. Trust creates the ability to remain patient regarding spiritual growth, and comparing one’s self with another does not allow for one’s spiritual development to continue.
Trust in the process of spiritual growth creates the ability to remain calm within one’s self. Living a conscious lifestyle will feel natural to the individual, and the trust that will come from this stage of spiritual growth will assist one in discovering more profound purposes and meanings of their life.
Redefining Success Through Spiritual Awareness
As an individual develops spiritually he/she will often find that there is more to his/her life than the attainment of worldly possessions, titles, status and recognition.
In the society in which we live today, these were the common goals and have been therefore exalted as the only importance in one’s life but will not have the ability to provide true happiness or fulfillment long-term.
Through spiritual awareness, it will become evident that achieving success in these types of areas will not bring about peace and happiness long-term.
The inquiry regarding success is not about whether it is being rejected, but rather a search for meaning behind the success.
Living consciously causes us to consider what is important in our life.
Purpose turns inward instead of focusing outward.
Value System for Discovering Meaning
Spiritual growth is heightened when an individual’s purpose aligns with that person’s value system. Material reward systems do not provide long-term direction; however, values provide direction.
Peace within grows naturally when an individual’s actions are aligned with that individual’s values.
Living consciously, instead of striving constantly, has given a sense of grounding and emotional fulfilment from purpose.
Intentional Living
By living intentionally in versus automatically out of, makes the purpose of daily activity clearer.
Spiritual growth helps us make conscious decisions regarding choices, therefore providing us with greater clarity.
An intentional approach to living decreases confusion and internal conflict, stabilises inner peace, and prepares one to develop presence and mindfulness next.
Presence in a Fast Paced World
Presence is achievable at any time regardless of isolation or silence.
While we may practice the awareness of presence through attitudes of work, walking, or communication. Putting all your attention into one activity decreases stress and promotes inner peace developing.
It counters the many distractions associated with multitasking, and it replaces the need to multitask. Presence becomes powerful when it is practised continuously in small segments and the regularity of practising is of greater importance to awareness than the length of time.
Cultivating Compassion in a Materialistic World
Cultivating Compassion for Others The Compassion cultivated will assist in softening conflict and comparison, and as a result, Inner Peace will develop through the development of Empathy, creating more profound and supportive relationships.
With an Open Heart Compassion becomes a way of life rather than a conscious effort to cultivate it daily; this results in a greater feeling of embodiment of Your Spirituality, where your awareness of the size of one’s spirit guides the way you interact with others.
An energetic information flow to Inner Peace through the developed belief system that leads to compassion will increase through an increased sense of Stability in Your Spiritual Growth and will lead you towards an opportunity to integrate your spirituality into your long-term life.
When we are moving in this way, creating growth becomes easy and natural instead of forced or planned.
Integrating Spiritual Growth Into Daily Life
In a culture where we have busy schedules and work responsibilities, creating spiritual growth requires us to make spiritual growth a component of how we conduct ourselves with the people we work, those we have relationships with, and our responsibilities.
While we are continuously transforming our inner selves through conscious living, our growth becomes an instrument of support instead of an overwhelming or aloof experience.
Balancing Spiritual Growth and Practical Demands
Finding balance between our material needs and values and the pursuit of our spiritual growth does not mean that we need to give up anything.
It is important to avoid extremes.
Letting Our Growth Evolve Naturally
As we grow, we become conscious of the fluidity of our growth and development.
Just as our lives evolve, the support for our awareness of spiritual growth surrounding us is continuously changing.
We need to remain flexible as it pertains to our spiritual development so we can be authentic.
Allowing our spiritual development to evolve naturally will prevent us from becoming rigid.
Our inner peace will become deeper through acceptance, placing us in a position to continue our awareness long into the future.
Maintaining our Inner Peace Over Time
Inner Peace is a practice, not something that you attain and just remain at that state.
Maintaining a steady state of inner peace is merely a product of constant awareness and intention. The fluctuations in our experience of inner peace are quite normal.
Acceptance and acknowledgement of these fluctuations will decrease frustration. The practice of spiritual growth helps you return to a state of calm quicker following a disruption than if you did not practice spiritual growth.
We Trust Consistency Over the Pursuit of Perfect Practice
Having inner peace is strengthened by consistently taking steps towards achieving your inner peace through effort rather than pursuing perfection through practice.
Every step we take no matter how small is of great importance to achieving inner peace, and patience provides the support that you will need to achieve your inner peace.
Spiritual Growth Is Lifelong Journey
Letting Go of Outcomes
Spiritual growth is not about completing a task, but rather the experience of living your life. When you live consciously, you are focused on now, rather than arriving somewhere, and growing will feel lighter and more open.
Humility Gives Space to Experience Growth
Having humility also grounds your inner peace, because you know that inner peace is achievable.
When you think of yourself, your inner peace, and your life, you are living consciously and adaptive.
This will naturally lead you to the last reflective exercise.
Finding Balance Between Ambition and Inner Peace
Understanding Healthy Ambition
Spiritual growth does not mean that you have to give up on your goal of having ambition in today’s society.
It does change how a person experiences ambition on the inside, as healthy ambition is not based on constant comparisons to others, but on the values of the person.
By shifting your focus from external validation to a greater sense of tranquillity, you will allow the peace that you experience through inner peace and ambition.
When the conscious process of living aligns with one’s ambition, motivations will be viewed as supportive rather than draining.
The effort towards achieving one’s goals will be seen as more significant than double the effort required to fulfil these goals.
This process of continuous spiritual growth will enable individuals to pursue success without compromising one’s emotional wellbeing within oneself.
Defining Success Internally
By redefining success within oneself, you are encouraged to find success outside of what other people may perceive as successful based on their external validation and acknowledgement of the accomplishments made.
Your success will not be measured by your possessions and/or accumulation of things; rather, your success will be measured by whether one aligns and feels fulfilled with and at peace with what is being achieved.
When your definition of success is aligned internally, one experiences less anxiety and restlessness.
As you create your definition of success from within, you will begin to naturally increase your sense of inner peace.
When the composition of one’s definition of success includes materialism, materialism will hold less weight as a reference point for one’s identity.
Creating Balance Going Forward
In order to create balance between one’s ambition and inner peace, ongoing awareness of oneself is required instead of having to follow rigid rules.
Continuous adjustment is necessary in order to achieve balance. Allowing for flexibility in the process of creating balance creates a sense of harmony.
When you are in balance with spiritual growth, you will feel integrated into your day-to-day experiences of modern life.
Because of this sense of integrated balance, individuals will not feel overwhelmed by the pressures of today’s modern society and living experiences.
This balance also creates a foundation to prepare individuals for long-term conscious involvement.
Choosing Awareness vs Automatic Living
Conscious living develops as people choose to live with their eyes open, as opposed to unconsciously living due to their reactions to the pressures of materialism.
Within the scope of consciousness, many of our behaviours are acquired inadvertently; however, you now have the ability to choose to have the awareness.
By practising conscious living, your ability to make conscious choices will allow you to develop a stronger spiritual being because you have had the opportunity to reflect before you react or consume.
When you consciously decide to make a conscious choice at the time of making that decision, you will experience an increase in inner peace.
Reducing Attachment of Identity to Things You Own
Materialism tends to combine your ego with the things you own, which binds your identity within itself.
By developing a stronger awareness of oneself through spiritual growth, you will reduce this binding connection.
Intentional Simplicity as a Way of Life
Living intentionally requires conscious living, which is more important than minimalism; however, it still allows for living simply during this process.
It provides a way to satisfy one’s basic needs and desires without creating the sense of craving.
Living with intentional simplicity will support your continued spiritual growth during this transition of living in the modern world.
You will experience greater stability in your sense of inner peace and will naturally begin to reflect on where you were at the time of living simply.
To Conclude
Through creating intentional choices, presence, and compassionate behaviour, the process of creating a deeply personal level of spiritual growth occurs over time through each of our regular daily routines.
