A spiritual journey is the process of becoming who you already are…
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A spiritual journey is the process of becoming who you already are, who your highest self truly is…Who you are on the inside. I think a personal development practice is so vital to one’s mental health too. Actively choosing self growth, even when it’s hard, is what makes us better humans.
Spiritual Journeys are often glamorized in the media or simply sound like a part-time, fun hobby. In actuality, it can be a very uncomfortable and sometimes painful process of digging up the roots of childhood wounds.
When you open your own eyes spiritually, you can start deconstructing and reconstructing religious beliefs or any institutionalized societal norms that you were raised to believe is the “right way” before you had the opportunity to decide for yourself. Perhaps like me, you may have built your whole life around what you were told to believe in…only because of the perceived metaphysical consequences of “hell fire,” or actual literal retaliation from your family or religious community. Many of us have to muster up the courage as adults to actually thinking for ourselves for the first time.
Thinking for yourself leads to trusting your intuition and connecting with the still, small voice inside. Along your journey, you may find that this voice is your higher self, God inside leading you. Eventually you grow into trusting yourself to make your own choices. However, that does not mean believing that you or above others or above God. In fact the more I learn about religion, God, or any spiritual practice, the more I realize that I don’t know. Just feeling it’s safe to admit you don’t have all the answers is a very important step in any spiritual journey one embarks on, whatever path it may be.
Not only is humility a great character trait to develop, so is unattachment. When one is unattached to a particular outcome, there is less motive for the ego to “prove itself right,” and instead makes room to learn from all experience. There’s a lot of reasons people cling to religious rules, and sometimes they are attached to potential personal gain. Of course, devotion to a specific religion is honorable if what one practices is love and kindness. Just because one expands their beliefs, doesn’t mean they need to toss away past experiences or healthy convictions.
For example, I was raised in very religious Christian and Purity Culture. I was even homeschooled. When I went to college, I wasn’t prepared to the reality of the outside world because I have been raised to be afraid of it instead of accepting someone else’s experience could be different than mine, but not “evil.” I no longer hold judgement for people that live different lifestyles than me, but this took me so much time to see.
My personal spiritual journey took me down a path of deconstruction before constructing the path I choose now. One thing I’ve learned along the way is that everyone’s path different. Focus on your growth, and let others believe what they believe and live how they choose to live.
Since growing in my spiritual journey, a lot of people from the past and very strict religious settings have not been so supportive. The second thing I’ve learned is that whenever you’re tempted to react to any negative word or deed, respond with love. Every time you choose love over fear is a sign that you are evolving on your spiritual journey. The more easily you can choose love over fear is more evidence that you’re growing more and more everyday
If you’d like to evolve on your spiritual journey, listen to my podcast, Enlightened, available on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and anywhere else you like listening to podcast. I encourage you to explore your truth. Choose to be more open minded each day. Choose to learn from someone different than you. Don’t be afraid to grow…