The True Nature of
Spiritual Growth

Spiritual growth is growth of the heart centre. We learn to love ourselves, we learn how to become more "lovable" as a person, and we learn to love others. All of this is one of life's greatest challenges! So how do we do it?

It starts by putting our outer life in order. From the perspective of Spiritual Psychology, our outer life consists of all of our lower emotions (which unfortunately in most of us are negative!) The negative parts of ourselves include our anger, jealousy, resentment, worries, fears, anxieties, hatred, indolence, insincerity, pride, self-centredness, greed, impatience, hopelessness, etc. We all need to learn how to deal with these emotions in our lives. We also need to be aware the struggle we have with them is not our fault - because these aspects of the "shadow" self are inherited.

It is what we carry around within ourselves that gets us into trouble. It's our job, and our personal responsibility, to "clean up the mess" so to speak. We are MEANT to be conscious of the negative side of our nature so we can learn to develop in such a way that we no longer identify with the lower inherent emotions. We learn to make conscious choices for positive ways of being. These choices allow us to become better human beings because we become more loving. And everyone benefits, including ourselves.

We all have a built-in drive to be just a little bit better than we are at the present moment. This is where Integrative Therapy is the greatest of help. It guides us toward being a better human being with greater possibilities and potentials.

Most of the time we blame life experiences for our suffering. In reality it is we ourselves who are the cause of our suffering. Either consciously or unconsciously, we choose to take ourselves into negative states of mind. It is our identifications that get us into trouble. If you reflect on this, you'll soon realize how true this is for all of us.

Personal and spiritual development is about creating a calm and rational mind, and ultimately a peaceful state of being. We emanate positive energy and our lives have an abundance of love. We are orchestrating a life direction (not perfection!) where our unique personal gifts and talents which we all possess become of use in the world.

Setting our outer lives in order is not easy! But it's not complicated. It just takes effort, will, and little bit of help from above! It's a wonderful challenge for anyone wishing lasting happiness. This isn't about any outer development for outward gain; it's about real inner change. And genuine freedom.