Feeling confused or "lost" is actually a signal that you are about to be given the opportunity to take a big leap forward in your spiritual growth. That is, you are being given the opportunity to become even more of your Authentic Self, living your life On Purpose, while experiencing more Joy and less struggle in your life.
Confusion is a red light that is telling you to STOP! LOOK! and LISTEN! It is telling you that you are reaching a crossroad, a place where a vital decision will be made. The decision you make at this crossroad will either move you forward or set you back, or as is the case with a railroad crossing where one does not heed the signals, you will get run over!
The gift of confusion is that it creates an opening for you to look at things in a new way. This confusion can be a catalyst to wake up to knowing more of who you are at a spiritual level.
(As an aside, it is good to remember that not making a decision, is the same as making a decision to stay with the status quo. The problem with that tactic is if you are not making a decision about what you want and taking action to claim it, the Universe will give you leftovers . . . cold leftovers . . . ugh!)
Here are 5 tips to move through confusion:
1. Acknowledge that the confusion is a good thing. It is a gift that is moving you closer to being your Authentic Self where you can experience more joy and less struggle in your life.
2. Make some quiet time to contemplate and formulate a rich and juicy high quality question that will lead you out of confusion and into greater understanding of who you are and what your purpose is. ("Why me?" is not a rich and juicy question.)
3. Carefully crafted high-quality questions produce enormously useful high-quality answers.
4. Rich and juicy high quality questions contain the following elements:
- They are focused on the solution, or desired outcome, not the problem. For example: "What actions can I take to bring peace and harmony to this situation?"
(An example of a not-so-high-quality/problem-oriented version would be: "Whose fault is this and what is the best punishment for that person?")
- Rich and juicy high quality questions almost always start with "what" or "how" and are crafted around creating a desired outcome, as opposed to "why" questions, that are usually focused on examining what went wrong and trying to prevent it from happening again. (This sometimes falls into the category of locking the barn door after the horse has been stolen, or crying over spilled milk, if I may use a few well known clichés.)
- They are created with certainty that you will receive the answer, usually in the most delightful, and magical ways.
NOTE: Answers come from all kinds of sources: billboards, a song on the radio, an off-hand remark from a friend, dreams, personal insight/light bulb moments, and so on.
5. You must have a distraction-free quiet space in your life to recognize the answers when they come. Create quiet space by driving in silence once in a while instead of turning on the car radio. Occasionally find a quiet, secluded place for lunch instead of meeting friends in the company cafeteria. Take time for a soaking bath instead of a quick shower. You get the idea.
If you set your intention to create quiet space to hear answers, the Universe will provide you with practical options.
The best thing about confusion is its ability to move you forward. The danger is in getting stuck in it by not seeing it for the opportunity that it is for spiritual growth. Not opening your mind to seeing things in a new way will keep you going in circles until you get a bigger wake up call to get your attention.
The bigger the wake up call, the bigger the "ouch" it contains. It is so much less painful to pay attention early on!
Take these 5 tips to heart and put them into action. I guarantee your fog of confusion will lift and you will be on your way to living your life On Purpose, with more Joy and less struggle.
To grow spiritually in a world defined by power, money, and influence is a Herculean task. Modern conveniences such as electronic equipments, gadgets, and tools as well as entertainment through television, magazines, and the 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 lives?
To grow spiritually is to look inward.
Introspection goes beyond recalling the things that happened in a day, week, or month. You need to look closely and reflect on your thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and motivations.
Periodically examining your experiences, the decisions you make, the relationships you have, 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 have to discard. Moreover, it gives you clues on how to act, react, and conduct yourself in the midst 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 focus on your areas for improvement.
To grow spiritually is to develop your potentials.
Religion and science have differing views on matters of the human 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 (Eastern) teachings. The needs of the body are recognized but placed under the needs of the spirit. Beliefs, 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: physiological, security, belongingness, esteem, cognitive, aesthetic, self-actualization, and self-transcendence. James earlier categorized these needs into three: material, emotional, and spiritual. When you have satisfied the basic physiological and emotional needs, spiritual or existential needs come next.
Achieving each need leads to the total development of the individual. Perhaps the difference between these two religions and psychology is the end of self-development: Christianity and Islam see that self-development is a means toward serving God, while psychology view that self-development is an end by itself.
To grow spiritually is to search for meaning.
Religions that believe in the existence of God such as 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 lives. Whether we believe that life's meaning is pre-determined or self-directed, to grow in spirit is to realize that we do not merely exist.
We do not know the meaning of our lives at birth; but we gain knowledge and wisdom from our interactions with people and from our actions and reactions to the situations we are in. As we discover this meaning, there are certain beliefs and values that we reject and affirm.
Our lives have purpose. This purpose puts all our physical, emotional, and intellectual potentials into use; sustains us during trying 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 at sea.
To grow spiritually is to recognize interconnections.
Religions stress the concept of our relatedness to all creation, live and inanimate. Thus we call other people 'brothers and sisters' even if there are no direct blood relations.
Moreover, deity-centered religions such as Christianity and Islam speak of the relationship between 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 clearly seen in the concept of ecology, the interaction between living and non-living things. In psychology, connectedness is a characteristic of self-transcendence, the highest human need according to Maslow.
Recognizing 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.
Growth 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 growth is made possible.
Both Jennifer T. Grainger & James Yee are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.