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Spiritual empowerment entails awareness of who and what we are. It encompasses awareness of our everyday psychological and spiritual selves, finding ways of bringing both into balance with one another. The path leading to this is by no means easy, and often requires perseverance and drawing upon a variety of creative practices and intuitive skills. Just as we need to practise and have a certain amount of discipline and skill to master swimming, driving a car or playing a piano, we also need them – and more – in order to discover our true Selves.

But not all stages are about activity and effort. There can be times for rest and healing to take place. If we have recently been through, or come to terms with, a stressful period in our life, then our emotions may need time to heal. This is why awareness is so important, as it helps us to recognize our needs and see what is required at different stages in our development.

There may be occasions when we feel we have taken a wrong turn. But this is all part of the growing process. If a musician finds a section of music difficult to play, it would be wise for him/ her to focus upon what is wrong and see how he/she can improve the performance. It will require reflecting upon the difficulty, breaking it down into easier-to-handle segments, working on the problem, improving it and putting it back together again. When this has been done, the previously difficult section will be played with more ease. This tried-and-tested formula can be applied to almost any difficult task, and is a safe approach to problems on the road to spiritual empowerment.

We cannot do everything at once, and nothing worth achieving ever comes without some effort. Those who try to run before they can walk often end up facing overwhelming problems in their development. So patience and humility are two important qualities worth developing as they will serve one well on the spiritual path.

Adopting Right Attitude

The negative within us should not be in conflict with the positive. For spiritual growth to happen, we must adopt a healthy attitude towards any negatives we find, and ask ourselves what we can learn from them, what brought them about, and what needs to be done to transform them. We should view any troublesome thoughts, emotions or actions as friends and teachers on the spiritual path. Once we adopt this attitude, acceptance naturally unfolds and possible changes present themselves. As if by magic, the things we found difficult to face and viewed as negative become the instruments for growth and transformation.

Through awareness of our thoughts, feelings, actions and reactions we understand ourselves more fully and see what positive qualities lie within. By acknowledging and cultivating our good, we allow it to affect our development and bring about changes and conditions that are in tune with its influence. This is all part of the law of cause and effect. By having a creative approach to development, we face and overcome our negatives, and bring our lives into line with the higher spirit-Self, for our higher Consciousness and spirit are part of the creative Principle that governs all life. It is only we who limit our abilities, finer qualities and awareness of our life’s true nature and purpose.

Power of Self-Awareness

Through self-awareness and self-acceptance we become more observant and conscious of different levels of our being, and various influences that work around, within and through us. We begin to see, recognize and understand the sacredness of life from an emotional, mental, intuitive and spiritual point of view. Through awareness of our whole being, we see that our true Self endeavours to influence and guide us, so that we may grow and truly live a spiritual life, and express ourselves more openly.

People become unhappy not because they do not have joy and peace within themselves, but because they do not possess the knowledge of how to unlock them. It is by embracing the whole of what we are that we find the jewel of wisdom, which lights and leads the way to treasures of the spirit.

We live in an evolving universe governed by Creative Power and Divine Intelligence. God, which is both masculine and feminine, is the inner essence and cause of all life – the ground of everything and everyone. It is infinite being, bliss and consciousness – transcendent, immanent, omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent.

Because this power is creative and part of us, it responds to us at our individual level of understanding. To open up more to it, we have to let go of anything that limits our perceptions and stops us from recognizing it within ourselves, all life and all people. Through widening our spiritual receptivity, knowledge and consciousness, we awaken to the one-in-all and the all-in-one, and to limitless life, power, creativity and potential of our true spirit-Self. Once we are touched by these things, we must then learn to live by them.

Awakening to the Divine

Our minds have the power to bring about a deeper understanding of what the Divine is in relation to us, and how It functions as us. It is by refining our perceptions and opening our minds that the authentic spirit-Self’s presence becomes more noticeable and life takes on greater meaning. As we awaken to its influence, we open to our own innate wisdom and gain insight into the reality of the Spirit. We start to see the world and our place in it from a more positive and altruistic perspective, and awaken to the true ‘I’ Consciousness within.

Through this we discover the Divine in all as well as the good in all, and our view and experience of everyday life shifts to a more harmonious perspective. All life and experience become the substance for growth and reflection, and part of spiritual unfoldment. We gradually awaken and take responsibility for what is happening in and around our lives, and make changes that bring us closer to a spiritual way of life and living.

We need to be aware that we live, move and have our being in God. We came from and are part of God. The very foundations of our lives belong to God. It is the substance, continuity and activity of all life. We derive everything from God. Our mind is God’s altar, our body is Its temple and our spirit Its home. All creative potentials and possibilities are within this spirit that we are.

We need to recognize that it is through our minds, emotions and individuality that we develop the ability to be more Divinity-centred, and establish greater awareness of who we are and how we interconnect with all life. The more we are able to recognize this reality, the more receptive we will be to infinite qualities of good within us. This will give us the strength to free the mind and emotions, and embrace a greater Truth.

Nothing has the power mentally or emotionally to affect us unless we give it our consent to do so. Instead of being bound by the appearance of separation from God and the true Self, we need to find ways of freeing our minds and emotions, and embracing a life of truth, harmony, love, joy, peace, openness, unity and compassion.

We must realize that the true spirit-Self is whole and perfect, and continually seeks to express this wholeness and perfection in and through every level of our being and everything that we do. It knows no limitations, and has the power to bring about positive change, congruence in the way we think, feel and act, and enhance all creative abilities we have.

It is through the process of Self-realization that we grow to accept our individual selves as spirit, and recognize that this real Self lives, moves and has its being in something even greater – a Power which is all-loving, all-understanding and permeates everything.

We acknowledge that what God is, we are; that our individual selves are expressions of the Divine; that God is expressing Itself in and through everything and everyone. By awakening to this Reality, we discover a myriad of positive qualities within us. Development then becomes a matter of bringing these qualities to the surface, and allowing them to have a greater influence on our lives and discovering our original goodness.

Living by Spiritual Law

All life is sacred and ultimately derives its existence from God. Therefore, we should seek to become one with this sacredness that exists in everything and everyone, and respect and care for all life, including ourselves. Anything that separates us from others means separating ourselves from life and the creative Principle in all.

Living by spiritual law means going beyond ordinary laws, taking responsibility for every area of our lives – our thoughts, our feelings, our actions – and being respectful of everyone and every form of life we come into contact with. We may not be able to accomplish this overnight, but it is in the trying that we become more caring, loving, centred and responsible human beings.

Further Information

Unleash your Spiritual Power and Grow is available from www.amazon.co.uk

Acknowledgement

Extracted with permission from Unleash Your Spiritual Power and Grow by Glyn Edwards and Santoshan. Foulsham. 2007.