What is Spiritual Development?

How do you define spiritual development? It is growth. It is an evolutionary process during which you realize your true nature, which is that of a spiritual (energetic) being who is having a physical experience – an energetic being that is part of and inseparable from universal consciousness (God). Spiritual development is unique to the individual. Some people like to use formal, structured practices while others prefer to “let spirit guide them” as to what to do next.
 

There are four spiritual practices that most people on a spiritual path will use at one time or another to further their growth:

1. Preparation: becoming open to the idea of enlightenment
2. Prayer/meditation: learning how to communicate with God
3. Gratitude: wholehearted gratitude for what is
4. Practice: practice what you learn; it’s not enough to talk about it, you must live it (embody it)

1. Preparation: not everyone starts on a spiritual path at the same time. Some begin quite early in life, while others have to do a lot of living before they start. Some enter into it because of parental influence while others may have a traumatic event that sparks their need for spiritual help and connection (such as divorce, death of a loved one, etc.). Some progress quickly while others struggle and get stuck. It’s important to never, ever compare your own progress with another person’s and to never, ever be hard on yourself because you feel like you’re stuck and aren’t making any progress. It’s like that with anything you learn: when you learned to read, for instance, it wasn’t a seamless process. You got hung up on pronunciation, vocabulary and sentence structure and it took time to process what you learned before you could understand. The preparation phase simply means becoming open to the journey, and allowing it to proceed at its own pace – as they say, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear” because there are concepts that you will simply not understand until you are ready to understand them.

 

2. Prayer/meditation: stillness is the nature of God, and to realize that you are part of this divine stillness, you have to practice it. You are a human being, not a human doing. We love to do, do and do some more, but in your spiritual practice, you must learn to just be. It is only during these moments of pure stillness that you realize that without doing, you still exist; and it is during these moments that you feel the oneness of All That Is.

3. Gratitude: this is arguably the most powerful spiritual practice. When you can put your ego aside and be grateful for the stupid things you’ve done, for the struggles you insisted were not your fault, for the failed relationships and messed up attempts, then you realize just how powerful you really are – as part of the universal consciousness, which is pure creative energy, you have way, way more control over your life than you believe. Gratitude also helps you see life as a series of miracles rather than a series of mishaps, and it helps you perceive yourself as a spiritual being instead of just a physical being with worldly problems.

4. Practice: you may have heard stories of people who fervently pray on Sundays and act like there is no God the rest of the week. That is not a spiritual path. A spiritual path is one on which you come to the realization that every action matters; for that matter, every thought, every emotion, every idea and every decision matters. You become more aware of their consequences; their impact on others; and you begin acting with more awareness, compassion and purpose than before.

Whichever path you choose, it is right for you. A spiritual journey never ends, and it is a beautiful unfolding of your true nature.

Source: http://www.silvamethodlife.com/spiritual-development-2/