A Down to Earth, Practical Approach to Spirituality
If you are looking for information about spirituality in general, much of what you might find has to do with the mystical, the supernatural, the metaphysical, the transcendent and many more concepts which tend to be thought of as “other worldly.” There is nothing wrong with any of these, but in my experience, I have found spiritual life is much more relevant to down-to-earth practical everyday living than it is to anything “otherworldly”.
Spiritual growth and development is not something we search for and find, nor is it a set of learnings, practices, religious concepts, or knowledge we can possess and use. In truth, spirituality is a way of living. And that way of living incorporates an awareness, an openness, and a willingness to be in relationship with God, in whatever way we find it best to conceptualize God.
How does spiritual awareness impact our everyday life?
When I was in seminary, studying to be a minister, one of my assignments was to write a paper on the difference between living with a sense of spiritual awareness and living without one. In my mind, that was a subject for which I could not find the right words to explain. So, rather than writing a paper, I made a board game to show what the concept of spiritual awareness meant to me. The game began with a regular board, about the size of a Monopoly board, a numbered spinner, and game pieces that could be moved around the board. It had squares that incorporated life events on them and you played by spinning and moving around the board.
The squares were labeled with things like birth, romance, work, career, marriage, children, and on and on. But there were three squares, each marked spiritual awareness, located at different places on the board. If the player landed on one of those squares, then the game board opened up to be 100 times its original size (I used ten king size sheets for this part of the game). And, play continued by moving into a much larger board with infinite possibilities and opportunities for playing the game (living a full life).
My point was and is that practical spirituality requires a level of spiritual awareness which opens us to a greater reality and allows us to recognize that life is filled with infinite opportunities and possibilities we could never imagine without it. Spiritual awareness is the gate, the door, the passageway, or whatever metaphor we can grasp that opens us up to the true reality in which we live, and allows us to experience it with all the fullness life has to offer.
Where the Rubber Hits the Road
As we grow in spiritual awareness and begin to experience what this greater reality of life really means, then we find how practical spirituality enriches and expands our work life, our married life, our relationship with children, with family, with friends and all aspects of our everyday life. We also begin to experience an awareness of who and what we really are and what gives our life meaning, purpose, fulfillment, and a sense of peace and joy.
Having a connection with God and realizing the limitless possibilities that are a part of that connection helps us to have hope in situations that would otherwise seem hopeless. And it encourages us to look for solutions to life's problems, struggles, and even failures, rather than be overwhelmed by them.
Can people live without spiritual awareness?
Yes, many people do live without it. Many of them find it to be naïve, unsophisticated, namby-pamby, and unrealistic. Another criticism of practical spirituality is that a connection with God cannot be proven by science or any kind of human intellectual pursuit. But for me, all of those arguments are hollow and short-sighted.
They only consider life from a limited perspective, and they look for proof of what is limitless with limited tools. I'm not sure how hope, love, peace, and fulfillment are naïve, or how it is possible to prove beauty, friendship, or loving relationships. But we all know they are real.
It is possible to live a limited and narrow existence without spiritual awareness, but I am not sure why one would choose that when there is so much more to be experienced.
How does someone go about becoming spiritually aware?
Well, first it is important to remember that spiritual life is a process and not an event, and there is no right or wrong way to go about it. However, there are some benchmarks that can help us realize when we are and when we are not on the right track.
The second and maybe most important thing to remember in the process of spiritual growth is to never give up, no matter how much resistance we might get from others, how challenging the process might seem, or how little progress we think we might be or might not be making.
Once we realize and accept that there is a greater life than we could have ever imagined on our own, then we enter into the process of understanding what that means, and how to allow that understanding to affect, enrich, and expand our life and relationships.
Sensible Spirituality
A down to earth, non-religious, how-to-guide for living with your whole heart and mind
While there are a multitude of books about personal development and spiritual growth, author and storyteller P. Michael Davis goes down a different path by offering a real-life conversation about how to build and maintain a positive and spiritually healthy life.
His approach is thoroughly non-religious, entertaining, and devoid of jaw clenching seriousness. He will walk you through the whys and how tos of spiritual awareness, spiritual relationship building, spiritual love, and spiritual parenting for children and adolescents.
Sensible Spirituality is available, by clicking the book cover above, in kindle, paperback, and audio book formats at Amazon.com.