By Monica Canducci
Spiritual development is directly connected with a growth mindset.
In my role as a creative coach and trainer for people interested in mind-body balance, self-improvement, wellbeing, healing and transformation, I often hear questions like: “My friends say I’m not spiritual enough, and this is the reason why I got injured/sick.” “Should I become more spiritual to heal?” Or: “Should I attend workshops for Reiki, crystals, chakras, etc., in order to develop my spiritual self?” I also see many people who, after attending workshops on certain topics, believe that they are “more spiritual” than others who don’t express the same kind of interest in those topics. The truth is that we could know everything about a topic, and even experience “superpowers,” such as channeling or seeing auras, but this would be not be enough to make our life more “spiritual.”
People who play a true and acknowledged spiritual role in their communities and around the world know that spirituality is not about having knowledge of subtle energies or attending workshops on certain topics.
As seeker of knowledge interested in healing and anthropology, I have been blessed by meeting with spiritual masters, teachers, healers and medicine people from different spiritual paths, from Sufi to native Algonquin traditions. With some I have spent a significant amount of time, even years, learning as much as I could. The common factor connecting all of them is that they don’t differentiate between their regular lives and their spiritual paths. They live doing their best to be good human beings. Spirituality is connected to being constantly committed to self-improvement and “ego taming.” That means observing ourselves and our actions and working to increase our self-awareness, presence and a sense of community—as well as becoming mindful of the impact our life makes on the environment. In other words, we could say that spiritual development is directly connected with a growth mindset.
Actually, from most spiritual traditions we learn that our “spirit” is divine—already perfect—but our consciousness must be developed to comprehend the wholeness beyond each single point of view. This process passes through our body and our ability to sense, meaning that, again, it is about self-awareness and the exercise of being present to our thoughts, emotions, body and the environment—and understanding the connections between these aspects, even if we perceive them separately.
Spirituality is mostly about becoming responsible of our self and our actions, and going beyond reassuring beliefs and behaviors with which we tend to identify ourselves, and which make us feel comfortable. We could say that spirituality is being open to go beyond any narrow-minded kind of attitude. Spiritual people never judge other people, and, above all, never judge the spiritual level of other people—especially looking at their knowledge of matters and topics commonly defined as spiritual or esoteric.
Spiritual paths are usually defined by practices. A practice is something that helps to develop discipline, and it also is connected with a specific set of meanings and effects to be produced. But the most important fact is that discipline is something that the ego tends to avoid. This is the reason why spiritual paths are based on the taming the ego. Our ego should become the tool, the vehicle through which we can expand our awareness, presence and consciousness of being; it should not be sitting in the driver’s seat.
Spiritual paths are never competitive because spiritual masters and teachers know very well that they are all working for the same purposes. There is no “best path ever.” There can be better paths for different individuals because each individual has a unique structure, and so different needs.
So we could say that every action we take to deepen the knowledge of ourselves, express our hidden resources and talents, become free from our reactions by mastering our actions, and improve our relationship with ourselves, others and the environment can be considered a spiritual exercise.
Spirituality is not a competition based on the spiritual knowledge, tools or practices we have been experiencing or collecting. It is a focus on making everything simple and improving our human existence.
I was told by a spiritual master that half of our spiritual path is like drinking tea. The other half? Nobody can tell you what it is because it is different for each of us, and we are all different.
When you find it, seize the opportunity to practice self-awareness and being present to what you are doing. Sense it. Smell it. Taste it. Feel it. Enjoy it.
Monica Canducci is an author, speaker, artist, and performer who loves to work as a healing facilitator, movement coach, and teacher in the fields of self-development and spiritual awareness. Monica is unstoppably committed to connecting dots and “making the invisible seen” by exploring the relationships between thoughts, emotions, words, the world of archetypes, and the human body structure. She loves helping people discover their hidden resources and express their true self, in order to achieve healing and self-realization through personal transformation. E- mail Monica at monica.canducci11@gmail.com.