Tag: spiritual growth

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Meditation for Spiritual Growth

Although meditation is a way to center ourselves and shut off the outside world for a moment, it can also be a way for you to grow spiritually. When you spend time calming your mind and finding inner peace, you have room to explore your spiritual consciousness. Let’s explore how looking inward through meditation can help you grow.

Meditation Restores Balance

Healthy habits are an important part of feeling energized and balanced. Similar to how exercise, healthy eating, and a full night of sleep are good for you, meditation is one way to take care of your mental health. When you find the world is chaotic, take a moment to close your eyes, be silent, and focus on your breath. After your session, you may feel calm and balanced once again.

How To Meditate Spiritually

Spiritual meditation is the practice of learning how you are connected to something bigger than yourself. Start by reflecting on your inner self and how you move through life. Then, begin to focus on the present moment. Ask yourself the following questions:

  • What do I feel?
  • What do I hear?
  • What do I smell?
  • What do I taste?

As your eyes are closed and your breathing is deep, begin to overcome any negative thoughts or feelings by accepting and acknowledging your entire self. When you learn to find love and compassion for yourself, you can more easily do the same for others. During your practice, focus on the following:

  • Your authentic self.
  • Being open-minded.
  • Directing compassion toward others.
  • Releasing grudges or burdens.

The Takeaways of Meditation for Spiritual Growth

Learning how to quiet your mind and take time to live in the moment requires practice. When you begin meditation, you may find that your thoughts are racing. As you learn to sink into calmness, you can enrich your life, appreciate every moment, and be more mindful.

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Healing Your Energy by Having an Open Mind

Illness is your body being out of balance in some way.  Whether it is a virus attacking your body’s immune system, or depression attacking your mind from within.  When things get scary your stress levels can increase dramatically which can aggravate an ongoing physical or mental problem or illness, or actually weaken your immune system which can leave you vulnerable for outside causes of illness to take advantage.

Developing and strengthening an open mind can help heal your energy, physically, mentally and emotionally.  Closed minded belief systems stem from fear.  Usually fear of the “other” or the “unknown,” but also fear of losing a sense of yourself or where you are in society as a whole.

By trying to face those fears head on, you can actually heal yourself mentally and emotionally as well as strengthen your physical defenses by not having the added stress and anxiety that being overwhelmed by fear can cause.

Being open minded and having an open mind means you are open to what the universe has in store for you, that you are open to other people, and other belief systems, even ones that are diametrically opposed to yourself or your own beliefs.  Having an open mind doesn’t mean you have to accept or believe the same way as every other person in the world, but it does mean you accept every other person’s right to live and believe their own way and not force them to believe or be as you are. 

By trying to be open to the belief that all people are equal and have equal rights to every right every other person enjoys and is born into, it can help your mind, body and emotions find balance and be more open to what the universe has in store for you.  By focusing your energy on being at its most balanced, it can help your whole self heal and grow to your highest vibration.

This is easier said than done.  Many fears are deeply rooted from early childhood and are systemic because they are tied to parents and grandparents in your subconscious.  So if you are going to change the way you think about your own fears it can cause mental and emotional dissonance to happen, because you don’t want to “betray” those that came before you or who you are in their eyes.  When belief systems are that deeply rooted it takes time and patience with yourself to feel okay about change.  But during the time that you are taking to make these difficult changes in being more open minded, understand that it isn’t a straight line.  You will make progress some days and other days you will not make as much.  The most important aspect of making changes like this is to continue to strive to do your best. 

Being open minded can help bring peace to yourself and help your mind, body and emotions all find balance.  It can also help your society and the world at large be more at peace and more balanced.  By healing yourself through having a more open mind, you will actually help heal the world as well.

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Mantras for Having an Open Mind

Becoming more open minded can be difficult and can take time and patience with yourself.  Closed mindedness caused by fear and distress about other people, or other beliefs and behaviors, can be deeply rooted.  These types of fears and defensive mindsets are hard to change.  That is why mantras are such a good tool to use when trying to become more open minded. 

Mantras are phrases or ideas that can be repeated over and over to help reinforce a change you want to encourage your psyche to develop.  This can help reinforce actions for change and create a positive outlook about the changes you are trying to make.

Some mantras you might use if you are trying to develop a more open mind are listed below.

My happiness is not lessened by other people being happy.

By accepting other people exactly how they are, I can learn to accept myself exactly how I am.

My safety and security are not lessened by other people being safe and secure.

All people are equal and deserve to have equal treatment in all things.

I might not like or understand someone but they have a right to live and be happy as they are.

Equal rights for all people do not take rights away from me.

I am strong enough to fight my fears. 

My fears will not control me.

These mantras can be used alone or in combinations with each other as a series.

You can use music while you say mantras to help connect the words to a certain feeling.  For example, you can put on a calming soothing type music, or something upbeat and uplifting, while you repeat the mantras which will help you stay calm or reinforce a feeling of positivity for what you are trying to accomplish.

You can say mantras while doing something creative like drawing or painting or some other visual art.  This will allow the words to become associated with different colors or textures and become imbedded in the part of the mind that is connected to creativity.  Even if you don’t consider yourself “artistic” you can do something as simple as color a piece of paper with a marker or crayon of your favorite color.  You can also look at a photo or painting online or even a swatch of cloth in your favorite color while you say the words.  This will help create positive associations with the changes you are trying to create.

You can add mantras to your meditation routine or as an aid to begin a meditation routine if you have never attempted meditation before. 

Having an open mind can take practice, be hard work, and sometimes require an extreme change in how you feel about yourself, your place in the world, and other people.  It can be scary and require time and patience with yourself while you do this work. Being open minded can help heal old wounds that you didn’t know you were carrying around inside yourself.  Mantras can be an integral tool in opening your mind and healing the fears and underlying causes of being closed minded in the first place. Your being more open minded will help others in the world to feel more accepted and supported, so by healing yourself you can help heal the world. 

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Meditate for Spiritual Growth

Meditation is personal and private. This is a time to go deep within your soul to find the answers you have been looking for, instead of looking everywhere outside of yourself. Did you realize that we are actually spiritual beings having a human experience? When you think of it that way, many things can shift in your life. 

We are all unique. You may enjoy walking or running quiet-time to get grounded and connected to what means the most to you. Or, you may enjoy a more traditional approach to meditation when sitting in a calm and peaceful environment. Experiment and and find what works best for you. And then use these tools and techniques consistently. 

In the beginning it can feel too challenging and maybe your mind is racing fast and furious. You may want to try this box breathing technique to slow everything down: it helps achieve calm & has health benefits.

  1. Take 4 deep breaths in
  2. Hold to the count of 4 
  3. Release your breath to the count of 4 
  4. Then hold your breath for 4 counts. 

Keep repeating this for several sessions until your focus on your breath is bringing you into the here and now. This also reduces stress and takes you out of the future or the past. Return to natural breathing when it feels right to you. You can also start with short sessions of meditation and expand the time from there until you find your rhythm and consistency. The key is to keep at it — don’t give up. 

The beauty of meditation is that we connect to that inner wisdom, the internal GPS, the essence of our soul — and through that pure connection, we see what connects us all. We are all one, and the more we find ways to connect instead of ways to disconnect, the better our lives will be and the better our world will be.