You’ve probably heard the saying, “We’re spiritual beings having a human experience.” I have no idea who originally said that… but I believe it to be true. Do you?
The first question you should ask yourself before getting too far into this subject is: do you believe you are a spiritual being?
No? (stick around and see what you find)
Yes? (keep reading)
Here’s a guide on Spirituality Without Religion.
Call it intuition, a heightened sense of awareness, enlightenment, etc., the idea that we’re spiritual beings is nothing new yet people still seem confused on what this actually means. For me, it simply means I’m part of something bigger, i.e. I’m not the center of the universe.
Whether we believe this something bigger to be God or some creator, who knows and honestly… who cares. We can live a spiritual life, and find spiritual love, without defining what or why we should believe in something. More importantly, we can allow others to do the same. Now that we have that out of the way…
Spiritual love is something that comes from both the heart and the mind; it is unconditional love. As intellectual beings, we often confuse our thoughts with what’s in our hearts. The farthest distance in the world is often the twelve inches between our head and our heart. Knowing we should be loving and caring and acting that way are two completely different things. We’re judged by our actions not our intentions.
So how do we get it out of our head (this idea of love and caring) and into our hearts?
We must first learn love, empathy, and understanding for ourselves. Then and only then can we truly recognize and EXPRESS these feelings towards others. Try explaining to someone what broccoli tastes like if you have never tasted it yourself or how a baby’s skin feels against your cheek if you’ve never experienced it.
In order to fully accept and love others unconditionally we need to start with ourselves. Once we develop spiritual love for self, it will come naturally for others. The deeper our acceptance and love for self goes, the less we need externally to feel loved and validated. As we need less externally to prop up our ego and self-esteem, our need to judge others declines and the ability to love unconditionally increases.
A few months ago I heard something simple yet life changing: Want peace? Suspend judgment of yourself and others. I thought that was amazing and very powerful.
Learning to suspend judgment of ourselves is not easy and takes hard work. I found it difficult to stop judging myself after years of living a life I wasn’t proud of—and the realization I wasn’t as fond of myself as I previously thought (head vs. heart). My ego (head) said I was a big shot while my heart told me I was a failure unworthy of love. My discovery process was through working on myself spiritually and emotionally; things I talked about in the Spiritual Serenity Series. It was and is hard work at times, but damn is it worth it!
22 Ways Spiritual Love Will Change Your Life
- You will develop more meaningful relationships based out of true respect and love; not what can you do for me?
- Resentments will fade—eventually disappear entirely—due to diminished expectations of others and yourself
- You will discover you need less to be happy (materially and emotionally)
- The world will seem a lot more peaceful, no matter what is going on around you
- As you develop a more altruistic view, you’ll find happiness and peace is the reward
- Others will naturally be drawn to you
- You will attract abundance in areas you didn’t even know you were lacking
- You will sleep better
- People in your life will know how much they mean to you
- You will notice things in people and nature which you never realized were there before
- Gratitude will start to fill your heart more than fear and loneliness
- You will realize that anyone, at any given moment, is doing the best they can
- You will feel genuine happiness for others good fortune as opposed to envy
- Your past will become your biggest asset
- You will begin to realize little in life is really hard, just uncomfortable at times
- Each moment will be filled of unimaginable potential
- Love will become your favorite word and action
- Exercise and living healthy will become more important as love for self grows
- You will find what it is you were always looking for
- Food will taste better
- You will never be alone again
- You will consistently feel on the verge of greatness as opposed to calamity
Wow, what a list eh? What do you think? Do you love yourself today?
photo credit: millzero