What is Spiritual Intelligence?

Inquiry into spiritual intelligence suggests that it is one of several types of intelligence and it can be developed relatively independently. Spiritual intelligence consists of many ways of knowing and blending of the inner life of mind and spirit with the outer life of work in the world. It can be developed through pursuit, inquiry, and practice. Spiritual experiences may also contribute to its development, depending on the context and means of integration. Spiritual maturity is conveyed through wisdom and kind acts in the world. Spiritual intelligence is essential for making spiritual choices that add to psychological happiness and generally healthy human development.

Spirituality exists in minds of men and women everywhere, within religious traditions and independently of tradition. Spirituality is the domain of ultimate concern, and then everyone is spiritual because everyone has ultimate concerns. However, the term ultimate concern can be interpreted in many different ways. Some do not consider themselves or their concerns to be spiritual. Spirituality, like emotion, has varying degrees of depth and expression. It may be conscious or unconscious, developed or undeveloped, healthy or pathological, naive or sophisticated, beneficial or dangerously distorted.

Spirituality involves highest levels of any of the developmental lines, for example, cognitive, moral, emotional, and interpersonal.  Spirituality is itself a separate developmental line.  Spirituality is an attitude such as openness to love at any stage.  Spirituality involves peak experiences not stages. An integral perspective would presumably include all these different views and others as well.

Spirituality is ultimate belonging or connection to the transcendental ground of being. Spirituality can be in terms of relationship to God, to fellow humans, or to the earth. Spirituality can also be devotion and commitment to a particular faith or form of practice. To understand how spirituality can contribute to the good life, defined in humanistic terms as living authentically the full possibilities of being human, it seems necessary to differentiate healthy spirituality from beliefs and practices that may be detrimental to well-being. This leads to the challenge of defining and cultivating spiritual intelligence.

Because there is little agreement about definitions of spirituality, discussions of spiritual intelligence need to be exploratory rather than definitive.  By asking what is meant by spiritual intelligence, we can hope to stimulate further understanding of spirituality that I think merits further investigation.

Warm Thought on a Cold Day

It is hard to take pleasure in life when you don't care for yourself. People who haven't learned to accept and get along with themselves tend to have more difficulty accepting and getting along with others. I personally had a hard time getting along with people, until I finally realized how my difficulty with other people was rooted in my difficulty with myself.

The produce of life comes from the root within us. If you are rooted in humiliation, guilt, inferiority, rejection, lack of love and acceptance; the fruit of your relationships will suffer. However, once you are exposed to unconditional love and begin to accept yourself and others, these new roots will produce good fruit, and your relationship will flourish.

Never say or think negative things about yourself, such as, "I never do anything right." "I'll never change." "I'm ugly." "I look terrible." "I'm dumb." "Who could ever love me?" By your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned, as we think in our mind, so we are. The way we think about ourselves reveal how we feel about ourselves.

Talk good things about yourself in line with what the word says about you. I like starting the day making good declaration of my guilt. You can do this while you're driving to work or cleaning house. Never compare yourself with other people. Variety is the spice of life or we wouldn't have been all different even down to our fingerprints. You'll never succeed at being yourself if you're trying to be like someone else. Other people can be a good example to you, but photocopying even their good traits will look different through your individual personality.

Zoom in on your potential instead of your limitations. Refuse to concentrate on the supposed limitation and decide to concentrate on your potential. Hit upon things you like to do that you do well, and do it over and over. If you spend your time doing things you're not good at, it will frustrate you and cause you to feel defeated and ineffective.

Dare to be different and deal with disapproval. Be a God-pleaser, not a man-pleaser. If you dare to be different, you'll have to expect some criticism. Going along with the crowd when we know in our heart we must be going in a different direction is one reason we don't succeed at being ourselves. You won't like yourself very much if you go against your own convictions.

Don't let the way another person treats you determine your worth. Keep your flaws in perspective. People with a high level of confidence have just as many weaknesses as people without confidence, but they concentrate on their strengths, not their flaws or weaknesses.

To finish, let me remind you of my opening declaration: It is tough to take pleasure in life, when you don't like yourself. When you learn to succeed at being yourself, you will be on your way to enjoy life fully.

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Reprogram Your Subconscious Mind

In the Law of Attraction, the masters talk about letting go of trying too hard and struggling because we don’t have to. It’s a waste of energy. The Universe will help us make our desires a reality. We just need to take inspired action. You try too hard on making things better. You will take action but it feels like a struggle, it really feels awful in chest and gut. So I guess something is amiss here. How come it feels bad when we know that our life will become better by following the steps that the famous and successful people shared? You may begin to think in the long-run, will it always be like this even when you are successful? Will it forever be a chore?

You just need to take baby steps to achieve what you want. A lot of people think that they need to do a lot to make things happen when you just need to take inspired action. This is a type of action where you suddenly get an urge, feeling in your gut, head, or chest that you need to do something. This is the Universe giving you a sign on what action you should take to allow the dreams you have into physical reality. This actually feels well and inspiring. Basically, this type of action feels good and it seems as though the action occurred through you. I’ve experienced this type of taking action many times and I’m a big believer in it. It’s because when I followed my gut, I made things happen; I mean I got what I wanted.

Try to discover about tuning your inner game so the law of attraction works for you better. Practice a lot of techniques like practical living and harmony with three levels of consciousness or selves, simple method for easing emotional pain, and uncover your natural ability to let go of any painful or unwanted feeling, belief or thought in the moment. There is a very different concept of taking action. I don’t like forcing action because it feels awful. It feels like you have to give so much just to experience something you desire which in reality, rightfully yours from the moment you asked for it. Trying really hard to take action will only stress you out every time and if you don’t do any healing technique, the stress will accumulate in your body and eventually manifest into a disease. Another disadvantage about this approach is when you lose everything you’ve worked really hard for, you’ll feel depressed because it took a lot of time and hardcore effort to just get where you were and now you’re going to do all that again? This is why you need to learn to listen to yourself whenever you feel that urge you really need to know when and how to take inspired action.

This is a major sticking point for many when they learn that working hard and feeling awful is not the answer to a happier, leveraged life. They become lazy. This is the chief barricade for us. This is the reason, in my perspective, why so many people in the world who learn about the law of attraction and watch them miserably fail to manifest the life of their dreams. That’s one of the unlimited reasons why they complain that the law of attraction is a sham and a marketing propaganda to make money. No, no! It’s true that you can just sit or lie down but you have to do some action like visualizing and affirming mental action. While you do these proven techniques, you must give your undivided attention and focus. Avoid just going through the motions, but really put everything you’ve got into these rituals. When you keep doing this for a consistent period of time, usually the first time you do both of these, you will be inspired and motivated to take physical action. See the difference? It’s not about just sitting down and waiting, you have to shift your energy and manipulate it so you take an action that feels really good.

I really had a hard time understanding this for a time. It was very confusing and I had a black and white thinking and it was practicing and believing consistently for many years; on and off, in the law of attraction that I gradually began to see the gray area. When learning to feel good while taking action, you still have to force yourself to take action initially. That’s it. That’s the key word; initially. Forcing yourself doesn’t have to take forever since, like any skill when mastered or practiced for a long period of time, it’s going to become automatic. At the beginning, learning the law of attraction will take some hard work and discipline because you’ll be practicing a new way of thinking, feeling, and behaving. But the payoff will be for the rest of your life, the ability to take inspired action whenever you want to.

I always watch out for when the Universe gives me a sign, I don’t like having to wait when to take action. I just do things when I want to do them. I work first on my emotions before taking any action though. I think about feeling good and disciplined if I stick through my task till the end. I think about how good it will be when I finish the task and that feeling of accomplishment just flows through my body and I feel inspired. I think about writing as an expression of art, the human creativity, and the wondrousness of life; a perfect unfolding of a life worth living.

Start mastering your emotions first. Use all your willpower to become good at emotional mastery. This will give you a huge leverage when taking action as you will have the ability to shift your perspective when things get boring and less fulfilling. By having the ability to think about the advantages and the good feelings you will get when you finish a task, you will be way more productive than the average. You will achieve more and feel passionate in the process. Isn’t that the ultimate goal in life? Program your subconscious mind. Willpower will dry out quickly so you need a boost to stay focused and motivated. Remember that the subconscious mind is the source of 90% of your thoughts, emotions, and actions. A research on the brain showed that before you even consciously think about something, the subconscious mind already thought about it and it’s making you aware of that thought. So program yourself to be more positive and confident about your abilities. Use hypnosis, subliminal suggestions or whatever method resonates with and works for you. Allow yourself several months to master your emotions. Like with any skill, it will take consistent practice to become an expert at it. By giving yourself several months to practice, you will achieve big and astonishing results. You need to give yourself at least 90 days to master one of your programs. When you give yourself a minimum of 90 days, it will seep into your subconscious and become a permanent part of your life. Well, in this case… it’s twice as that so it becomes cemented into our mind.

So make sure to work hard on yourself and you’ll master ease and flow eventually. A lot can happen in 90 days.

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The Miracles of Christmas

If not for another name for miracles, Christmas would not exist without them. In Luke’s gospel, writes Belmonte, “we read of Elizabeth and Zacharias, an elderly couple who were ‘righteous and blameless.’ But they were also childless. Through the gift of a miraculous vision, and the message of an angel, Zacharias was told that his wife would bear a son. They were to call him John. This child would ‘be great in the sight of the Lord,’ and ‘make ready a people prepared for the Lord’ and so three miracles came to pass. A vision was given. An elderly couple became parents.” But, asks Belmonte, what of the third miracle of Zacharias? Though given these promises, Zacharias would not believe the words of the angel Gabriel. So the power of speech was taken from him. Gabriel said: “you will not able to speak until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words which will be fulfilled.” Belmonte continues: Zacharias’s unbelief reminds us that we are too often slow to believe miracles, or we doubt them entirely. When little John was born, and Zacharias was asked what name the child’s should be. Taking up a tablet, he wrote, “His name is John.” Instantly, he was able to speak again. Are we too often silent also? If we forget the miracles that gave rise to Christmas, we lose something deeply important. God help our unbelief, and give us eyes to see the miracles given to all people in Christmas.

“Mary was a young woman rich in faith, and highly favored of God,” writes Belmonte. “She was chosen to be the mother of the Lord Jesus. So it was that the angel Gabriel appeared to her bearing a promise radiant with hope. ‘You will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus.” The promise of a Savior, miraculously conceived the blessed assurance that with God, nothing is impossible. But this was a difficult miracle. Mary, a woman of purity in whom God was greatly pleased, was to suffer the indignity of an unwed mother. She was to bear a child although she had no husband. In her day, this was an offense punishable by stoning to death. What would her fiancé, the carpenter Joseph, say?

Mary, though she would be the mother of our Lord, was not the only one deeply important to the story of Jesus. She had been betrothed to a righteous young man named Joseph. When he learned that Mary was pregnant – that she had, to all appearances of that time and place conceived a child out of wedlock – he decided to end their betrothal quietly, to keep Mary from public dishonor. It was then another miracle unfolded. The angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying: “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit and she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” A divine explanation, Divine confirmation and a word of what this child Jesus would do. He would save his people from their sins. Joseph was given the high privilege of being this child’s foster father, to guide his steps along with Mary. Joseph was given a miraculous dream and privilege.

In the late stages of Elizabeth’s pregnancy with her son John, her kinswoman Mary went to see her. As soon as they saw each other, and Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, her baby leapt in her womb. John was yet to be born, but here was a joyous, unforgettable confirmation that Mary’s son, Jesus, would be all that miracles promised he would be. “Blessed is she who believed,” Elizabeth said, “for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord.” Mary, for her part, was given the miraculous gift we know as The Magnificat. She spoke divinely inspired words, saying, in part: “My soul magnifies the Lord…He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name. And His mercy is on those who fear Him – from generation to generation.”

After this, we read that these two mothers-to-be spent about three months together there in Elizabeth’s house. What must it have been like for to speak of the miracles that were unfolding in their lives, and to bear children of such awe-inspiring promise! The poet William Blake spoke of seeing “eternity in an hour.” We can only imagine what Elizabeth and Zacharias felt when they looked on their little newborn son, John. Here was a miracle child, theirs to raise in the ways of the Lord. In time to come, John would prepare the way of the Lord Himself – Jesus. Elizabeth and Zacharias were given a divine privilege in the raising of their son. John was given a divine privilege in heralding the coming of Jesus, the Savior of the world.

John’s birth was miraculous, but it was only the prelude, as it were, to the central miracle of all; the birth of Jesus. It was as C.S. Lewis once said: “The central miracle asserted by Christians is the Incarnation. They say that God became Man. Every other miracle prepares the way for this or results from this.” Lewis’s words find a beautiful counterpart in the poet Hannah More, who said: And more to mark the grace of Heaven, This Son, by miracle, was given and yet, there was no home, as it were, for this miracle.

With no room at the inn in Bethlehem where Joseph wished for Mary to bear her child, they took shelter in a stable. Their plight inspired the poet G.K. Chesterton to write of the hope caught up with the miracle child, Jesus, who was born without a home: To the end of the way of the wandering star, To the things that cannot be and that are, To the place where God was homeless; and all men are at home.

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