NURTURE YOUR SPIRITUAL SELF
You can be whoever and whatever you want to be. Being yourself is really whoever you think you can ultimately become. That is the basis of the idea of how to nurture your spiritual self, that you need to aspire to, should you agree that peace, joy and happiness will set you free. People always say you can only be yourself, but who exactly is that? And how on earth do you nurture your spiritual self ? The self is the subject of one’s own experience of phenomena: perception, emotions, thoughts. In phenomenology, it is conceived as what experiences, and there isn’t any experiencing without an experience, the self. The Spiritual self is said to be the totality of the person whom you are now. But is it only the basic fundamentals of your personality that make you ‘be yourself’? No ways we think, it’s possibly far more than that. You see you are always yourself even when you feel you weren’t yourself? Sound confusing?
Let’s explore the idea by thinking about the following simple sentences. Firstly, what is meant if you say something like ‘I said to myself’ or ‘I pulled myself together’? There is an I and there is also a myself, or self here. In this example the I pulls the self together, so we must attempt to make some kind of distinction between the two.
“Eternity does not start with death. We are in eternity now. We merely change the form of the experience called life – and that change, I am persuaded, is for the better. – N.V. Peale.
THERE’S A YOU AND AN I
There is self and an observer. Ken Wilbur calls the I the proximate self and the other the distal self; together they make up the overall self. The self is the part that thinks it is actually issuing orders to the itself, which is obviously the physiological being that functions and operates in the three dimensional field that we can all see. The self believes only what it can do with its five senses. It doesn’t believe it is possible to nurture your spiritual self. Often when we deal with the this aspect of who we are we see limitations, handicaps, shortfalls and boundaries. When we look at ourselves from the I we are looking from the right perspective. The I was there at birth; it existed first, before the first breath and has naturally taken the dominant role, even though it cannot be seen, even though it looks as though it is just an observer.
The I is your spirit, boundless and therefore capable of anything. It is immortal, it cannot die. It has a direct connection to all things spiritual, and knows its capabilities are interminable. As subtle as it is we know it’s there. It has taken us through everything we have ever had to deal with without really ever having been seen or perhaps even really felt.
So consider that there may be at least two sides to you. That there indeed may be a mind, body and soul that comprise the person that is you. Synergy and balance in all things seem to offer much better results than excess or compulsivity, let alone anything to do with addiction. If you don’t nurture your spiritual self, or don’t even acknowledge its existence, then perhaps it is time to take a second look.
To find out more about how to nurture your spiritual self or to overcome addiction, contact Pathways Plett Rehab, +2744 533 0330. We are here to assist clients from wherever they are, with whatever they have that needs to change, grow and develop.